26
Aug
2024

Reexamining our trust in the Lord

A meditation concerning Psalm 34

by David Sellnow

Martin Luther said we treasure the Psalms because they lay bare the hearts and souls of the psalm writers—and our hearts along with them: “The human heart is like a ship on a stormy sea driven about by winds blowing from every corner of the earth. … These tempests of the heart” caused the psalm writers to wrestle with their faith. Their words induce us to examine the inner recesses of our own souls too. 

Psalm 34 is a powerful example of reexamination of one’s own life and soul, of the need to trust in God rather than ourselves. David wrote Psalm 34 when looking back at a difficult time in his life—a time when he relied on his own ideas and cleverness rather than truly trusting the Lord. 

The heading in the Hebrew Scriptures atop Psalm 34 says: A psalm “of David, when he feigned madness before Abimelech, so that he drove him out, and he went away.” Let’s explore that context to better understand the lessons David learned and, later, expressed in this psalm. 

You remember that David, while still a pre-teen, had been chosen by the Lord and anointed by the Prophet Samuel to be Israel’s future king (1 Samuel 16). While still a teenager, David began to serve when needed as a court musician for the reigning king, Saul, who was troubled by an evil spirit. Whenever the evil spirit came upon Saul, David would come and play his lyre, “and Saul would be relieved and feel better, and the evil spirit would depart from him” (1 Samuel 16:23). Meanwhile, David continued to serve his own family, shepherding their sheep. During that time, David was sent by his father to see how his older brothers were doing at the battlefront of a standoff between the armies of Israel and the Philistines. David stepped into the foreground on that occasion, trusting implicitly in the Lord’s integrity and strength. He went out with just a slingshot and defeated the Philistines’ gigantic hero, Goliath, in a duel to the death. Following that, jealousy grew in King Saul’s heart against David. One day while David was playing music, Saul hurled a spear at him, trying to kill him, but David twice eluded the hurled weapons (1 Samuel 18:10,11). Saul then banished David from his presence, but sent him off as a main commander in Israel’s army (1 Samuel 18:13). Saul hoped David would die in battle. “Let the Philistines deal with him,” as he later said (1 Samuel 18:17). But David continued to have success. So. Saul brought David back to the palace and offered him the hand of one of his daughters in marriage.  He offered his daughter Michal, who loved David, thinking to himself, “Let me give her to him so that she may be a snare for him”, distracting David’s focus so that the hand of the Philistines might prevail against him (1 Samuel 18:21). But the more Saul realized that the Lord was with David and that his daughter Michal loved David, the more Saul’s jealousy and fury grew. “So Saul was David’s enemy from that time forward” (1 Samuel 18:29). Again “Saul sought to pin David to the wall with a spear, but David eluded Saul and the spear landed in the wall (1 Samuel 19:10). David fled for his life, and Saul began actively making more concerted efforts to have David killed (cf. 1 Samuel 19:11 – 20:33). 

That was when David, fearful of Saul, fled to Gath, the hometown of Goliath, the Philistine champion whom David had slain some years earlier. The city of Gath was also the seat of power for the Philistine king known as Achish or Abimelech, the very king who was at war with Saul and the kingdom of Israel. David had led armies in battle against the Philistines. He even was carrying the sword of Goliath with him when he went to Gath (1 Samuel 20:8-9). Did David think he could hide out in enemy territory and Saul wouldn’t come looking there? If he was hiding, that didn’t work. David was recognized, seized, and held under arrest (cf. Psalm 56, heading). Or maybe David was thinking, “The enemy of my enemy is my friend,” hoping the Philistines would protect him against Saul if he came over to their side. But David’s attempts to rescue himself went awry quickly. The officers of King Achish asked, “Isn’t David a king back in his own country? Don’t the Israelites dance and sing, ‘Saul has killed a thousand enemies; David has killed ten thousand’?” (1 Kings 21:11 CEV)  David then became very much afraid of King Achish and his men. “So he changed his behavior before them; he pretended to be mad when in their presence. He scratched marks on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle run down his beard. Achish said to his servants, ‘You see the man is mad; why then have you brought him to me? Do I lack madmen, that you have brought this fellow to act like a madman in my presence” (1 Samuel 21:13-15)? The Philistines drove David out of their lands, back into Israelite territory. And Saul kept pursuing David, seeking to kill him. 

So, that’s a bit of a story, isn’t it? That’s the context when the heading atop Psalm 34 in your Bible says: A psalm of David, when he feigned madness before Abimelech (also known as Achish), so that Achish drove David out, and he went away. At some point later in his life, David wrote two psalms (Psalm 56 and Psalm 34), with headings showing he was thinking about those days when he was on the run and ran to Gath. Looking back on his life, David recognized he had tried to save himself by his own ingenuity, resorting to desperate means, often failing to maintain his integrity as a man of God. In Psalm 56, written after the fact, David prayed to God: “When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. … This I know, that God is for me … the Lord, whose word I praise. … In God I trust; I am not afraid. What can a mere mortal do to me?” (Psalm 56:3,4,9,11). That’s the lesson David learned, the faith he confessed in retrospect. At the time, however, David was caught up in all sorts of fear and uncertainty and did not trust God would get him through it. Mere mortals like Saul and the Philistines scared him plenty. He tried to scheme his way out of trouble—to the point of slobbering on himself and acting as if he had lost all mental faculties. The great future king of Israel, the anointed of the Lord, acting as though his only hope was to pretend he was hopeless and witless, a nobody that was of no use to the Philistines or Israel.

We’ve seen it before in the lives of other great persons of faith—losing track of God’s promises, losing trust in God’s promises, and resorting to their own solutions to their dilemmas in life. Consider Abram and Sarai. They had been promised they would have a child in their old age. But what the Lord promised seemed too slow in happening, seemed not to be happening. So, they decided Abram should sleep with Sarai’s handmaiden, Hagar, and have a son with her. That was not what God intended. Or consider Moses. Born to an Israelite slave, Moses was raised in the Egyptian palace as a grandson of a pharaoh. When he grew up, Moses initially took it upon himself to do something about Egyptian abuse of Israelite slaves. One day, Moses “went out to his people and saw their forced labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his kinsfolk. He looked this way and that, and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid his body in the sand” (Exodus 20:11-12). But what he did became known. Moses had to flee Egypt and was gone for forty years.

Too often in life, all of us as God’s people forget to trust God. We neglect to keep his steadfastness and truth in mind. We resort to our own solutions. We scratch and claw and act without integrity. We fail to believe if we follow the ways of God, if we wait on God, that we will be safe, we will be secure, we will stay alive.

David learned from what he went through. He had been flailing away trying to protect himself. But running in the wrong direction and engaging in lies and deceptions only made his situation worse, not better. Coming out of those experiences, David recognized that the Lord his God had protected him and rescued him, despite himself. The Lord had been with him through every day of trouble, and remained with him by grace even when David had made a bigger mess of things. That’s when David penned the words of Psalm 34, saying:

Magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together. …
Those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. …
Which of you desires life, and covets many days to enjoy good?
Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking deceit.
Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it. …
The Lord is near to the brokenhearted, and will save those whose spirits are crushed.
Many are the troubles of the righteous, but the Lord rescues them from them all. …
The Lord redeems the life of his servants;
none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned. 
(Psalm 34:2,3,10,12-14,17-20,22)

God help us to learn the same lesson David did. As the apostle Paul urged us: Let us be careful how we live, not as unwise people but as wise, making the most of the time we have. Yes, often the days in this life are evil and troubles surround us, but we seek to understand what the will of the Lord is. We want to sing and make music to the Lord in our hearts always—no matter the circumstances of life in which we find ourselves. We give thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Cf. Ephesians 5:15-20.)  No matter what happens in this life, we maintain our trust in Jesus Christ, the living bread that came down from heaven. Partaking in the life that is in Christ, we know we will live forever. (Cf. John 6:51.) As another worship hymn from the Psalms says:

With the Lord on my side I do not fear.
What can mortals do to me?
It is better to take refuge in the Lord
than to put confidence in mortals.
It is better to take refuge in the Lord
than to put confidence in princes.
O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,
for his steadfast love endures forever.
(Psalm 118:7-9, 29).

So, let us “revere the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness” (Joshua 24:14). Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods or come up with our own schemes and strategies for getting through life or escaping harm. For when we look back on our lives, it has been the Lord who has stayed with us through thick and thin (cf. Joshua 24:16-18).  Even in those moments when we did stupid things, acted like we maybe had lost our minds, or fell into dreadful sins, God still did not abandon us. Think of David later in his life as king, when he forgot what he expressed in this psalm. He let power go to his head and let lust overtake his will. He engaged in adultery and murder and a cover-up. Yet again, God did not abandon him, but sent the prophet Nathan to confront David in his sin and call him back to the Lord’s mercy and back to faith. (Cf. 2 Samuel 11 & 12.) 

This life is full of challenges to our faith and decency and all that is good. As the apostle Paul said, “Our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh” (Ephesians 6:1200.  We are up against “the evil rulers of the unseen world … and huge numbers of wicked spirits in the spirit world” (Ephesians 6:12 TLB). So, we need to arm ourselves not with the tools or devices of this world, not even with the mighty sword of a Goliath (which ultimately did David no good). We take up the whole armor of God—the sword of the Spirit, the shield of faith, the breastplate of righteousness, the helmet of salvation—so that we may be able to withstand evil. We stand firm when we stand in the righteousness God has given us in Christ and cling always to the words that Jesus has spoken to us—words that are spirit and life (John 6:63). There’s really nowhere else we can run for safety, nowhere else we can go to have hope and peace and goodness in our lives, no one else who can hold onto us for eternity. 

May we daily say, as Jesus’ disciples said, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life” (John 6:68).

Scripture quotations, except where otherwise indicated, are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Posted by David Sellnow
22
Jul
2024

Called to be alongside of others

A message for the 9th Sunday after Pentecost

Sharing peace in Christ, leaving no one out 

by David Sellnow

Image credit: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Texas_Tech_University,_Student_Union.jpg

In my early years of ministry, I led weekly Bible studies on campus for a student group at a large public university in Texas. Anybody was welcome to attend. One who began coming regularly was Linda, who was somewhat older than the traditional college-age students in the group. After attending for a couple of months, asking many questions herself and listening to the discussions I led with the group, Linda approached me after one of the evening sessions. She told me, “I’ve decided you’re not a cult leader.” “I’m glad to hear that!” I said. Linda explained she had spent over ten years of her life stuck in a thought-controlling cult. After getting out and getting reoriented, she became a cult interventionist, helping extricate others from similar situations. The religious body that was the parent church for our student organization had a reputation for fixed doctrines that everyone agreed to. That had been a red flag for Linda, and she had decided to investigate our group. Thankfully, I had passed the test and was not a cult leader. I wasn’t mind-controlling anyone or causing spiritual damage. We were digging in Scripture together and sharing thoughts openly and equally.

Sadly, there are religious leaders and religious organizations that dominate in ways that are abusive and harmful. Much research has been done into complex post-traumatic stress disorder, including religious trauma, when religious systems harm rather than help. It happens when individuals are made to feel fearful and trapped and depressed and lose who they are. They experience an erosion of their individual personality. They are compelled to conform themselves to the dictates and decisions and rules of the group (CPTSD Foundation). 

Not all stern, unbending churches are inflicting religious trauma in the formal sense of the term. But they may be ignoring the hurts and hopes and needs of many who are looking for good news and instead find mostly restrictions and legalisms.

I knew a young woman whose pastor preached that any and all forms of birth control were wrong. The young woman’s fiance had the same, unyielding view. As he and she talked about marriage, he insisted they should have as many babies as they could. Any attempts to limit that he saw as sin. The young woman was terrified, wondering if her body and mind and emotions could handle so much. Her pastor and her fiance were overemphasizing one thought in Scripture, that a man who has many children has been given a great blessing (cf. Psalm 127:3-5). They meanwhile were ignoring another Bible imperative, that husbands are to show consideration and concern for their wives and honor their needs of body, mind and spirit (cf. 1 Peter 3:7).

I knew young men and women who were training for roles in ministry in the church, who would not talk about internal struggles they had. If they had doubts or questions about any particular spiritual teachings, they were afraid to express them. If they experienced any mental health challenges, such as feeling anxious or depressed, they did not dare admit these things out loud. The church culture that surrounded them made them feel that any admission of weakness would disqualify them from ministry. They feared being dismissed from pre-ministry training because they weren’t good enough, weren’t strong enough, weren’t perfect enough to be pastors or teachers. Somehow they were forgetting the stories of all the human faith leaders we see in Scripture. Scripture openly shows the flaws and shortcomings of Abraham, Moses, David, Peter, Paul, and others whom God called into leadership. Good leaders lead through God’s strength, not their own (cf. Philippians 4:13). We don’t lead—and we are not disciples—because we are perfect people. 

Religious groups and religious leaders can lose that understanding and that humility. They can begin to view themselves as having a rightness that’s righter than others, a betterness that’s better than others. They overlook their own failings and inconsistencies and judge persons who don’t adhere to their rules as out of line, as less than, as falling short. 

These are the kinds of things that the LORD spoke against, through Jeremiah, saying, “Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! … You have scattered my flock, and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them” (Jeremiah 23:1,2).

In One Coin Found: How God’s Love Stretches to the Margins,” Emmy Kegler points us to Jesus’ parable of the lost coin (Luke 15:8-10). She says, “The thing about coins is that they can’t get lost by themselves. They can’t roll away on their own. Coins get lost because their owners aren’t careful; whoever was in charge was wasteful with them. Coins get lost because they lose their shine, because dirt and rust cling to them, and without careful attention, they turn a color indistinguishable from dust and mess.”  Lost and dismayed and scattered souls are often in that condition because persons charged with responsibility in faith and religion have not kept their focus on God’s grace, have not maintained mercy in their preaching and their practice. As a result, people are cast aside—or they pull away because they are afraid, because they feel shamed and judged, because they are not led forward in hope and joy.

Image credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/bob5d/16730007506

Do we do things in our own ministries and dealings with people that make others feel less than, as not properly in line? Are we more concerned about holding onto our own traditions than we are about welcoming others who have different backgrounds and different perspectives? Do we think of the church as our church, as if it belongs to us and anybody coming to us needs to fit in with our expectations and think the way we think? Do we put signs outside our churches and banners on our websites saying, “All are welcome,” but if folks come who aren’t the kind of people we were expecting to join us, make them feel unwelcome?

Back in the early days of the Christian church, the members who had been part of the Jewish traditions of faith did not easily adjust to having Gentiles joining the faith. The new Gentile Christians did not share the cultural context of Judaism, and often were made to feel like second-class citizens. The apostle Paul, who had described himself as the most enthusiastic proponent there could be of the Jewish faith (cf. Philippians 3:4-6), addressed that problem. In the church in Antioch (in Syria), he even confronted the Apostle Peter for going along with the standoffish behavior that Jewish Christians there were showing over against Gentile believers (cf. Galatians 2:11-21). In his letter to Gentile Christians in the Greek city of Ephesus, Paul reassured them that they were fully equal members of the church.  He wrote to them, “You were [once]  without Christ … aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise. … But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. He is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall between us. … You are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God” (Ephesians 2:12-14,19).  Paul also strongly made this point:  Christ “has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace …. Through Christ all of us have access in one Spirit to the Father” (Ephesians 2:15,17-18). Jesus had fulfilled God’s laws for all of us. So laws and rules of the Jewish community were not to create a barrier to Gentile persons finding a spiritual home in the church. The church was not to have rules that made people change who they were in order to belong.

Nearly two thousand years have gone by since Paul wrote those words to Gentile Christians in what was then primarily a Jewish church. Today, do we Gentile Christians, with a long history and tradition in our practices of faith, need to hear the lesson Paul was teaching to Jewish traditionalists back in his day? Have we become so used to the church fabric and makeup as it has been that we don’t (or won’t) open our eyes to new people and new possibilities for the church in our own time? Do we truly welcome everyone, as Jesus welcomed everyone? Or are we sometimes too focused on ourselves to be full of caring and compassion for others?

Think of the ministry of Jesus. He labored with all his energy to reach out to every soul in need. At one time, when he and his disciples were exhausted from their work and had not even had time to eat, he said to them, “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while” (Mark 6:31). They decided to cross Lake Kinneret, but the crowds hurried on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them (Mark 6:32-33). What did Jesus do as he went ashore?  He saw the great crowd (over five thousand people),  “and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd” (Mark 6:34). Tired as he was, he took the time to teach them, delivering words of comfort and hope. And along with his teaching, Jesus then also did a miracle of mercy, providing a meal of bread and fish for that whole crowd, more than they could even eat (cf. Mark 6:35-44).  We’re told of the general pattern of Jesus’ ministry that “wherever he went, into villages or cities or farms, they laid the sick in the marketplaces, and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak; and all who touched it were healed” (Mark 6:53-56). 

We are called by Jesus to carry on ministry in the same spirit as his ministry. Do you remember the woman who had been suffering for twelve years from hemorrhages, who said she just hoped to touch Jesus’ clothes and his power would heal her (Mark 5:25-34)? Do you remember the Syrophoenician woman, from outside of the children of Israel, who came to Jesus for help for her daughter, and said to him, “Even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs” (Mark 7:28). People of all sorts and all needs reach out for love and acceptance and hope and help. They may not even be consciously reaching out toward the church. But they may be reaching out to you, if you are in their circle of acquaintance. Don’t look down on them. Don’t turn away from them—any of them, no matter who they are or what they are. Reach out to take their hand. Reach out to put an arm around their shoulder. Reach out as an ally to them, as an advocate for them, as a friend and partner.  If I may use a Greek word, be a “paraclete” to them. That’s a word that Jesus used when he promised to send us his Holy Spirit. Jesus said, “ I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Paraclete [Παράκλeτοß], to be with you forever. …  You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you” (John 14:16,17). The Greek word parakletos, literally translated, means one who is called to the side of another. Jesus has been that for us. God’s Spirit has been that for us. We are called to be that for one another, for our neighbors, for our friends, for strangers, for enemies, for everyone. 

We are not a cult, trying to control others and make them follow us without question and without thinking. We will not be like the shepherds Jeremiah described, who scatter and drive souls away in fear and trauma, rather than attending to them with care. We hope to be the sort of shepherds the LORD said he would raise up, providing a witness to God’s love and an embodiment of his grace, so that those whom we reach “shall not fear any longer, or be dismayed, nor shall any be missing” (Jeremiah 23:4).  We will not demand people fabricate their own righteousness; rather we will point to the Savior God raised up in Jesus, whose very name by which he is called means: “The LORD is our righteousness” (Jeremiah 23:6).  We are the church, established by Jesus, being “built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God” (Ephesians 2:22)—and for all of his people.  Once we were not a people, but now we are God’s people; once we had not received mercy, but now we have received mercy (1 Peter 2:10). Christ, in his mercy, has called us alongside him that we might call others alongside us. We  proclaim the mighty acts of the one who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9). Let us be that light, in Christ, to all of our neighbors, near and far. 

For a related devotional thought, see this post on The Electric Gospel: https://theelectricgospel.com/the-house-of-disposable-souls/

Scripture quotations, except where otherwise indicated, are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

 

Posted by David Sellnow
24
Jun
2024

God is with us through the storms

God is with us through the storms

Where I live, it has been raining and raining and raining. Our rainfall totals from Thursday to yesterday (Saturday) were nearly 5 inches, and towns not far from us had over 8 inches of rain in the same span. This is on top of previous weeks’ rainfall amounts that were already double the average normally received for the whole month of June. 

We appreciate rain. But we get nervous when the rains keep coming, fearing flooding that may follow. And storms scare us. Violent winds and other weather phenomena can cause all sorts of damage. We’d like our weather always to be pleasant—sunshine when we want sunshine, gentle rain when we need rain. We’d like our lives to be like that—generally pleasant overall, no major disturbances or disruptions.

We even can get confused and think when life is smooth and easy, it proves God is with us. We think if we are doing the right things, God will reward us and make material blessings flow in our direction. There’s a name for that kind of thinking. It’s called having a theology of glory. The idea is that if we are right with God, then our lives will display wonderful, visible success.

Try applying that sort of theology to a man like Job. This Sunday’s scriptures included a reading from the end of the story of Job. Job was a man who had vast wealth and a large family. In his day—perhaps as early or earlier than the time of Abraham—Job was said to be “the greatest of all the people of the east” (Job 1:3). Not only that, Job was a man of faith, attested by the LORD himself to be “blameless and upright” and God-fearing to a degree greater than any other person on earth (Job 1:1,8). Then God let the devil have his way with Job. Job’s possessions were decimated. His seven sons and three daughters all were killed. His own health was exchanged for lingering, painful illness. All that turmoil is told in just the first two chapters of Job’s book. Then for 35 chapters, we listen to Job and his friends meditate on the misery. His friends first said nothing. For seven days they sat and stared at the ground. Finally, Job spoke out in complaint. He cried out in pain. His friends then offered some advice, much of which added insult to injury. Most of what they said was theology of glory in reverse. Essentially, they said, “Job, to be suffering like you are, you must be guilty of some heinous crime or dreadful offense against God.” But that wasn’t true. There was no one more devoted to God than Job was. As patriarch of his family, he regularly offered sacrifices on behalf of his children. He honored God and shunned evil. Yet the very God whom he so revered allowed him to be engulfed by tragedy. Where was the glory in that? Where was there any hint of reward for good behavior? God took the finest example of a believing person that could be found, and let him become an example of pain and horror and loss.

And Satan was involved too. That dragon was eager to sink his claws into Job. Always looking for souls to devour (1 Peter 5:8), the devil goes after every child of God, the weak and the strong, intent on destroying the faith of any that he can. And God suffers all of his believers to endure such temptations. The LORD does not want us to become secure in ourselves, thinking we’re immune to sin’s dangers or safe from sin’s fallout—the tumult and storms that characterize life in this world. The LORD wants each of us ever more deeply, ever more personally, ever more intimately to grasp onto him in faith, trusting him as our Rescuer.

What God showed in the life of Job, he is equally ready to demonstrate in his dealings with you. He says to you what he said to his people of old: “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you” (Isaiah 43:1-2).

Notice what the LORD is saying. He does not promise that you will avoid all hurt and trouble. He does not say you will escape the floodwaters or that you won’t face danger or fire. Sometimes, in fact—as the Lord did in the case of Job—he will push you into the fire or plunge you deep underwater, letting this world’s troubles have their way with you. But God never abandons you. He always hangs onto you. He says, “Do not fear, for I am with you” (Isaiah 43:5). Being in precarious situations reminds you how much you need God’s strength, so that you wrap your arms of faith around him as tight as a child would cling to their parent during a thunderstorm. It’s like the apostle Paul (another great man of God) said about the life he and his ministry colleagues lived. They were servants of God, deeply devoted to doing God’s work, yet they endured “afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger.” Through it all, they kept demonstrating “purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, truthful speech, and the power of God” (2 Corinthians 6:4-7).  Paul told those who were led to Christ that It is through many hardships, “many persecutions that we must enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22). If the apostle Paul endured such hardships, if a righteous man such as Job endured such hardships, you and I also can expect to endure hardships as we walk in faith in this world. 

The experience of Jesus’ disciples illustrates the same truth for us. They had Jesus right there with them in their boat as they crossed Lake Kinneret (commonly called the Sea of Galilee). But that didn’t mean they were immune to the meteorological events of that region. Violent storms can happen there, especially when the winds whip down from the high hills on the eastern shore. Most recently, such a storm in 2022 saw sustained winds of 50 mph with gusts up to 87 mph, causing around $50 million in damage to property and infrastructure in the city of Tiberias and other areas along sea’s shore. (Cf. Israel Today, May 17, 2022). When a great windstorm like that arose for the disciples of Jesus centuries ago, they panicked. They couldn’t believe Jesus was sleeping through it, lounging on a cushion in the back of the boat. They woke him up, yelling, “Teacher, don’t you care that we’re about to drown” (Mark 4:38 CEV)?

As disciples of Jesus, we are a lot like those first disciples. We like to think life with Jesus should be a peaceful, pleasant ride. We don’t want anything to rock the boat or cause problems for us. We have that theology of glory mindset in us. We think if Jesus is with us, then everything in our lives should be good and glorious and successful. We are dismayed when storms arise. We feel God has fallen asleep and doesn’t care about us. We start screaming at God (like Job screamed at God), “Where are you now? Why is this happening? What did I do to deserve this?” [As if our efforts are merit badges with God, and he owes us rewards for good behavior.]  Then, through the storm, out of the whirlwind, we can hear what God would say to us (as he said to Job): “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge” (Job 38:2)? We question why God has let things get out of control when, of course, God always has all things under his control. He is the one who “laid the foundation of the earth” (Job 38:4). He is the one who says to the lakes and seas and oceans, “Here is where your proud waves shall be stopped’ (Job 38:11). 

When the whirlwind hit the boats out on the Sea of Galilee, Jesus calmly got up, “rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, ‘Peace! Be still!’ Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm” (Mark 4:39). And Jesus said to his terrified disciples, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith” (Mark 4:40)?  By this time in their journey with Jesus, the disciples had already seen him turn water into wine, cause their fishing nets to burst with an incredible number of fish, cast a demon out of a man, heal person after person of diseases and ailments. They had even seen him raise a young man, a widow’s only son, back to life after he had died. Still, Jesus had to remind them that he is indeed the Lord of all, “that even the wind and the sea obey him” (Mark 4:41). “O ye of little faith!” Jesus could say to all of us (Matthew 8:26 KJV). We all struggle to maintain trust and hope when storms come, when the circumstances of our lives suddenly are not pleasant and peaceful, or when our journey is one of chronic pain and hurt. We wonder where God is when life is a struggle.

Remember, though, that Jesus told us, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33 NIV). Satan will tempt you. Troubles will taunt you. But “God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it” (1 Corinthians 10:13). Through it all, come what may, look ahead to the final way out that God promises. We share the same hope Job expressed, saying: “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at the last he will stand upon the earth, and … then in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see on my side” (Job 19:25-27). With God on our side, no matter how scary the storms, we always have hope.

There came a time in Jesus’ ministry when many of those following him turned back and no longer went along with him (John 6:66). They had been in it for the good things, for miracles that filled baskets upon baskets with bread and fish. They looked for Jesus to make their lives content and comfortable. When Jesus told them that wasn’t what life with him was about, they walked away. Jesus then asked his core group, the twelve whom he was training to be his apostles, “‘Do you also wish to go away?’ Simon Peter answered him, ‘Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God’” (John 6:67-69).  Let that be our attitude also. Life isn’t all sunshine and clear skies. Storms will come. Unrest will upend our lives often. But we have a source of refuge. We have a place of safety. We have Jesus, the Holy One of God, who promises to be with us—”always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).  We will hang on, we will keep going, we will get to the other side, trusting in him. 

Scripture quotations, except where otherwise indicated, are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Posted by David Sellnow
28
May
2024

John 3:16 – Father, Son, and Spirit in Action

Trinity Sunday was observed this week. The Gospel reading for the day included a well-known and well-loved passage from Scripture, John 3:16.  I’ll share here a message based on John 3:16, pondering the actions of the Triune God on our behalf.

For additional thoughts for Trinity Sunday and season, see also the post, “We trust in a God who goes beyond our understanding.”

God Loves You

In the town where I grew up, it was not uncommon to be stopped on the street and asked, “Are you saved?” (The questioners were students from a small Bible college in the town.) You won’t find the question, “Are you saved?” as a mission strategy used by any of God’s witnesses or apostles in the Bible.  You will find them, time and again, telling and retelling the simple, straightforward message of why we needed Jesus and what Jesus did for us.  God’s message is not a question, “Are you saved?” but a declaration: “You are saved!”  God doesn’t interrogate us, pressuring us to make decisions we don’t have the spiritual power to make. Instead, he tells us where we stand when we are standing outside of his grace, and he tells us how we are rescued by his amazing grace.

The message God speaks to you again and again in Scripture is that he loves you. The most famous such Bible statement is John 3:16. “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”

That one sentence is the Word of God in a nutshell.  It holds within it a complete story of how much we needed God and how much his love has done for us. God loves us so much that he, the Father, gave up his Son. God, the Son, gave up his life. God the Holy Spirit gives us life when he brings us to believe in what God has done in Jesus. God—the Father, Son and Spirit—in threefold fashion is our Savior from the sin and desperation in which otherwise we would perish.

Let’s look at the love of the Father first. God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son.  Amazing. Simply amazing. For one thing, we marvel at the relationship between Father, Son and Spirit who exist in one Being. We stand awestruck at that thought. We never fully fathom how God can be how he is—but he is! And then we’re amazed at the grace of God, that he would give up his Son, who is one with the Father, letting his eternal Son die in order to rescue us. We did not live to please God; we live to please ourselves. We are people who are ruled by our desires—desires that fight against God so that we do not and cannot obey God’s laws (see Romans 8:5-7). And yet God loves us! What grace! It is undeserved and unappreciated, but God loves us anyway. Like a father of runaway children who left home to live in the streets, God loved us even though we made ourselves unlovable. He kept his arms open to receive us even though we told him not to wait up, that we weren’t coming home. God loves us like a Father who never gives up on his children—and gave his most beloved Child, his own eternal Son—so that we could be his children and included in his family. “See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are” (1 John 3:1).

And Jesus, God’s own Son, was a willing participant in this plan. Jesus did not object to his role in our redemption. He looked straight ahead and hoisted the cross on his shoulder and began to drag it to the place where he would be executed as the ultimate act of God’s love for sinners. Even before it happened, Jesus matter-of-factly told his disciples, “The Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death; then they will hand him over to the Gentiles; they will mock him, and spit upon him, and flog him, and kill him” (Mark 10:33-34).  When one of his disciples said, “No! Never, Lord!” Jesus scolded him for thinking that way, for not having God’s plan in mind (cf. Matthew 16:21-22). “Christ loved us and gave himself for us,” is how Scripture tells the story (Ephesians 5:2). No one took his life from him; he laid it down of his own accord (John 10:18). The apostle Paul pondered on the magnitude of what Jesus did, saying, “Rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us” (Romans 5:7-8). That’s an amazing amount of love—God the Son gave up his life to make us sons and daughters of God with him, when there was nothing inherently in us that made us worthy of such a gift.

And there’s still more. God, who sent his Son from heaven, who gave his life on the cross, is not content to leave it at that and then let it up to us from there. He brings his love to us personally. He pours out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he gives to us (Romans 5:5). The Holy Spirit gives us life from God.  Notice something in the familiar words of John 3:16, that whoever believes in God’s Son (Jesus) shall have eternal life.  Believing in Christ is not something we, of ourselves, have the power to do. “No one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:3). We were dead in our spirits, but God made us alive with the Spirit’s message of Christ. The Bible says it quite plainly:  A person “without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit” (1 Corinthians 2:14 NIV). We needed the Spirit to take the blindness from our eyes so we could see God, to lift the veil of deadness from our hearts so we could believe in God.

The Father loved us and gave up his Son. The Son loved us and gave up his life. The Spirit loved us and gave us the gift of faith, so that all the love of God would be revealed to us and believed by us. God loves us through and through, from start to finish—Father, Son and Holy Spirit. As I said at the outset, there’s no question about whether or not you are saved; there is a definitive answer, a declarative statement. God loves you and has saved you in Christ and has convinced you of that truth by his Spirit. God’s love is not a question; it is a fact, a certainty.

Still, even though we know this, our fragile hearts find ways to question God, to question whether God really loves us. You know how it goes, something like this: God, you say you love me … but then why, God, is my life so difficult?  How come people who don’t seem to care about you get all the breaks in life and I get nothing? How come I have to struggle and scrape to get by? You say you love me, God, but I have a hard time seeing it. If you love me so much, why don’t you make my life better?”

Why do we ask such questions? Why do we make such accusations against God?  Why do we find ourselves doubting his love? Because we look for evidence of his love in the wrong places. We look for evidence of the wrong sort. We look for evidence in terms of earthly things and earthly advantages and earthly successes. That typically isn’t the sort of evidence of his love that God gives.

Let me ask you this: Would you say that God the Father loved his Son, Jesus? Yes, of course. He even said so for people to hear when Jesus was on this earth. When Jesus was baptized, God’s voice was heard from heaven, saying, “This is my Son, whom I love” (Matthew 3:17).  There were two other occasions later in Jesus’ time on earth when the same thing happened—God spoke from heaven and said, “This is my Son, whom I love.”  God loved Jesus;  we’ll take that as an undeniable fact.

Yet Jesus said of his own life on earth, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head” (Matthew 8:20). Jesus had no mansion, no castle, not even a house. He went from place to place all the time. At the end of his life, Jesus’ wardrobe consisted of the clothes on his back. And those clothes were stripped off of him and divided up by soldiers who crucified him. Jesus was stripped naked and nailed to a cross and hung up to die. 

God loved Jesus. How could God allow his own Son whom he loved to be treated like that? Because God had a higher, better, bigger goal in mind. Jesus would die without a thing in this world to his name, but would rise again to life and have us as his own. He and we look forward to eternal pleasures in the kingdom of heaven (cf. Psalm 16:11).

God isn’t so much concerned about how nice your house might be on this planet, or how much luxury you can afford, or how many clothing choices you have when you look in your closet. Oh, he will give you enough to get by—you can thank him for that. But all that stuff is surely not the main way in which God wishes to show love to you. His love to you is mainly in Jesus. His love for you is intended to connect you to him for eternity. His love to you is most concerned with preparing a place for you in the mansions of heaven, not making sure you’re comfortable in some suburban subdivision here below.  If you look for God’s love in terms of what kind of house you can afford and what kind of car you drive and what kind of friends you have in your neighborhood, you’re bound to be disappointed. Look to God, instead, for the best of what he has to give you:

  • Love that is constant in Jesus even when persons in this world seem not to love you. 
  • Life that is guaranteed by the Holy Spirit even when what you experience in this world seems to be one failed promise after another. 
  • A relationship that is solid with the Father in heaven even when relationships on earth with family and friends are cracked and strained and unstable.   

Don’t look for evidence of God’s love merely in people and things—see the evidence of God’s love in God himself, in what he has done. God so loved the world (and God so loved you) that he gave his precious Son, Jesus Christ, to secure eternal life for you. 

God loves you. If you ever have any doubt about that, look at what the Father did. Look at what Jesus did. Look at what the Holy Spirit has done and is doing. Salvation is not a question; it’s the deepest, greatest truth in the universe. God loves you in Christ and has made you his own by his Spirit, and you will live forever in him. Hang onto that love—the best love there is, no question about it.

Scripture quotations, except where otherwise indicated, are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Posted by David Sellnow
13
May
2024

Eve’s faith and ours

Faith made Eve a mother  … and faith carries each of us through our life in this world

The man named his wife Eve, because she was the mother of all living. … The Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken.  He drove out the man; and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim, and a sword flaming and turning to guard the way to the tree of life.
Now the man knew his wife Eve, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have produced a man with the help of the Lord” (Genesis 3:20, 23; 4:1).

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

You can’t help but know that Mother’s Day has arrived.  We’ve been bombarded with TV commercials, print ads in newspapers, flyers in our mailboxes, emails and texts and phone alerts – all wanting to make sure we buy plenty of stuff for our moms. For this edition of The Electric Gospel, I’d like to offer something different from the commercial and sentimental emphases of Mother’s Day. Let’s consider some spiritual thoughts about the first mother, our first mother, Eve. She and Adam provide a lesson for all of us, for it is by faith in God’s promises that they were and we are able to carry on in this world.

When the first man and woman were created, they were made in the image of God, perfect and holy like their creator. Life was flawless for them in the Garden of Eden, the wonderful paradise God made as their home. It was a place where they were to live in love and friendship toward God and toward one another.

But you know the story well – and you’ve felt the impact of what happened. The perfect life of the perfect couple in the perfect garden was spoiled. Eve took the first bite of forbidden fruit. Adam followed suit. They consciously disregarded a way they were to honor God. When they broke away from God in that way, everything became broken. Satan’s temptation had suggested they would be like divine beings, able to distinguish good from evil (Genesis 3:5). That was a devilish half-truth. Adam and Eve did come to know things in a way they hadn’t known before, but not really in the way that God knows good and evil. God knows evil as the opposite of his character, “for God cannot be tempted by evil” (James 1:13).  God knows good as what he is, fully and absolutely. As the Word attests, “The Lord is upright … there is no unrighteousness in him” (Psalm 92:15). Adam and Eve had come to know things from an opposite perspective. They knew good as what they used to have, as perfection they had lost. They knew evil as a force that now inhabited them, as something they were fatally attracted to.  This was the great tragedy of humanity’s fall into sin.

After Adam and Eve’s sin, God confronted them in the Garden. There would be consequences to what they had done. 

To Adam, God said, “Now by the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken” (Genesis 3:19).  The Garden of Eden would be closed to them.  Life would change. There would be sweat and work and weeds and toil.  

To Eve, God said, “I will greatly increase your pangs in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children” (Genesis 3:16). So now, to “be fruitful and multiply” (Genesis 1:28), as God had instructed them, would be no easy task.  Bringing children into the world would be difficult from start to finish. Sin had changed things.   

But even with those announcements of pain and difficulty in life, what Adam and Eve were hearing from God was good news. They had disobeyed God. They had defied God. They knew God’s warning – “The day you eat [from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil], you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:17). Quite likely, Adam and Eve had expected to die immediately, on that very day, because of what they had done. They hid from God, afraid (Genesis 3:8). But God didn’t put them to death on the spot. He was letting them know life would be full of sorrow and hurt – but that meant they still would be alive, they still had a future. 

And God made the point even more clear. He turned to the serpent, through whom Adam and Eve had been tempted. God said to him: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel” (Genesis 3:15). In those words Adam and Eve heard a promise of wonderful, renewed hope. A child born of woman would undo the damage that sin and the devil had done. God spoke of the woman’s offspring, so Eve and Adam knew that the future and God’s promise depended on her having offspring.

It was just then that the man (whom we know as “Adam”) gave his wife a name, Eve, which means life. “Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all living” (Genesis 3:20 NIV). They were not dead but alive. They would have life, and their children would have life. There was hope for the whole human race. They did not give up in despair. They held onto hope and clung to God’s promise with faith. 

It was right after all that, right after being sent away from the Garden of Eden, that Adam and Eve began to have children. When they had their first child, they confessed their faith in what God had promised.  “With the Lord’s help I have had a baby boy,” Eve said (Genesis 4:1 NIrV).  In translating Eve’s words, it’s possible she was even thinking that this child, her first child, might already be the one that God meant in his promise – the one who would crush the serpent’s head and reverse the damage of sin. That wasn’t the case – the Promised One, Jesus Christ, wouldn’t arrive in the human story for several thousand years. But the hope and faith of Adam and Eve remained the same. God had given them promises on which to stake their faith. They grabbed onto those promises. Adam and Eve went forward to bring children into the world as an act of faith.

In my ministry days as a pastor in Texas, I met with young couples as they were planning for their weddings. In premarital counseling, I would ask couples about their plans as far as family, having children. I wanted to emphasize a reliance on God and being open to whatever blessings or challenges God might have in store. One young couple, when asked their plans regarding children, said, “Oh, we’re not planning to have children. We can’t imagine bringing children into this world. There’s just so much strife and pain – the crime and war and terrorism. And there’s already overpopulation. It just doesn’t seem right to subject children to a world full of as much trouble as this world.”

We spent some time talking that day. I talked with them about Adam and Eve. If there were ever a married couple on this planet who could say, “It doesn’t seem right bringing children into a world like this,” that would have been something fair for Adam and Eve to say. They had gone from absolute perfection in the Garden of Eden to a life of many pains. They knew that they and all their children would have to deal with sin and suffering and face death – all things they hadn’t known before.  It would have made perfect sense for Adam and Eve to say, “No. No way, no how are we going to have children. We will die for our sin, but we don’t need to subject any children to the same fate.” Yet that’s not at all what they said. They heard God’s mercy. They heard his words of promise. They went forward in hope, had children in hope, trusting God to give them life and redemption, to heal them from their sin.

And so it is with us today, not only for mothers but for every person of faith. Faith makes us ready to do whatever life asks of us. Faith in the promises of God, in the forgiveness of God, in the ultimate goodness of our God – that is what carries each of us through our life in this world. Consider the fact that Mother’s Day is not an easy day for many people. Many who have wanted to have children face the agony of infertility, or of a miscarriage, or the loss of a child. Families and individuals experience all sorts of strains and struggles in this world. As Christians, we live our lives as an act of faith, putting our trust in God to stay with us when times are dark and difficult. 

Faith made Eve a mother. Faith in Jesus gives us the strength to raise our children, to be families, to live our lives. God bless you on Mother’s Day and every day, in Jesus, born of Mary, descendant of Eve. In him we have life and hope forever. 


Scripture quotations, except where otherwise indicated, are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Posted by David Sellnow
29
Apr
2024

The power of Jesus’ resurrection

Easter this year was March 31st … but the Easter season continues into the month of May. And the impact of Christ’s resurrection continues every day, in every season.  This message contemplates Christ’s resurrection power in our everyday lives.

We are not zombies. We are alive with Jesus.

You likely are familiar with the miracle when Jesus raised Lazarus from the grave. Lazarus, a dear friend of Jesus, had been ill and died. When Jesus arrived, Lazarus had been in the tomb for four days. Jesus asked that the stone sealing the tomb be taken away. Then he called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” Then do you recall what happened? Was it like this?

  • Lazarus stood up and came out of his grave. He smelled of death, and moved stiffly from rigor mortis. When they took off the grave clothes he’d been wrapped in, they saw that his body had started to bloat, and bloody foam was oozing from his nose and mouth. …

I’ll stop with descriptions of how a human body decomposes after death. You know that is not how it went when Jesus raised Lazarus. Jesus had said, “I am the resurrection and the life.Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die” (John 11:23,25,26). Jesus did not promise some meager reanimation of dead bodies, a zombie sort of life. With Lazarus and others that Jesus raised from death, he brought them back full and whole. He returned them to their families as living, breathing, loving human beings. Jesus came so we “may have life, and have it to the full,” a “rich and satisfying life,” that we enjoy life “abundantly” (John 10:10 NIV, NLT, NRSV). We are not meant to be walking zombies.

The apostle John said, “Beloved, we are God’s children now” (1 John 3:2), reminding us that no one who abides in Christ continues in sin, that we pursue what is right and righteous because Christ is righteous (1 John 1:7). John went on to say, “We know that we have passed from death to life because we love one another. Whoever does not love abides in death” (1 John 3:14).

John’s words cause us to examine our lives. Are we sometimes like spiritual zombies, rather than the truly raised-to-life people that we are in Christ? A zombie is a dead person that goes through the motions of life but isn’t really alive. Does that description ever fit us? Let’s think about what dead bodies do, and apply that to the life of our souls.

  • Dead bodies stink with a foul odor. People turn away because the smell is offensive. What would a dead soul be like? A person who gives off a foul odor emotionally, spiritually. Someone who is hard to be around. You repel people by your irritability or harshness or selfishness. Are you ever like that? Aren’t we all often like that?
  • Dead bodies rot and decompose. They decay. What would a dead soul be like? A person whose behavior goes from bad to worse. Someone whose bad habits grow like pus and fungus. You don’t get stronger or healthier day by day, but just the opposite—your spiritual life degrades abd gets deader. Are you ever like that? Aren’t we all often like that?
  • Think of the flesh-eating zombies of the movies or the fungus-infected bodies in The Last of Us video game or TV series. What do they do? They attack. They devour. They have no motive other than their own insatiable appetite. What would a zombie soul be like? Someone who lashes out mindlessly at others. Someone who tears down anyone who stands in their way. You don’t care about anything or anyone, only about what you want. Are you ever like that? Aren’t we all often like that?
  • Zombies, as portrayed in popular fiction, have no emotion. No feeling. No thoughts.They don’t communicate with you. You are nothing to them. What would a zombie soul be like? A person who is dead to the feelings of others. Someone who has no real relationship to those around them, who exists only for themselves. You don’t love. You don’t care. You just trudge from one moment to the next in your own mindless existence. Are you ever like that? Aren’t we all often like that?
  • Or think of a dead body, a corpse. What does a dead body do? It doesn’t move. It doesn’t walk, doesn’t run, doesn’t dance. It is lifeless. What would a dead soul be like? Lifeless. Cold. Callous. Inactive. You just stare at life with blank, empty eyes. You don’t move a muscle when there is spiritual work to be done in the world. Are you ever like that? Aren’t we all often like that?

We celebrated Easter a few weeks ago—the glorious good news of Jesus’ resurrection from death. We know that Jesus’ resurrection means our own resurrection one day, our bodies restored from the grave to live forever with the Lord. At our resurrection on the last day, Jesus won’t be unearthing us as the walking dead, as some sort of reanimated corpses. We will be completely alive, renewed, transformed. Death will be swallowed up in victory (1 Corinthians 15:54). Jesus resurrects his people to full, complete, unlimited life—life that will go on eternally.

And—this is important, my friends—the life which we receive from Jesus we have received already now. We have already been brought back from death to life. There is a resurrection that has already happened in you, a reviving of your soul with the life of God. Think of how that resurrection affects your day-to-day life. We are not zombies. We are alive with Jesus.

Think of the difference in the apostles who first witnessed Jesus’ resurrection. They had been cowering behind locked doors in fear. Then, emboldened by seeing Christ alive, they went out into the center of Jerusalem and announced, “You killed the one who leads people to life. But God raised him from death, and all of us can tell you what he has done” (Acts 3:15 CEV). Following his resurrection, Jesus told his disciples (and tells us today) that “repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations” (Luke 24:47), that we are his witnesses in the world. Our witness to Christ is shown by the life and liveliness, the love and committedness that we show in our lives as Christian people. 

Now, admittedly, we struggle with this. Christ knows that we struggle. As he once told his disciples, “The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26:41). Christ’s apostles knew that we struggle. The apostle Paul described the struggle from a personal perspective. He had written: “How can we who died to sin go on living in it? … We have been buried with Christ by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:2-4).  And then, in the same letter, Paul also admitted:  ““I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. …  it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me. … I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members” (Romans 7:15-23).

Our struggle with sin is like going through life with a “body of death” inside us, lingering there (Romans 7:24). We have been raised to new life by Christ our Savior, yet we backslide again and again into habits of sin and ick and decay. We have the power of new life from Jesus rushing through our spirits, by his Spirit … but we still struggle with being cold in our hearts, unthinking in our actions. 

 We have the rot, the fungus of sin living in us, yes. But Christ is stronger than sin. Christ is the remedy to sin. Christ will one day lift us above and out of all our sin into the heavenly holiness that awaits us. Even now, he cleanses us from our sins. He is life. He empowers us against the sin and selfishness within ourselves. As the apostle Paul said elsewhere, “If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17)!

What I said before about how zombies and corpses function is false as applied to us now, in our resurrected spiritual lives.  

  • We are new, we are alive, we are refreshed and full of life in Christ.
  • We exude a pleasant spiritual aroma, making others want to be around us because they can sense the breath of God’s Spirit in our attitudes and words.
  • We grow more and more alive as the love of Christ grows in us, invigorates us, and motivates us.  
  • Just the opposite of mindless and soulless, our lives in Christ now are mindful of the persons around us, reaching out in relationship, seeking to connect with others’ hearts and souls through the message of Christ.  We exist more for the sake of others than for our own appetites.
  • Not dead but alive, we walk, we run, we dance through life in joy in the Lord. We are active, energetic, lively for the Lord’s work and for serving one another.  

That’s how living people live—and that’s who we now are. We are the living people of God, alive by the power of Christ’s resurrection. True, the new life we live is never easy. As long as we are on this earth, we still carry something of that old zombie self inside of us. We still will lapse into the stench and rot that characterizes us as sinners. But we have hope. We can have confidence. We renew our strength daily, because we have an answer. When Paul pondered the struggle within his own life and said,  “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:24 NIV), he immediately answered his own question: “Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 7:25 NIV)!

We are not doomed to live as zombies. “God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. … If we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us” (1 John 4:9,12). We need not succumb to sin as our master any longer (cf. Romans 6:13). We live now under God’s grace. God’s grace be with you, as you go out daily as witnesses to the living Christ and live life in his name.

Scripture quotations, except where otherwise indicated, are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Additional versions used:

  • Contemporary English Version, copyright © 1995 by American Bible Society
  • New International Version, copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.
  • New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
Posted by David Sellnow
09
Apr
2024

Good Shepherd resources for ministers

I’ve previously posted some messages written by my father here on The Electric Gospel.  This week is the 25th anniversary of his death (April 9, 1999).  In memory of my father and his years of ministry, I’d like to share a sermon of his about Christ as the good shepherd and the doorway to eternal life.  Good Shepherd Sunday is coming up on April 21st (the 4th Sunday of Easter). Perhaps some present-day ministers will find his Good Shepherd sermon (below) a useful resource in preparing their own messages for that day.

Also, as I’m allowed periodic free book offers for my Kindle e-books, I thought this a good time to set up an offer for The Lord Cares for Me: Stories and Thoughts about Psalm 23.  From April 10 through April 14, you can obtain that e-book for free on Amazon.com. Ministers might find one or another of the story-messages in that book useful for Good Shepherd Sunday.  [Two other books, Sermons on Selected Psalms and Faith Lives in Our Actions, are available at reduced cost also for several days starting April 10.]

In memory of Donald C. Sellnow (1928-1999), here is a sermon he delivered on Good Shepherd Sunday:

The LORD our Shepherd, through whom we have life

  • Originally preached April 16, 1961

The picture of Christ as the good shepherd is often used in the Bible. The psalmist David sang, “The LORD is my shepherd” (Psalm 23:1). The prophet Isaiah said, “He will feed his flock like a shepherd” (Isaiah 40:11). The Savior referred to himself this way, declaring, “I am the good shepherd” (John 10:11).  This picture of Jesus as the good shepherd is dear and precious to the heart of every Christian.

In the same context, we also hear Jesus speak of himself as the door or the gate for the sheep (John 10:7). Let us give our attention to the inspired record of Scripture in which the Savior gives us these two meaningful pictures of himself. 

Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11). In this one short statement, Jesus sums up the entire gospel message. He is the shepherd who laid down his life for sheep who loved to wander. The way the world of sinners would be redeemed was by the suffering and death of the Son of God in the sinners’ stead. The good shepherd died so that the sheep might live. In his boundless, amazing love, Jesus our good shepherd willingly gave his life for us on the cross. Through his sacrifice, we have pardon, peace, and everlasting life. As Isaiah so strikingly put it: “All we like sheep have gone astray. Everyone has turned to his own way; and the LORD  has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6).

May we ever rejoice in this great good news and hold fast to it all our days. May we never grow tired of hearing this simple gospel message nor underestimate its importance for our lives. This precious gospel—that the good shepherd gave his life for us and through him we have eternal salvation with all its abundant blessings—this is what gives lasting meaning to our lives. This is what gives us solid comfort and hope in the face of death. Yes, because Christ in love laid down his life for us, we now confidently can declare: “The LORD is my shepherd; I shall lack nothing” (Psalm 23:1). And each of us, no matter how old, can still say in childlike faith: “I am Jesus little lamb, ever glad at heart I am” (The Lutheran Hymnal, 1941, #648).

Not only did the good shepherd lay down his life for the sheep. He also took it up again when he rose triumphant from the grave, thereby sealing and confirming his work of redemption. The resurrection of Christ is the supreme proof that his sacrifice on Calvary was indeed a perfect payment for sin, and we truly have been redeemed. Christ gave up his life and then took it up again to make us certain that we are saved and heaven is ours. 

We also are assured by knowing that our shepherd knows his sheep. We read, “The sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. Whenever he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice” (John 10:3-4). In shepherding life, each morning the shepherd came to the sheepfold or corral where the sheep were kept for the night, to gather his sheep and lead them to pasture. Now that wasn’t quite as easy as it sounds. Frequently, there were several flocks inside the sheepfold. How did each shepherd get his own sheep? Well, it may sound amazing to us, but the shepherd knew his own sheep. Even though his flock numbered several dozen, or perhaps as many as a hundred, the shepherd could identify each sheep.

Jesus wants us to remember that he knows who we are as members of his flock. Nothing is hidden from him who knows the innermost thoughts and secrets of human hearts. Jesus knows just how important he is to us. He knows our sins and shortcomings—but he also knows our hearts of faith. He knows our failures and our unworthiness—but he also knows our needs and wants. He knows that above all we need assurance of his grace and forgiveness, and he gives it to us in his Word. He tells us: “Though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool” (Isaiah 1:18). He knows also all our sorrows and griefs, and he comforts us with the knowledge that he is with us and will make all things work together for our good (cf. Romans 8:28). Thus the good shepherd watches over his flock, leading us into the green pastures and beside the still waters of his Word of comfort and help.

Even as the good shepherd knows his sheep, so also is he known by them. As the scripture tells us, the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. “They will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him; for they don’t know the voice of strangers” (John 10:5). It is absolutely essential for sheep to trust their shepherd. This was especially true in Palestine in Jesus’ time. Good pastures became scarce at times, especially after the long dry summer. Frequently, the shepherd led his flock miles away from home, searching for a good pasture. The shepherd didn’t drive his sheep. He led them. If the path led through a dark and frightening valley, the shepherd would simply walk ahead, calling his sheep to follow. And follow him they would, for they knew his voice and trusted him.

So also, every sheep of Christ knows their shepherd and follows his voice. Christians know Jesus as their good shepherd by faith. They believe and trust in him as their Savior and guide. They listen to his voice as he speaks to them in his Word. Through his Word, Christ tells us all we need to know for our faith and life. We rely on that Word. We follow wherever the good shepherd leads as he speaks to us.

Perhaps you have been criticized for following Christ without ifs or buts. Perhaps you have been asked to prove something that you believe, instead of simply taking it on faith. But could you? Can we prove all beliefs? No, nor do we attempt to. We walk by faith, not by sight. We take our Lord at his word and subject our reason to that word. We accept what his Scripture is telling us. That’s the attitude of a person who has learned to trust the voice of his good shepherd. In turn, our experience has been that following the Word of Christ brings peace and blessing to our lives that we can’t find by worldly proofs.

Thus, Jesus gives us not only a picture of himself as the good shepherd but also of ourselves as his sheep. Do you recognize yourself in the picture? Do you know him as your personal Savior who suffered and died for you, and cling to him as your only hope in life and in death? Do you let his Word guide you in what you will do in the situations of your life? … Or do you sometimes let outside pressures, personal convenience, or pursuit of pleasure guide you? Do you make good and faithful use of his Word in church and at home? Do you come frequently to his table to be refreshed and strengthened by the sacrament that he has given for us?

May we all, in true repentance and sincere faith, ever look to Jesus as the shepherd and bishop of our souls, hearing his voice and following him with grateful hearts throughout our lives.

In addition to calling himself the good shepherd, Jesus also calls himself the door. It is upon this meaningful title that we focus further in our meditation today. Jesus said, “Most certainly, I tell you, I am the sheep’s door. … I am the door. If anyone enters in by me, he will be saved” (John 10:7,9). In the sheepfolds In the Holy Land, a door or gate was set, by which the sheep were let in and out. There was only one such door in the wall of the sheepfold. Only by passing through this door could sheep get in. Now, Jesus says of himself, “I am the door.” Just as there was only one gate through which the sheep could enter the safety of the sheepfold, so also, Christ is the door through which we, as sinful human beings, enter eternal life in heaven. Jesus came and gave his life on the cross so that we might have unending life and all the abundant blessings of salvation. It is through him as the door to life that these blessings are found.

Over the course of history, people have proposed many different ways to heaven and to happiness, but we put our faith in the one who has told us he is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6). Jesus Christ is the door who gives us access to our Father in heaven. It is through faith in him that we are shepherded into eternal life above. The Bible emphasizes this point over and over again. Jesus is the Savior of all humankind. Those who trust in him, with God-given faith, will enter the mansions of heaven, living in eternal grace with God. As the apostle Peter declared, “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven that is given among men, by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). The saving name is the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. 

Thus, dear friends, we have been reminded that Jesus is the good shepherd who gave his life for the sheep. As such, he is also the door to eternal life. May we cling to him in humble faith all our days, hearing his voice as he speaks to us in his Word. May we follow him with obedient and thankful hearts, as he leads us through this valley of shadows (and often tears) to our eternal home of joy above. Amen.

Scripture quotations are from the The World English Bible (public domain).

Posted by David Sellnow
10
Mar
2024

Giving up self-redemption for Lent

We are in the middle of Lent. Are you feeling refreshed … or are you feeling burdened?

In my teaching days, a student came to me just before the beginning of a Lent season. She was distressed and anxious. She said, “I don’t like Lent. Everybody sees this as such a special time, but it makes me miserable.”  She dreaded six weeks of feeling dreary and guilty. She’d heard preachers who focused solely on law, on how horribly we have failed, on how we drove the nails through Jesus’ hands and feet and put him on the cross. She wanted to hear more about why Jesus did what he did for us, on the relief he has brought us. The tone of Lent she had experienced felt like forty days of flogging ourselves with feelings of unworthiness and guilt. She yearned to hear more good news—more gospel.

The season we call Lent (which means “lengthen”) has a long history. The earliest origins of Lent are somewhat unclear. When Christianity began, the faithful fasted on the anniversary of Jesus’ death. That “paschal fast” would continue through the next day, Saturday, “to honor the suffering and death of the Lord Jesus” (US Conference of Catholic Bishops). The fast grew to extend throughout Holy Week, and eventually lengthened to a period of fasting for 40 days—reminiscent of Jesus’ 40 days in the wilderness (Matthew 4), the 40 days Moses spent on “the mountain of God” (Exodus 3:1 & 24:18), and the 40 days and nights the prophet Elijah spent trekking to that same mountain (1 Kings 19:8).  

During Lent, it became a tradition to stop singing hallelujahs during worship services—including on Sundays. The Sundays in Lent are actually not part of Lent. Each Sunday in Christian worship is meant to remember and celebrate Jesus’ resurrection (which is worthy of unending hallelujahs). Nevertheless, hymns and services throughout Lent took on a somber tone, omitting joyful songs of praise until Easter.

In my youth, the Lutheran church I attended had the habit of extending the “no hallelujahs” rule three weeks further back. I still recall the Latin names used for the three Sundays before Ash Wednesday: Quinquagesima (“fiftieth”), Sexagesima (“sixtieth”), and.Septuagesima (“seventieth”). Extending the penitential season back further “developed from the early sixth to the early seventh centuries as the result of monks extending the forty-day pre-paschal fast for progressively longer periods” (Patrick Regan, Advent to Pentecost, cited by Catholic Culture). 

My impression of the history of Lent (and pre-Lent) is that it was driven by a desire to contribute something to our own redemption. If monks lived a quiet, humble life to serve others and devote themselves to godly study, fine. If they drove themselves to ever-increasing lengths of self-sacrifice in attempts to make up for their sins or establish their own righteousness, this was a mistake. Martin Luther (who had been a monk) wrote about how monks became “puffed up with this opinion of righteousness” and “thought themselves to be so holy because of their holy kind of life”— better than other Christians who “led but a common life” and didn’t do any additional, special works (Commentary on Galatians, 1535). We fall into the same mindset if we think that the more religious things we do and the more everyday things we give up, somehow that will make us better people and closer to God. As a contemporary religious teacher has said, “Whether you do enough or believe enough or perform enough” is not “what decides whether you are good enough and worthy enough and loved enough. If you make some sort of sacrifice to make yourself more holy in God’s eyes, you were sold a false bill of goods. That was an indulgence that you paid for with your emotional effort, and it is not real. God already loves you. You cannot make yourself more holy” (Cafeteria Christian, “Giving Up Perfectionism for Lent,” episode #212/260).  

Rather than trying to fulfill vows like monks, Martin Luther advised that going about the normal tasks of human life “serves God precisely as he desires to be served” (Robert Kolb in The Lutheran Witness, 3/7/2022). As Luther said elsewhere, “Ordinary work is a divine vocation or calling.” Rather than a 40-day fast or giving up this or that for Lent (focused on ourselves), we might consider acts of love and service focused on others. “You can investigate more ways to participate with joy and freedom in the world around you, and Lent can be a part of that” (Cafeteria Christian). In doing so, we also understand that any acts we undertake “are not to be done with any notion that by them we can be justified before God–for faith alone is righteousness before God” (Martin Luther, On Christian Freedom, 1520).

The habits and customs observed during Lent may be useful to help us focus our thoughts on spiritual things rather than on earthly desires. Having a penitential season is a good practice, to come to terms with ourselves over the seriousness of sin. But we dare not ever (during Lent or otherwise) forget the gospel that gives every season of our lives meaning. If not for what Jesus did—not only by his death, but also by his resurrection—our faith would be futile and we are still in our sins (1 Corinthians 15:17). So, let us keep the good news of Jesus’ victory for us at the forefront of the Lent season and all seasons. And maybe, just maybe, let’s not be afraid to sing hallelujahs on Sundays.

I remember a gentleman named Peter. After attending services throughout the year at a congregation I served, he said, “I appreciate how I can bring a guest to church on any given worship day, and I know the gospel will be clearly heard.” I was glad to hear we were consistent about that.

I remember also a lady named Verna. She had been taking classes and attending services at our mission church. When asked if she desired to join the church as a member, Verna was eager to do so. She said, “When I used to go to other churches, I would go home every time feeling awful. Now I come home from church feeling refreshed, joyful, relieved.” We discussed further what the difference was. She identified that her prior church experiences had been all law and only law. Even Jesus was made into a stern figure of law, commanding us to do as he did, to be how he was, or else we were not worthy.

“Lent should be a season of rest, not pressure” (Cafeteria Christian). Worship that is whole and spiritually healthy will never leave us wallowing in guilt, walking away hopeless. When we witness what Christ our Savior has done for us—both by his sufferings and death and by his resurrection and rule over all things—we are moved to say, “Hallelujah!”–which is Hebrew for “Praise the LORD!”

Scripture quotations, except where otherwise indicated, are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Posted by David Sellnow
15
Jan
2024

Prayers and a poem on MLK Day

Praying—and putting prayer into action—for all people

Prayers and a poem on Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Image credit: Diocese of Rockville Centre

Michael King Jr. was born on January 15, 1929. “In 1934, however, his father, a pastor at Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, traveled to Germany and became inspired by the Protestant Reformation leader Martin Luther. As a result, King Sr. changed his own name as well as that of his five-year-old son” (History.com).

The work of Martin Luther King, Jr.—in society as well as in his ministry—strongly reminded us of the need to pray for, care for, and value each and every one of our neighbors.  

In observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, I’ll share here on The Electric Gospel a pair of prayers from King’s career as a minister at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, as well as another poem and prayer fitting for this day.

These two prayers come from handwritten manuscripts from use in worship services:

  • O thou Eternal God, out of whose absolute power and infinite intelligence the whole universe has come into being: We humbly confess that we have not loved thee with our hearts, souls and minds and we have not loved our neighbors as Christ loved us. We have all too often lived by our own selfish impulses rather than by the life of sacrificial love as revealed by Christ. We often give in order to receive, we love our friends and hate our enemies, we go the first mile but dare not travel the second, we forgive but dare not forget. And so as we look within ourselves we are confronted with the appalling fact that the history of our lives is the history of an eternal revolt against thee. But thou, O God, have mercy upon us. Forgive us for what we could have been but failed to be. Give us the intelligence to know thy will. Give us the courage to do thy will. Give us the devotion to love thy will. In the name and spirit of Jesus we pray. 
  • Our loving Father, from thy hand have come all the days of the past. To thee we look for whatever good the future holds. We are not satisfied with the world as we have found it. It is too little the kingdom of God as yet. Grant us the privilege of a part in its regeneration. We are looking for a new earth in which dwells righteousness. It is our prayer that we may be children of light, the kind of people for whose coming and ministry the world is waiting.

Excerpted from “Prayers,” The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute

Martin Luther King Jr. Day, on the third Monday of January, falls on or near the date MLK Jr. was born (January 15, 1929). For us as Christians, the observance fittingly falls in the season of Epiphany, a time focused on the manifestation of Jesus Christ as hope and Savior for all persons in the world. “The appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus” has “abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel” (2 Timothy 1:10).* We seek to continue to reveal and share the grace given to us in Jesus.

Suited for Epiphany season, another Baptist minister and civil rights leader, Howard Thurman, composed a poem, “When the Song of Angels is Stilled.” Thurman’s words make us mindful of the ongoing call of Christians in a world that needs the light of Christ.

When the song of the angels is stilled,
When the star in the sky is gone,
When the kings and the princes are home,
When the shepherds are back with their flocks,
The work of Christmas begins:
To find the lost,
To heal the broken,
To feed the hungry,
To release the prisoner,
To rebuild the nations,
To bring peace among brothers,
To make music in the heart.

Published in The Mood of Christmas and Other Celebrations,
by Howard Thurman © 1985 by Friends United Press.

Permit one more prayer thought here, from another minister and proponent of social justice, Walter Rauschenbusch. Born the son of a Lutheran missionary to German immigrants in the United States, Rauschenbusch went on to become ordained as minister of the Second German Baptist Church in New York City. The following prayer of his is excerpted from The Communion of Saints: Prayers of the Famous (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1990).

O God, the Father of us all, we praise you for having bound humanity in a great unity of life so that each must lean on the strength of all, and depend for his comfort and safety on the help and labor of his brothers and sisters.
We invoke your blessing on all the men and women who have toiled to build and warm our homes, to fashion our clothing, and to wrest from sea and land the food that nourishes us and our children. We pray you that they may have health and joy, hope and love, even as we desire for our loved ones.
Grant us wisdom to deal justly with every man and woman whom we face in the business of life. May we not unknowingly inflict suffering through selfish indifference or the willful ignorance of a callous heart.
May the time come when we need wear and use nothing that is wet in your sight with human tears, or cheapened by wearing down the lives of the weak.
Speak to our souls and bid us strive for the coming of your kingdom of justice when your merciful and saving will shall be done on earth.

* Scripture quotation from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

 

Posted by David Sellnow
06
Jan
2024

Epiphany message: A starry beacon up there for the rocky road down here

As with gladness men of old
did the guiding star behold;
as with joy they hailed its light,
leading onward, beaming bright;
so, most gracious God, may we
evermore be led to Thee.

Hymn lyric by William Chatterton Dix,
written January 6, 1859

The festival of Epiphany (January 6th) “recalls the visit of three Magi, or wise men, to the infant Jesus, and their sense of wonder at the encounter. It is the 12th day after Christmas and closes the Christmas season” (PBS.org).  

As this day of Epiphany was approaching, my mind went back to the thoughts and cadences of an Epiphany sermon preached last year by Pastor Gerhardt Miller. I prepared the following abridged version of that message, which Gerhardt graciously has approved for sharing with you here on The Electric Gospel. 

A starry beacon up there for the rocky road down here

by Gerhardt Miller

At Epiphany, we remember and ponder the journey of the Magi, “wise men from the East” who “came to Jerusalem, asking, ‘Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage’” (Matthew 2:1-2).

The wise men—whatever their number, two or three or twenty or thirty—did not find their way to the baby Jesus by accident. The wise men, wherever their hometown, were on a mission, and they completed that mission with diligence and faith. They depended on God’s grace. We too realize that anything we accomplish is accomplished with God’s grace. Make no mistake, these Magi did not stumble by accident through the front door of the private home of the Infant Jesus. That the wise men were brought to the humble threshold of Mary and Joseph and the child Jesus  was because God had blessed them with more than education and insight and privilege. God also blessed them with faithful perseverance, matching the challenge of finding this precious child called Jesus.  These figures we call the wise men, I suppose they were privileged. These wise men were blessed with an education. They were scholars. They studied astronomy and astrology. They knew the heavens and the stars and the planets. Their learning included more than what was above their heads. It also included what was written and reported at their fingertips. These learned souls were students of ancient literature as well. Their education would have included discourses on the forces of good and the forces of evil.

These wise men had learned Scripture and were committed to finding the Christchild. Wherever they had learned Scripture and astronomy and theology, they had to reapply that learning to a  journey over real roads with real hardships and hazards. Think of it, these Magi left what was familiar and safe. They ventured into the unfamiliar and the strange—willingly, even eagerly. They left the comforts of home, endeavoring into the discomforts of the rocky road at best and the unmarked, roadless wilderness at worst. They threw themselves into the perils of becoming foreigners, when they could have just stayed put in the comforts of their own ivory towers.They left all of that behind to seek Jesus.

Let us praise the wise men for their persistence. Persistence requires faith. We do not persist if our doubts are greater than our faith. The wise men had faith in the promise they had heard. The most glorious evidence that God is love is found in the flesh and blood of a small child. The wise men wanted to see, and to bow in worship. When they left home, the wise men did not know the address or longitude or latitude of their destination. When they set out, they did not know how many miles they would travel. When they packed their bags they did not know who or what they would encounter in their quest to find this new king. When they left home, all they knew was that they were following a sign to wherever and whomever it would lead them. Let us praise these wise men for their willingness to go the distance. They went the distance in all of its mess and muck to discover God. They went the distance with all of its heat and cold and wetness and dryness. They went the distance with all of its uncertainty and pitfalls and sorrow. But in taking that journey, these wise men had a starry beacon to lead them, to show them the way. 

Sometimes we need a beacon to shine—to know which way to go and have a safe road. We think of these figures having a starry beacon to show them the way when the way was clear. But the leading star above them did not remove them from the dirt and sand and danger around them. The star up there guided them, but they still had to go through the difficult road below. The starry beacon up there fortified them for the challenges ahead of them. When we are inspired, we are fortified. And the wise men were inspired. 

How has inspiration given you strength in your journey? The Lord gives us strength and inspiration through Scripture and also through the people and happenings around us. God gives us strength to do the things that are difficult for us to do. When we are inspired, we are fortified. Sometimes our roads are rocky, and we need a star. Sometimes our days are dark and we cannot see a star. But we remember learning about a light and even seeing the light … and the sheer memory of God’s light gets us to put one fearful foot in front of the other fearful foot, to get us through the scary dark into the loving light. 

For those wise men, when the road was rocky, they could see the star. When there was no road to follow, they could see the star. When the way was rough and steep and strange and frightening, they could see the star. When they encountered fearful circumstances around them and experienced doubt within themselves, they could see the star. When they were tired and cold and hungry and thirsty, they could see the star. As long as they could see the star, they could keep on going. 

Have you ever wanted to just give up? We want to match the determination of these wise men, these learned souls. When the star was not seen by them, it was remembered by them—and in its being remembered, it shone on.  The light in their memory could keep them going. Whatever the mess around these wise men, whatever the difficulty challenging them, they could see the star or look for the star or just remember the star. So, they could keep on going. 

When we are inspired we are fortified: the starry beacon up there for the rocky road down here. 

May our inspiration in our quest to discover truth and beauty—to discover God in God’s countless forms—be the Christchild, Jesus. May our beacon be Jesus’ love, for Jesus’ love and grace and understanding give us strength to carry on. Not only that, but Christ gives us the guidance to know where to go. May the name of Jesus be our beacon in our quest to discover God in our commonplace lives (that are not so commonplace in the end). Despite their high position and all their finery, the Magi had to work to find Jesus. Like the wise men, sometimes we have to work to find Jesus. Like the wise men, we have to work to see a small sliver of light to carry us over rocky roads and through the wilderness. Like the wise men, may we find strength in our purpose, so we can navigate life’s difficult roads. May our eyes be opened to see heavenly beauty when we feel bogged down on the rocky roads here below.

Prayer: Lord, have mercy for each and every one of us, especially for the times we have failed to see how you are with us in our lives. Teach us, so that we may understand and know that you are living and loving and with us, almighty God. Shine your beacon of light on us, to strengthen us for the roads we walk, trusting in Jesus. Amen.

Scripture quotations, except where otherwise indicated, are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Posted by David Sellnow
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