Jesus

01
Dec
2021

The Resurrection is our Hope

Last month, I shared a sermon by my father as the blog post of the month. My thoughts are very much focused on family also as this month draws to a close.  A member of our family has passed away, and we will be gathering for her funeral.  It seems appropriate to share another sermon from my father at this time.  As church year thoughts shifted from End Times (thinking of the end of life and end of this world) to the start of Advent (thinking of Christ’s return to take us home), this was a sermon preached by my father, November 20, 1960.


Christian Comfort in the Face of Death

by Donald C. Sellnow

But we don’t want you to be ignorant, brothers, concerning those who have fallen asleep, so that you don’t grieve like the rest, who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.  For this we tell you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will in no way precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with God’s trumpet. The dead in Christ will rise first, then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. So we will be with the Lord forever.  Therefore comfort one another with these words.

(1 Thessalonians 4:13-18)


In directing us to the comfort that is ours in the face of death, Christ’s apostle refers three times who have died as being asleep. The death of a Christian truly can be called a sleep, because the person is awaiting a glorious awakening. The awakening will take place in the resurrection of the body on the last day, an awakening to eternal life made certain for God’s people by the resurrection of Jesus from the grave. As Paul reminded us, “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus” (v.14). 

The resurrection of Jesus is a fundamental belief of our Christian faith. It is so vital and all-important that the New Testament writers refer to it no less than 104 times. It is the very basis of our Christian comfort in the face of death. If Christ had not risen from the dead, our faith would be in vain and useless, and we would look forward to death with only fear and despair.

But our faith is not in vain, and we need not fear death. Our Savior did indeed rise again the third day, as we confess in the Apostles’ Creed, as attested to by scores of witnesses (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:3-8). God’s sure word assures us Christ’s resurrection is a fact, beyond any reasonable doubt.  Christ’s appearances after his resurrection are detailed in that Word, recounting how Jesus showed himself to his disciples again and again. He gave them many convincing proofs that he—whom they had seen dead and buried—was alive again. He walked and talked with them. He ate and drank with them. He let them touch his risen body and see the marks of the crucifixion in his flesh. His friends and followers were at first slow to believe it, or we might say, they were appropriately skeptical. But the Lord Jesus thoroughly and completely convinced them of the miracle of his resurrection—so much so that they were ready to die for their confession of Christ as the risen Savior.

The good news that Christ rose triumphant from the grave is a sure, biblical fact. It also is much more than that, for it is a fact filled with wonderful meaning for us. The fact that Christ rose from the dead assures us that his death on the cross was indeed a redemptive, meaningful act for us all. His sacrifice of himself on the cross has taken away the sins of the whole world and opened up the gates of heaven to all, so that whoever believes in him will not perish, but have everlasting life (John 3:16).

Christ’s resurrection assures us that all our sins are forgiven, and also assures us that we, too, will rise to eternal life. As the apostle Paul stated: “Even so God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus” (v.14). All who by the grace and power of the Holy Spirit hold fast in faith to the end, trusting in the crucified and risen Savior, shall be raised up with him in joy and glory. For we have our risen Savior’s sure promise:  “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 11:25,26).

Therefore, since we have this sure comfort based on the resurrection of our Lord, we need not grieve in a way that is without hope when our loved ones depart this life. They have fallen asleep in Jesus, but will be awakened to life forever with Jesus. Surely, it is appropriate to mourn over the departure of loved ones from this life. Jesus himself wept at the grave of his friend Lazarus, whom he had loved deeply (cf. John 11:28-37). But in our grief, we also have rays of hope shining through, as we remember our loved one died in Christ. Those who have rested in Christ’s arms during this life rest in his loving arms also in death, and await the glorious resurrection of their bodies to life eternal, which is to come.

Another comfort we have concerning the resurrection is that there will be no disadvantage to those who have already fallen asleep in Jesus when that day comes. There will be equal joy for all believers in Christ.  The Christians at Thessalonica, to whom Paul wrote his epistle, were eagerly awaiting the Lord’s return in glory. But as they awaited the Savior’s second coming, they began to wonder what would happen to those who already had died in Christ. Somehow they had gotten the idea that those still living at the time of Christ’s return would have a great advantage over those who had already died. They feared the dear departed would not be able to see and welcome the Savior when he appeared. In connection with this misconception, the apostle told them: “For this we tell you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will in no way precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with God’s trumpet. The dead in Christ will rise first, then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. So we will be with the Lord forever” (v.15-17).

Here Paul gives us a fuller picture of the great resurrection on Judgment Day. On that day, our Savior will return in glory to judge the living and the dead. He will descend from heaven with a shout, with a mighty order and command that will penetrate every grave and echo through the whole creation. The voice of the archangel (greatest among the angels) will also be heard. He will sound forth the trumpet of God over all the earth. Then “the dead in Christ will rise first” (v.16). We know that on Judgment Day, all that are in the grave, believers and unbelievers alike, shall be raised up. But here St. Paul wants to comfort the Christians concerning a very specific point. He is content to center attention only on the rising of the believers. And what he wants to tell us is this: The very first thing that the Savior will do upon his return for judgment is to raise up his believers. Then, as they are resurrecting, those Christians who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Thus there will be no advantage or disadvantage either for the dead or the living Christians. Simultaneously, both will be caught up to meet and welcome their Lord, who has come to bring final deliverance from evil to his people. In the resurrection, Chtrist will also give his people a glorified body. We will be given bodies free from the consequences of sin, sickness and disease, immortal bodies that will be perfectly suited for life that lasts forever. As the same St. Paul assured us in another of his letters to the church: “Listen, I will tell you a mystery! We will not all die,but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable body must put on imperishability, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When this perishable body puts on imperishability, and this mortal body puts on immortality, then the saying that is written will be fulfilled: ‘Death has been swallowed up in victory’” (1 Corinthians 15:51-55). 

That brings us to the final part of our meditation about our comfort in the face of death. The comfort is endless, perpetual, enduring, for “we will be with the Lord forever” (v.17).  Our comfort as Christians is an eternal comfort. We will be in the presence of our gracious Savior in a life of bliss without end. The resurrection of the body will take us forward to a place where God himself will be with his people and “he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away” (Revelation 21:4). What a wonderful comfort this is for us when we are approaching our own death and as we think of our loved ones who have preceded us in death. For we shall meet them again in heaven, where we shall be together with them and with our Lord. In that heavenly home, there shall be fullness of happiness and joy forevermore.

“Therefore comfort one another with these words” (v.18). We indeed can comfort one another with these words of gospel truth. The message of the resurrection to eternal life is a bright ray of hope in the face of death. The fact that Christ died and rose again—and that he will raise up all who believe in him to eternal life with him—is the rock solid ground of our confidence. This central truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ—the power of his resurrection, shared with us—is what gives rest and peace and comfort to our souls as we face the loss of a loved one or our own last hour on this earth. May we all hold fast in faith to Christ the Savior, clinging to this comfort always. 

Lord, keep us steadfast in faith and grant us at last a blessed death and a joyous awakening in our eternal home. Amen.


Scripture quotations 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
25
Jul
2021

Time to Have our Hearts Checked

Hearts Full of Faith Beat Boldly in Christ

Ephesians 3:14-21, with reference to 2 Kings 4:42-44 and John 6:1-21;  9th Sunday after Pentecost

by David Sellnow


Ask kids what their favorite foods are. They’ll more likely say hot dogs, candy bars, and chips than tuna, spinach, or brussels sprouts.  We don’t always wise up and change our habits when we become adults. I had a roommate one summer after college who, as far as I could tell, ingested nothing all summer long except coffee and cigarettes and occasionally mooched slices of pizza. I wouldn’t say he was the picture of health, but then, with my pizza, neither was I.

Some years ago, a study was done on the blood vessels of presumably healthy young adults (between ages 15 and 34) who died from causes other than illness. Among those in their early 30s, they found that 20% of males and 8% of females already had advanced stages of plaque buildup in their arteries. The American Heart Association has recommendations on cholesterol intake, on what foods to avoid or eat only in moderation. But as a leading doctor on that research team said, “It’s a hard sell [to] teenagers …. I have a grandson who, despite all our family discussions, still orders the double cheeseburger with bacon and fries.”

As you probably can guess, this Electric Gospel post isn’t primarily about your cardiovascular health.  Each of us has a spiritual heart in us also, and what goes into our spiritual heart will determine our spiritual well-being. Let’s consider how hearts full of faith beat boldly in Christ; hearts that take in the love and strength of Christ will live in love and strength. 

Consider words from this day’s Epistle lesson, Ephesians 3:14-19:

  • For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. 

When you begin a check-up on your spiritual heart’s condition, you realize that your spiritual heartbeat itself is a gift from God.  When Paul said “for this reason” he thanked the Father, the reason is a theme that runs through the whole preceding portion of his Ephesian epistle:  God’s saving activity for his people.  God gave Christ as the Savior of the world; God raised Christ from death to reign in glory; God brought these Ephesians to trust in Christ rather than in idols; God caused the church at Ephesus to begin and grow; God gave these people a unity of heart and mind to work together for Christ’s kingdom.  For all of it, God was responsible and God was to be praised.  He is the one from whom the Ephesians received their spiritual heartbeat; he is the one from whom his whole family derives its name.

The same is true for us. We were in a dead, sinful state before God brought our spirits to life in the miracle of baptism.  From that moment on God has been the one to strengthen and preserve faith in our hearts.  In order for us to stay healthy spiritually, we need a steady, nourishing diet provided by God’s Spirit. Soaking in all the stuff you can absorb from contemporary culture can progressively harm your soul, like junk food impacts our bodies. You can get temporary boosts to your emotions or thoughts with other things, like you can artificially stimulate your body with substances like coffee and cigarettes.  But there is just “one thing needful” (Luke 10:42 KJV) that can truly keep our spiritual selves healthy: the good news of love and forgiveness in Jesus.

Admittedly though, our sinful side doesn’t want the good things God gives.  When the children of Israel were fed by God with manna in the desert, suited to meet all their nutritional needs, what did they say?   “We detest this miserable food” (Numbers 21:5).   They wanted other things (cf. Numbers 20:5).  They got tired of what the Lord was giving them.  We do the same thing spiritually.  We look at what God is giving us in the Bible and in church, and we say, “Too much manna all the time!”  We gravitate toward video games over Bible reading.  We find streaming TV more interesting than sermons.  We follow sports events and statistics more diligently than we search the Scriptures. 

But it is through the gospel that Christ establishes himself in our hearts. We come to see how wide and long and high and deep the love of Christ is.  We get to “know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge.”  Paul knew the amazing heights and depths of Christ’s love. He once wrote, “I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a man of violence. But I received mercy …. The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the foremost” (1 Timothy 1:13-15).    Christ died for every sinner, for the worst of sinners. That includes you and me.

Those who by God’s Spirit come to know this wonderful truth about Jesus’ love then overflow with that love. Hearts that are “filled to the measure of all the fullness of God” will result in lives that are healthy, vibrant, and active in joyful service to others.

So, are you feeling healthy, vibrant, and full of love and joy and service? Or are you feeling a little tired, feeling worn down, feeling old? It’s not easy going through the stages of life–whether in our own individual lives or the shared life of a congregation. The Christians at Ephesus were in the first years of their church experience when Paul wrote his Epistle to the Ephesians. Paul had started the ministry in Ephesus in the late 50s. [Not the 1950s — just the 50s, the first century AD.] His letter to the Ephesians was sent back to them around the year 62. Another apostle, John, served in Ephesus later as part of his ministry. Around 95 AD, when persecution exiled John to an island off the coast from the areas he’d served, John had a different sort of letter to send to the Ephesian congregation. Jesus himself spoke these words: 

  • I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance. I know that you cannot tolerate evildoers; you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them to be false. I also know that you are enduring patiently and bearing up for the sake of my name, and that you have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember then from what you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first (Revelation 2:2-5).

In our individual lives, as we get older, it can be hard to maintain the passion and energy and zest for life that we had when we were younger. We may be stable and solid, but we can also get a bit stodgy, a bit stale, a bit set in our ways. Congregations can be that way, too, as they age. We can lose the love that we had at first. We grow weary. We become more mundane than spiritual, more routine than revitalized, more dreary than dynamic. 

We need a reminder of the refrain that Paul put at the end of his prayer for the Ephesian church, the final verses of today’s epistle lesson: To him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever (Ephesians 3:20-21).

Too many times in our churches, we think small thoughts about our ministries. We want our congregation, our little corner of God’s kingdom, to do okay. We focus on scraping together what we’ll need to maintain what we’ve got, fund our budget, populate our programs and committees. Meanwhile, while we’re thinking about earthbound goals of that sort, God is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine. God has plans for our futures that we don’t even envision. Christ says, “My power is at work within you. My gospel is like dynamite for you, exploding with love and truth and joy and will accomplish more than you’d ever think could be done.”  

Consider the other experiences which were related in the Bible readings for this Sunday.  People didn’t think there was enough food to go around. In Elisha’s day, there was a famine in the land (2 Kings 4:38). Yet by the Lord’s grace, one sack of bread and grain became enough to feed 100 men in ministry training (the school of the prophets).  When throngs of people kept following Jesus and had no food other than one boy who had a handful of bread loaves and a couple of fish, Jesus had no difficulty in making sure all were fed (cf. John 6:1-21). Often we think like the servant of Elisha, who looked at the resources they had and the need in front of them and said, “How can I set this before a hundred people?” (2 Kings 4:43). We can be like the disciple of Jesus who saw thousands of mouths to feed and said, “Six months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little” (John 6:7). When we find ourselves in situations where it seems like our cupboards are empty, or our strength is gone, or storms are swirling and raging, our tendency is to think we are sunk, we will starve, we will wither away. But when we think there are no solutions, Christ creates solutions. The Lord calls on us to start with what we have and do our best. He calls us to use every opportunity and resource and talent we’ve been given and trust Christ to make it enough, to multiply it, to expand our realities beyond anything we ever thought possible. 

That’s how it has always been in the history of God’s people. When his people were held in bondage in Egypt, they didn’t imagine they could be rescued. Then plagues pressured a powerful ruler to let them go; God’s miracles enabled an exodus and a return of God’s people to their own land. When the earliest Christians were banned from the temple in Jerusalem and shunned from synagogues, when they had no church buildings of their own and were persecuted as if they were some dangerous cult, they could not have imagined that in time, the Christian faith would become predominant throughout the whole Roman Empire. When the organized church got sidetracked in the centuries that followed and became stuck in its institutionalism, in its rituals and rules, in its laws and legalism, the people didn’t dream there was much hope left in the church. Their hope grew fainter still after a horrible pandemic (the Black Death) had ravaged their communities and killed a third of the population, and the church’s highest-ranking clergy had no answers. (They were more likely to preach fire and brimstone than provide comfort or reassurance.) But then the Spirit of God raised up voices of reformation, voices such as John Wycliffe, Jan Hus, Martin Luther. The good news of Jesus and the riches of his mercy were proclaimed again with eagerness and energy and grace and renewal for everyone.

You may be at a time in your life right now where you are starving for sustenance and don’t know where it will come from. You may be at a time in your congregation right now where you have mostly questions and no clear picture of what’s on the horizon for your future. But be assured of this. Our God is “able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine” (Ephesians 3:20). The love of Christ is wider and longer and higher and deeper than you could ever measure (cf. Ephesians 3:18). Keep feeding on the Bread of Life, the spiritual food that Christ gives us, the life and truth that is Christ. He will fill your heart’s need, and he will revive your strength.

Lift up your eyes on high and see: .. [God]  is great in strength, mighty in power ….
Why do you say … “My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God”?
Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.
He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless.
Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted;
but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength,
they shall mount up with wings like eagles,
they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint  (Isaiah 40:26-31).

—

Scripture quotations, except where indicated otherwise, 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
Jun
2021

A suffering woman and a dead girl

Jesus is our Hope when Problems are Unsolvable 

[Readings for the 5th Sunday after Pentecost: Lamentations 3:22-33, Psalm 30, 2 Corinthians 8:7-15,  Mark 5:21-43]

Chances are, a number of you currently are experiencing or recently have experienced a loss, a hardship, some source of pain in your life. Just in terms of those who’ve lost a loved one, statistics say there are people reading this blog post dealing with that form of grief. “About 2½ million people die in the United States annually, each leaving an average of five grieving people behind” (The Recovery Village: Grief by the Numbers). In 2020, that number of deaths in the US was estimated at over 3½ million by the CDC’s National Vital Statistics System–the death toll expanded greatly due to COVID. An Associated Press poll conducted in March of this year found that 20% of people in the United States had lost a friend or close relative to COVID. “That means a potential bereaved population of about 65 million.” A psychiatrist at Columbia University warns that because of isolation due to the pandemic, a significant percentage of the bereaved could experience prolonged grief disorder, a condition of persistent grief that lasts longer and aches more deeply than the typical grieving process. Some studies have shown more than triple the typical rate of prolonged grief disorder have been occurring over this past year. (See “COVID Has Put the World at Risk of Prolonged Grief Disorder,” by Katherine Harmon Courage, May 19, 2021, in Scientific American.)

Those are some general truths, some national and international statistics. More than likely, some of you reading this are grieving over a loss, some are struggling with persistent pain, all know community members whose lives are hurting.

“Encounter” by Daniel Cariola, Magdala Chapel – https://www.magdala.org/

The Gospel account for this Sunday (Mark 5:21-43), from the days of Jesus’ ministry in Galilee, shows powerful examples of persons dealing with grief and trauma … and their dependence on Jesus as their only hope. First there is the case of Jairus’ daughter, a young girl who should not become deathly ill, but who was deathly ill. Then, even as Jesus was on his way to Jairus’ home, the girl died. That did not stop Jesus from his desire or ability to help. We’ll say more about that momentarily.  Meanwhile, Jesus was the only answer for a woman whose problem just would not go away, and she was at the end of her rope. She had been suffering for twelve years with “an issue of blood,” as the King James Version put it. Our translation says “hemorrhaging.” Modern scholars, assessing what may have afflicted her, deduce it was menorrhagia — “abnormally heavy and long menstruation that causes enough cramping and blood loss … that it makes normal daily activities impossible” (Nigerian Biomedical Science Journal, August 29, 2017). We feel anguish for that woman, experiencing such a condition for twelve years. Now think also of the social stigma that it placed on her in her culture. Jewish cultural norms, following the laws of Moses, stipulated that anyone with a bodily discharge (bleeding or secretion) was considered “unclean” and was to stay socially distanced till after the bleeding or discharge stopped. It was a religious rule but also something of a public health rule for the Jewish people back before anyone knew much about bloodborne pathogens protocols. So, on top of a chronic, frightening health problem, this poor woman was supposed to remain in something like COVID-19 lockdown when the community around her was not in lockdown. Think of the isolation and abandonment and frustration she must have felt. She seems to have been a woman of some means, and had spent every penny she had going to various doctors, trying to find a cure for her problem. But none of them could help her. Her condition only got worse. Coming to see Jesus was an act of desperation, her last hope. She’d heard about Jesus. She’d heard he could do miracles. So she violated the social distancing policies that prohibited her from going out into a crowded space. She made her way through the throngs of people following Jesus, hoping just to get close enough, thinking, “If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well” (Mark 5:28).

Indeed, the woman was made well from the moment she came in contact with Jesus. But Jesus did not want her to remain in hiding (or to hide from him).  He stopped the crowd. He took note of the woman, who was afraid and confessed what she had done–which actually was a confession of faith. Jesus commended her and promised his ongoing presence with her. “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease,” Jesus said (Mark 5:34).  Think a bit about the context too.  Jesus was on his way to the home of a high-ranking person, Jairus, who was a leader of the local synagogue.  And Jairus had a significant need for Jesus’ attention; his daughter was deathly ill.  But Jesus paused to pay attention to the woman who just wanted a quick, incognito encounter and nothing more. She was like a person who comes to a church hoping against hope for something, sitting in the back row, not wanting to be noticed, but the Lord wants her to be noticed and wants people to care about her.  No matter how insignificant we feel we are, no matter how ostracized or shoved aside by society, no matter how helpless we think our situation is, Jesus wants us to know we are  welcome in his presence, that we are worthy of care and attention.

Gabriel von Max, “The Raising of Jairus Daughter” (1878) – Wikimedia Commons

And Jesus will care about us even when our situation is more dire than twelve years of incessant bleeding. For example, when a twelve-year old girl is dying–and even when she dies–Jesus does not turn away from helping.  To everybody else in the situation with Jairus’ daughter, her death was the end of the story. People came from the family’s house to say Jesus need not be bothered anymore, because the girl was dead. When Jesus came to the house anyway and told the mourners the girl was only sleeping and he would wake her, they all laughed at him. But we see the ultimate power of Jesus and the reason he had come to be with us on this earth. Death is the ultimate problem that plagues us as human beings. The sicknesses we have point to our mortality, to the eventuality that we all die. The death of a child points out the cold reality of death in a particularly harsh way. But the shocking finality of death is the very reason Jesus became incarnate as a human being, to reverse that curse. As Scripture says, Jesus came down to our level “so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.” Since we are beings of flesh and blood, he “shared the same things, so that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death” (Hebrews 2:9,14,15). Jesus’ actions healing the suffering woman and raising the dead girl are evidence of the healing and salvation he came to bring to all of us. 

Maybe the problems you experience in your life aren’t exactly like the cases we looked at today, a woman hemorrhaging blood for twelve years, a family mourning the death of a child. Their experiences are examples within the range of so much human suffering that occurs.  So many people experience deep hurts of so many kinds. In my years in the church, I’ve known …

  • dear souls who bore the scars of childhood sexual abuse for years and years in their adult lives …
  • dear souls who struggled with addiction …
  • dear souls who lost their jobs and struggled to maintain self-respect …
  • dear souls who experienced excruciating pain from terminal diseases …
  • dear souls who lost loved ones in senseless ways — in a car accident that occured on the way home from attending a funeral, or in a plane crash that occurred while attempting a stunt for a military air show.

In the work I’m doing now in human services, I encounter persons …

  • who need skilled nursing care and hospice care …
  • who need mental health hospitalization …
  • who have all manner of disabilities and need ongoing care and supports …
  • who are challenged by poverty and have little or no resources ….

So, while I don’t know exactly what you’re going through in your lives right now, chances are, there are losses, hardships, and no shortage of sources of pain. Maybe you feel like your soul has been bleeding for years and you don’t know how to make it stop. Where do you turn when the hurt in your life is constant, when the aches of your heart never really go away? Maybe you’ve tried everything–self-help books, practicing self-care, seeking professional help, any kind of help from anywhere and everywhere. And some things help some, but nothing is a complete cure.  Only the hope we have for resurrection in Jesus can keep us going through the pains and losses and devastations that are so much a part of life on this earth. Jesus is our hope when our problems are otherwise unsolvable.  Like the woman pressing through the crowd for even just a touch of the hem of his garment, we reach out to Jesus as our only eternal source of hope.

And how does that work–to reach out to be touched by Jesus when Jesus isn’t physically walking through the streets of your town?  Certainly one way is in coming to church, where you gather to hear Jesus’ words and receive his touch through the sacraments. There’s another way, too, that I’d like to say a little something about before concluding this message. I’d like you to think about today’s Epistle lesson also (2 Corinthians 8:7-15), which maybe seemed to go in a different direction than the other readings of the day.  Paul wrote to the Christians at Corinth: “As you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in utmost eagerness, and in your love for us—so we want you to excel also in this generous undertaking” (2 Corinthians 8:7). The generous undertaking going on at that time was a special gathering of financial support for Christians elsewhere, particularly in the regions of Judea and Syria, who were experiencing food shortages and famine conditions.  Actually, the original statement in Paul’s letter simply says, “We want you to excel also in this grace” — the Greek word charis (from which we get our English word “charity”).  It’s somewhat limiting that in English we use the word “charity” (charis) mostly in terms of financial gifts.  Scripture uses the same word not just for gifts of financial support but for the ultimate grace, God’s gift of his Son Jesus, the One and Only, to be our rescuer.  Jesus now calls us to be gifts of grace to each other–with financial contributions, yes, but more than financial contributions. We become embodiments of Jesus to one another in our times of need.

At a church I was associated with in Texas some years ago, the congregation was in a bit of a financial crisis. A series of cottage meetings were planned, gathering members together in small groups at host members’ homes, to talk about how to address the financial crisis. At the first of those meetings, before getting to the stewardship agenda for the evening, there was an icebreaker activity planned, just to get people talking. Each person could respond to a prompt on the icebreaker card, which had prompts such as, “The most embarrassing moment in my life was ___________” … “One of my favorite vacations was _____” … “Something I’m praying about right now is ______,” and others. The first person at that first meeting started the conversation circle, choosing, “Something I’m praying about right now” and saying, “I’m praying for my daughter, who was just diagnosed with cancer.” There followed many minutes of fellow members showing concern for the woman, for her daughter, for her daughter’s husband and children, and actually engaging in prayer right there as a prayer circle.  The next person in the circle then also chose to share something heavy on her heart, something she was praying about, and the members listened to her hurt and ministered to her as well. For over two hours that evening, the members shared their needs, consoled one another, prayed for one another. They never did get to the planned agenda about the church’s financial situation, and that was okay. They did what was important. The other cottage meetings that occurred in the days and weeks after that first one all followed the same pattern. The gathered members all focused on the prompt about what was heavy on their hearts, what they were praying about, and they acted as missionaries of gospel to one another, encouraging each other.  Oh, and by the way, the church’s financial situation turned around too–because for the first time in a long time the members of the congregation began to realize the value of their ministry to one another and to others and, like Paul said, they began to excel also in that grace and in the generous undertaking of gifts to support needed ministry.  

In the midst of famine and hunger, in the midst of grief and abandonment, in the midst of sickness and death, in the midst of all this world’s problems and pains, Jesus is our hope. And as brothers and sisters to one another in Jesus, we become miracles of grace and hope to one another as well.

Brothers and sisters, may Christ be with you as you endure whatever hurts or sorrows are happening in your life today and whatever troubles you may face in days to come. And may you be with one another in Christ, supporting each other, praying for one another, reminding each other of the gospel hope we share. We know our Redeemer lives, and that he will be with us when we are on our deathbeds, and that at the end, he will stand upon our graves, and that even after our skin has been destroyed, we will yet see God, we will be raised by Christ to be with Christ forever. How our hearts yearn within us!  (Cf. Job 19:25-27.)  Amen.

—

Scripture quotations 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
19
Apr
2021

Raised up with Jesus

From fear to hope and newness of life

Bible readings for 3rd Sunday of Easter:  Acts 3:12-19,  1 John 3:1-7,  Luke 24:36-48

————

Are you afraid? A more precise question would be: What fears do you have? We all have fears to one degree or another. A lot of us have a lot of fears that dwell in our hearts and dominate our thinking. The past year of pandemic and political turmoil has pushed fears to the surface even more than before.

I’m afraid of COVID-19. People close to me have died due to that disease. So many people have died overall. I’m not a young man, and I have other risk factors. I’m grateful that I’ve been able to be vaccinated. But I fear we’re not out of the woods yet in dealing with the health threat of the pandemic. I also have other, underlying fears that keep bothering me.  I worry about job security. I wonder if I’ll have sufficient funds when I get older and am no longer working. I want to know that my kids all will have stability and happiness in their lives and careers–and so much about the future is uncertain. I fear for our country. I fear for our world. There seems no end of economic uncertainty, societal controversies, international pressures and tensions … and the planet itself seems to be groaning and convulsing with environmental problems along with all our human problems (cf. Romans 8:19-23).

There have been studies and surveys done about what fears are troubling people the most. One survey showed that 83% of Americans fear that the next generation will be worse off than we are today. 76% are afraid we are losing democracy in America. 58% fear climate change will cause harm in the area where they live. A survey in another country, conducted during the pandemic, found that the vast majority of young adults feared losing a relative. More than half expressed a general anxiety about the future. A third of young adults said they were seriously or very seriously afraid that the worst was going to happen, with almost all the rest saying they moderately or somewhat felt that way. Less than 10% said they never feared that the worst was going to happen.

Beyond fears about the external world, we have deeper fears too, that linger in our souls. We have fears caused by our sense of guilt and shame. We’ve heard the news that we are forgiven, but we struggle to believe that news. We can’t shake the feeling that our past sins will come back to haunt us–maybe even eternally. Maybe we still have our doubts about eternity itself–if there is really life after death. 

And when we do manage to hold onto faith, we waver in expressing our faith. We’re afraid that the people of this world and the powers in this world are set against us. We fear we’re not up to the challenge of living our beliefs openly in the community. We fear opposition. We fear ridicule. We fear being thought of as naïve or out of touch. We worry about our own inadequacies. We are immobilized by our uncertainties.

What does Jesus say to all our fears?  You know what he says: “Peace be with you” (Luke 24:36). “Don’t be afraid,” (Matthew 28:10). He said such words when he appeared to the women who found his tomb empty and to his disciples when he appeared to them inside a locked room. I’ve heard it said that the phrase, “Fear not” or “Don’t be afraid” occurs 365 times in the Bible, once for every day of the year. Actually, if you account for the various Bible translations and many different words that describe our fears (anxiety, worry, trepidation, alarm, dread), the Bible actually talks about fear far more than 365 times. It is a constant theme of God’s word to us. He is our God; his love is our strength. So the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, melts our fears and guards our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus (cf. Philippians 4:7).  That doesn’t mean our fears aren’t real. It doesn’t mean fears cease to exist and we live blissfully unaware of any threats or worries. There is plenty to make us afraid, day after day. But the presence of the living, breathing, miraculous Savior Jesus enables us to overcome fear.

Think of the disciples as they cowered in hiding and did not know what to do in the days after Christ’s crucifixion. They weren’t out in the streets protesting the brutality of the Roman guards who had beaten and killed Jesus. They feared the Romans, and they feared their own community members who had demanded that Jesus should die. They didn’t know what to think when friends of theirs came hurrying back to Jerusalem to tell them Jesus was alive and had been with them while they were on the road. And when Jesus appeared again right there among them, they thought they were seeing a ghost. Jesus had to ask them for a piece of fish and eat it in front of them to convince them he was real and they weren’t hallucinating (cf. Luke 24:36-43).

Now think also of those same disciples some weeks later, at the festival of Pentecost and in the days thereafter. Having seen the risen Christ and being strengthened by his Spirit, they became bold enough to stand up and speak out about Jesus and his resurrection. Peter, who had bragged that he would never fall or back down (cf. Matthew 26:33), had crumbled into curses and denials when Jesus was put on trial. But then Peter saw Jesus risen from death (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:5) and was assured by Jesus that he remained in Jesus’ love and still had a place as an apostle for Jesus (cf. John 21:15-19). A new boldness took over in Peter–not one from his own bravado or self-confidence. Now he lived and spoke as a new person, changed by the power of Jesus’ resurrection. And Peter offered to people who had participated in the killing of Jesus the same path of redemption and forgiveness that he had experienced himself.  Peter said to the people: “You handed over and rejected [Jesus] in the presence of Pilate, though he had decided to release him. … You rejected the Holy and Righteous One … and killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses. … And now, friends, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. … Repent therefore, and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out” (Acts 3:13-19). 

When Peter told his fellow Israelites, “You killed the Author of life,” he wasn’t preaching from some high and mighty perch, seeing himself as better than his hearers. He knew well his own shame and guilt. He wanted others–even those complicit in the death of Jesus–to know the rejuvenating power of Jesus’ life. Those who believe in Jesus are brought to new life by Jesus.

We are believers in Jesus’ resurrection. Our confidence that there is a heavenly future for us comes from knowing that whoever believes in Jesus will live, even though we die (cf. John 11:25-26). We stake our lives–our eternal lives–on that promise of Jesus.

I wonder how much, though, we realize the power of Christ’s resurrection in our lives already now. From the moment we first believed, we crossed over from death to life (cf. John 5:24). From the moment we became baptized members of God’s family, our lives changed. We are not just called children of God; that is who and what we truly are, as John reminded us (1 John 3:1). Another apostle, Paul, said this also:  “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him 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 6:3-4). 

So, sin and death are no longer the dominant forces in our lives. The life of Christ is the power that is at work within us. The resurrection of Christ empowers us, enlivens us. If we ponder that, what does it mean for our current lives? 

It means we stop seeing faith as if it is just knowledge, just a way of thinking. We come to understand that faith is a way of being. It is a life of faith that we lead, inspired and moved and guided by the Lord who went before us into death and came out alive again. Living by the power of Jesus’ resurrection means we are new creations (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:17). We don’t hang around in our old patterns of sin and shame and falling short. “No one who abides in Christ sins” (1 John 3:6). We strive now to do what is right, just as Jesus is righteous (cf. 1 John 3:7).

And if you think, “I’m not strong enough to do that, to be that person” … let me remind you that the “immeasurable greatness of God’s power,” the same power that God put “to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand” (Ephesians 1:19-21), is also the power that is now at work in you by faith.

So, what will it look like if our lives are empowered by Jesus’ resurrection? What will our character and conduct look like as witnesses for Jesus? Peter, who spoke the powerful words we heard earlier to his fellow people in Jerusalem, described well our life of witness in one of his letters to the church: “In your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and reverence. Keep your conscience clear, so that, when you are maligned, those who abuse you for your good conduct in Christ may be put to shame” (1 Peter 3:15-16). 

You don’t need to stand with a megaphone outside a busy coffee shop, haranguing about the evils in society and how all the coffee drinkers on the patio were causing the deaths of innocent souls. (I saw someone doing that on Saturday of Easter weekend, and he was not winning any converts for Christ by his methods.) Your witness for Christ comes from who you are in your daily life and how you speak with others in your daily life. When it is evident that you are warm and caring, that you are alive and eager, that you are full of hope and active in love, people will be drawn to you as a living witness for Christ, and you will have opportunities to speak with them of your faith in Christ.  As Jesus himself urged us, everyone will know that we are his disciples by our love (cf. John 13:35).

We have our fears–and plenty of them. Things that cause fear and alarm keep coming at us relentlessly.  Inevitably, in this world, we will have trouble. But we take courage in Jesus, who has overcome this world and its trouble (cf. John 16:33). We have life through Jesus and his power over death. Even when sick and ailing, even in the midst of fears and problems, even when facing death itself, we are alive through Jesus. That is our living hope (1 Peter 1:3), our constant way of being because of Jesus. And that will always be our strongest witness to the world–that we exude joy and hope and peace that rest in knowing Jesus.  We are “convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39, nor from the life that we have now and eternally with him.  

—–

Scripture quotations 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.

Image credit:  Newness of Life by listentothemountains on Flickr, Creative Commons License

Posted by David Sellnow
28
Mar
2021

Cheering on Sunday, Jeering by Friday

On what has become known as Palm Sunday, in the Holy Land two millennia ago, the great crowd that had come for the Passover festival “heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, shouting,’Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord–the King of Israel!’”  The religious leaders in the city said to one another, “Look, the world has gone after him!” (John 12:12-13,19).

Early in the morning on Friday of that same week, “all the chief priests and the elders of the people conferred together against Jesus in order to bring about his death.  They bound him, led him away, and handed him over to Pilate the governor. … Now at the festival, the governor was accustomed to release a prisoner for the crowd, anyone whom they wanted. At that time they had a notorious prisoner, called Jesus Barabbas. So after they had gathered, Pilate said to them, ‘Whom do you want me to release for you, Jesus Barabbas or Jesus who is called the Messiah?’ For he realized that it was out of jealousy that they had handed him over.  … The chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowds to ask for Barabbas and to have Jesus killed. The governor again said to them, ‘Which of the two do you want me to release for you?’ And they said, ‘Barabbas.’ Pilate said to them, ‘Then what should I do with Jesus who is called the Messiah?’ All of them said, ‘Let him be crucified!’” (Matthew 27:1-2,15-18,20-22).


More than a Fair-Weather Friend

by David Sellnow

When you look at the events of Holy Week, you quickly see that there were fair-weather friends of Jesus in Jerusalem. They had heard about Jesus’ miracles, including the amazing act of raising a man named Lazarus from death (cf. John 11). Lazarus and his sisters lived just outside Jerusalem in the town of Bethany, and they were dear friends of his. The people who cheered Jesus as he came from Bethany into Jerusalem wanted so badly to be Jesus’ friends. They were fans. To them, he was a pop hero. They would have made him their king if they could. They hoped he could fulfill all their dreams, rescue their country from the Romans, put bread on their tables, miraculously heal all their diseases, and more. But they discovered that Jesus did not intend to be the type of messiah they wished for. He would not make earthly life a paradise. Instead, he sat and talked during that week about the kingdom of heaven and the end of the world and the judgment of God and spiritual truth. Most people turned away from him and ultimately turned against him.  They fell in line with the religious establishment’s rejection of Jesus, and by week’s end were shouting, “Crucify him! Crucify him!”  They became so vehement in their anger against Jesus that they were willing to call down curses on themselves in demanding his death. “His blood be on us and on our children!” the people as a whole said to the governor who held Jesus’ fate in his hands (Matthew 27:25).

The Palm Sunday cheering crowd became a dramatic example of fair-weather friends of Jesus. They had looked to Jesus primarily for what they could get from him. When they weren’t satisfied, they wanted to get rid of him. 

There were other friends of Jesus who did not turn against him, but they did turn away from him for a time. Jesus’ closest friends, his inner circle of disciples, proved to be fair-weather friends when the storm of opposition hit. Judas, one of them, became an outright enemy and betrayer. The other eleven, in fear, ran away when Jesus was arrested. They struggled to follow and stand with Jesus in the way the proverb had described: “A friend loves at all times, and kinsfolk are born to share adversity” (Proverbs 17:17). 

Thinking of friends in adversity, there’s a caution to note in that regard too. People can fall into a pattern of being only foul-weather friends of Jesus too. What I mean is that sometimes a person calls out to Jesus in times of trouble and distress, and then forgets about him when the crisis is gone. Think, for instance, of the ten lepers whom Jesus met along the border between Samaria and Galilee. All ten of them cried out to him in their sickness, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” (Luke 17:13). And Jesus had mercy; he healed them of their disease. But only one came back to offer Jesus thanks. You might say the other nine were “foul-weather friends” of Jesus. When they had a problem, they prayed and prayed, but when the problem was gone, they went on about their business with Jesus out of sight and out of mind.

There are still fair-weather and foul-weather friends of Jesus today. Some neglect him or ignore him. Some turn on him. Some who are now Jesus’ most vocal enemies were once his believing friends. Why do persons turn away from God and become enemies of the gospel? Maybe their hearts become hard or their desires worldly. Maybe they didn’t get from God the answers they wanted and then stopped listening to his message.  

Have we ever been that way? Have we been fair-weather believers, trusting and following Jesus as long as things are good, then giving up and trying to go it on our own when difficulties arise? Or have we been foul-weather friends, coming to Jesus in desperation when we have deep needs in our lives, but losing connection with him when the need is satisfied? 

Though we often may fall into patterns of only fair-weather or only foul-weather friendship toward Jesus, the good news is that he is constant in his commitment and friendship toward us. He is a Savior for all seasons, whether the weather of our lives is fair or foul. When times are good, it is he who is blessing us. When times are frightening, he is the one who gives us hope and security. More than anyone else, Jesus epitomizes what a true friend is and does. “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends,” Jesus himself said (John 15:13), and then he did exactly that. 

Jesus also said to his friends, his disciples (and to us): “You are my friends if you do what I command you” (John 15:14). He calls us to be the kind of friends to one another and to all persons that he has been to us. 

Jesus’ commitment to humanity was so strong that he weathered all possible scorn and abuse and rejection by the very people he came to serve and save. He was abandoned by those closest to him and suffered a death of isolation under the judgment of heaven itself. He did all this to reclaim us as his friends, to redeem us from our fickle and faithless ways. He promises that even “if we are faithless, he remains faithful” (2 Timothy 2:13). 

God grant that the redeeming work Jesus carried out for us, which we remember during this Holy Week, move our hearts to a deep and lasting relationship with him as our Lord and dearest friend — not just in fair weather or foul, but every day in every way.

—–

Scripture quotations 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
Feb
2021

God so loved the world

Valentines’ Day focuses attention on love. Traditions say that a priest named Valentine stood up for love and marriage at a time when Rome’s emperor had banned weddings, insisting men be devoted only to their military duty (History.com). Love binds us to each other.

The love we share with one another, of course, is a reflection of God’s love, “for God is love” (1 John 4:8). On this day to celebrate love, let’s look at what may be the most well-known statement about God’s love, John 3:16.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” 

Let’s ponder that passage a word or two at a time.

God – the Author of life (Acts 3:15), the originator of love.  It was he who created us; it is he who sustains us. As human beings, we reach for all sorts of gods, things to believe in. We make ourselves into gods, thinking we have within us all that we need. But ultimately God is who he is, the one self-sufficient Being and source of all existence. “In him we live and move and have our being,” as Paul pointed out to an Athenian audience from their own poetry about the highest deity (Acts 17:28). The true, eternal God is not some inanimate force floating about in the universe. He is our Father who has deeply personal connections to us and concerns for us.

God loved.  Love that comes from God is not merely a sentimental feeling. When we speak of love, our feelings can be short-lived, shallow, even selfish. When God speaks of love, he tells of something pure, profound, and lasting. God’s love is not swayed by our appearance or actions. God is committed to caring for us despite how we appear and how we behave. 

God loved the world.  Every person, every individual, rich or poor, young or old, thin or fat, wise or simple, high or low–God loves all. God doesn’t limit his love to those who look good by human standards–or by divine standards. Thank God he doesn’t, since all of us have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). We are full of wrongdoing and God knows it. Yet God has loved us and has given his love to us all.

God so loved the world–so much, so greatly, so amazingly, that he gave.  We tend to think of relationships as give and take. If I’m going to give to you, I expect also to receive something in exchange. But God simply gave. No strings, no conditions, no ulterior motives. He just gave. He gave lovingly of himself, ever so painfully of himself, not for his own gain but for ours. He needed nothing; he already is and has all things. We needed everything, and God gave. He gave so that we might share in what he has.

And consider the magnitude of God’s gift. 

God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son.  God did not send a servant to do his bidding. He did not send an angel or even an archangel. He sent his Son–the One and Only, the Only-Begotten, the divine Son who is eternal with Father and Spirit. God gave of himself, a gift of unfathomable love. God the Only Son took on human flesh. He lived in our place and died in our place. God “did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us” (Romans 8:32). The incarnate God in Christ “emptied himself …. He humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death–even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:7,8).  This was the awe-inspiring extent to which God gave.

And now, everyone who believes in him receives this greatest of all gifts. Again, the gift is for everyone, a benefit available to the whole world. The benefit is received by believing, not by doing, not by some act or decision or sacrifice of our own. The gift is ours simply by receiving faith from God, a faith he instills in us, bringing us to believe in what he has done. We are saved by the gift of God’s grace, through faith which is not our own doing–it too is the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8). From start to finish, God has embraced us by his love.

Thank God for his love–love that means we will not perish but have eternal life.  Thanks to God’s love, we will not end up separated and isolated. We will not languish in loneliness and shame. We are not lost to hopelessness and futility forever.  Thanks to God’s love, we have a living, vibrant, endless relationship with God as our Father and Christ as our Brother. We are encouraged daily by God’s Spirit.  May we “abide in his love” so that our “joy may be complete” (John 15:10,11).

Scripture quotations 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
21
Dec
2020

Spirits of Christmas past

The Electric Gospel got its start back in the 1990s as email devotions sent to parishioners and others on a church’s email list. Then for a while, it morphed into mailings for college students around the country (when I was serving on a national campus ministry board). Several years ago, The Electric Gospel was revived in blog form, providing a place to publish writings by students in religion courses I was teaching. Now (as noted on the “About Us” page of this site), the current Electric Gospel aims to carry these devotional efforts forward to as wide an audience as possible.

For this Christmas week, I thought I’d share a couple devotional pieces that were posted on the archival Electric Gospel blog five Christmases ago (in 2015). They were written by two wonderful young women I had the privilege of working with during my years teaching college undergraduates (like Eunseo) and working with Christian teachers (like Amanda).

Have a blessed Christmas.

– David Sellnow


Four Names for the Messiah 

by Eunseo Yang

For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6).
———-

Names have meaning. In Korean, ‘eun’ means grace and ‘seo’ means words, so my name (Eunseo) could mean “words of grace.”  In my language, 군사부일체 means king, teacher and father are one (like trinity).  It emphasizes the authority of such persons in society and that father, teacher and king offer the same merciful grace.

In Isaiah’s prophecy, although the Messiah is given four names, he is only one.

He is our Wonderful Counselor.  He himself is a wonder, and he solves for us things we cannot solve or explain.  He counsels us through troubles, overcoming them by his strength.  He guides us with his wisdom.

Since we are weak, we cannot stand against troubles on our own.  But Mighty God supports us. There is nothing he cannot do. He does miracles that are impossible to be explained by human science or power.

The Messiah is also called Everlasting Father.  What does that mean in reference to Jesus, God the Son?  The term “father” is being used like the Korean term I mentioned.  He is father in the sense of king and leader over us.  And his leadership never ends.  Jesus lives forever and leads us to life in heaven.  Jesus is with us always, in life and in death.

And this same Jesus is the Prince of Peace.  “He will reign … with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever” (Isaiah 9:7).  Imagine no wars, no strife, no disasters. With Jesus’ kingdom, it’s not imaginary. His government is real. When Jesus rules our hearts, peace comes to us.

Jesus has many names – and every name is true. He is love itself, King of kings, our Savior. Through him we have victory against evil.

———-

Jesus, you are everything to us.  Keep our faith focused on you always, trusting your wisdom, your power, and your leadership.  Bring peace to our hearts.  Amen.


A Prophet Like Moses Will Come

by Amanda Becker

The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you shall heed such a prophet (Deuteronomy 18:15).
———-

It happened again, as it had happened many times before.   I had given my students directions for an important assignment.  Immediately a hand went up and a student asked the dreaded question: “So what do we have to do?”

My immediate thought was, “Didn’t I just explain this thirty seconds ago?”

Have you experienced this with your own children, family, friends, or coworkers? Have you ever found yourself asking the words: “Are you even listening to me?”

Can you imagine how Moses felt every time the Israelites didn’t listen to him and God’s commands? How many times did he have to tell them to stop worshiping false idols, stop complaining, stop mistrusting the Lord? Can’t they just follow directions?

How many times have we been like the Israelites, not listening to the Lord? How many times aren’t we like children, asking, “So, what do we have to do?” when God has already told us? But instead of turning away from us in frustration, God sent us a teacher whose word we needed most of all. He sent a prophet like Moses but better than Moses – his very own Son, Jesus. We listen to Jesus because our very souls and eternal life are at stake. The ultimate Prophet, Jesus, tells us, “Anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and does not come under judgment, but has passed from death to life” (John 5:24).

Are you listening to Jesus?

———-

Dear Lord, forgive me when I fail to listen to your commands. I never have to demand to be heard by you, for you always listen to my heart.  You are a God of love and forgiveness. Please help me to be a more loving listener to you and to the people in my life, and forgive me when I stumble. Amen.

Scripture quotations 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
01
Dec
2020

Live in faith, not fear, as you wait for Jesus

A message for Advent

Based on readings from the first Sunday of Advent:

  • Isaiah 64:1-9
  • 1 Corinthians 1:3-9
  • Mark 13:24-37


Live in faith, not fear, as you wait for Jesus

This holiday season is difficult for families. Families want to be together, and the present times are keeping many families at a distance from each other. If you are a parent, you love your children. You want them to be with you. You long to be at home together with your children.  You love them dearly, with a love that doesn’t diminish over time or depend on the things your children have done or haven’t done. 

Parents, have you ever had a time when you went on a brief outing and left your children at home alone on their own? The children were at that age when they’re old enough to be left on their own … but also maybe not mature enough to always make the best choices. So you came home, and the children had made a mess or gotten into things they shouldn’t have. Or they had responsibilities or chores they were supposed to do, but they’d neglected those duties and played games instead. When you arrived home in such a situation, did you disown your children? Did you banish them from your household? I imagine you did not. You still loved them just as much.  Their place as your children isn’t contingent on each instance of their behavior. You may have hoped to find everything in perfect order when you arrived home, but even with all their imperfections, your children are still your children. You’ll love them forever; you’ll like them for always. As long as you’re living, your babies they will be.*

Keep in mind an example like that when you think about Jesus coming back to us at the end of time.  In this season of the year, we generally think of preparing to celebrate Christ’s first coming into our world, when he was born at Bethlehem. But the Advent season also reminds us that Christ will be returning to this world at the end of time. The Bible readings for the first Sunday in Advent focused on that. I urge you to focus on the common theme in those readings. We acknowledge that we are not perfect children of God.  In fact, as Isaiah’s prophecy noted, “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy cloth” (Isaiah 64:6). But Isaiah also prayed (as we do), saying, “Yet, O Lord, you are our Father … we are all the work of your hand … we are all your people” (Isaiah 64:8,9).  We may not always be faithful, but “God is faithful” (1 Corinthians 1:9). And he is the one who will strengthen us to the end, so that we “may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 1:8)–we can’t do that by ourselves. When the day of our Lord Jesus Christ comes, he will be coming to “gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven” (Mark 13:27).  That’s the gospel message about Jesus coming back at the end of days. Jesus is coming back to us as his people. We are the children of God, and he is coming to take us home for eternity.

Sometimes Christian people lose sight of that hopeful gospel message and are afraid when they think about Jesus coming back. I once asked a group of students in a church class to write down their instinctive answer to this question:  “When you think about Judgment Day, what do you think?” Some of the responses were these:

  • Fear of standing before God, answering for everything I have done.
  • It scares me if I think about it too much.
  • How am I going to face the Judgment Day?
  • I’m scared. I hope it goes quickly.

I once heard a preacher in a religious service pressure his hearers, warning sternly against being caught in the midst of a sin when Jesus returns. Many of his hearers went away from that service feeling frightened about their standing with Jesus, not comforted. My own impression was, “When could Jesus come back and not find us in the midst of sin?” We are always struggling with sin in our lives. We do things we shouldn’t do. We omit doing the things we should do (cf. Romans 7:23-25).  We have sinful natures embedded in us (cf. Romans 7:14-20). But Jesus is the one who has rescued us from our sinfulness and gave us his righteousness (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:21). The one who is coming as the judge at the end of time is the same one who came into our world as Savior when “the fullness of time had come” for him to be “born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children” (Galatians 4:4-5). He’s not coming so he can say, “Gotcha!” if he catches us in some indiscretion, or if we happen to be taking a nap when he makes his appearance, rather than being busy helping a neighbor at that specific moment.

So don’t misunderstand the point of Jesus’ story about the man going on a journey who tells his servants to be sure they’re awake when he comes back (Matthew 13:32-37).  What does it mean to be “awake”?   Yes, we want to be alert. Yes, we want to be attending to what’s important in our daily lives as Christian people. But that’s a positive attitude, not one of fear. We are not constantly worrying, “Am I doing the right thing? Am I doing this right? Am I doing that right? Am I doing enough? Am I living my life perfectly enough for when Jesus comes back?” 

The Gospel reading two weeks ago pictured someone who misunderstood the master’s instructions in a fear-filled way. Jesus spoke of a man who had received a talent (an amount of money) from his master. Rather than investing it or using it, he hid it in the ground, afraid that his master was a hard man who would punish him if he did anything wrong or failed to earn a profit (cf. Matthew 25:14-30). Living in fear of our master is not the way Jesus wants us to live.  Jesus said that he came to set us free (cf. John 8:36). He said that he came that we might “have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10). He does not want fears about what we are supposed to be doing or fears about his return paralyzing us. He wants us living freely by his Spirit.

One way I’ve pictured it is this:  Let’s say you’re trying to play a game of basketball. You’re in the game, and all you’re thinking about is whether you’re doing everything correctly–from the rules of the game to every detail of your performance. You’re thinking, “Am I staying in bounds? Am I careful not to double-dribble? Do I have my hands holding the ball in the right way? Do I have proper form when shooting? Do I keep my elbow tucked in? Do I release the ball smoothly at the top of my shot? Did I follow through sufficiently?” You’re fixated on every little detail and fine point, and your focus is on yourself.  Will you be much of a basketball player like that in a game situation? Probably not. The details are something you study, things you work on in a practice session. But in the game, a basketball player simply plays. You keep your focus on what’s happening on the court around you and you keep your eyes on the goal. You’re looking at the rim as you aim to make a basket, not analyzing if your hands are in precisely the right position on the ball.

So it is with our Christian life. We gather in church (or connect online) to study, to practice, to get ingrained into our mindset the truths of Christ and the way of life in Christ. But when we’re out there in our daily lives–“in the game,” so to speak–we simply run and do and live.  We live in freedom as Christians. If we were standing apart from the ways of God or at odds with the ways of God then, yes, we’d have reason to fear the day he comes back to judge the earth. But we are standing with Christ; we are in Christ. We are God’s children. So we can live each day with confidence and hope, freely going about our activities as members of God’s family. That’s what it means to be “awake.” It means to live with faith always awake in our hearts–the faith, hope and love that God has awakened within us.  We live with the constant assurance that our Savior is always with us, because he promised to be with us “to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). And we live in expectant anticipation of his return to take us home. Remember how Jesus told us to think about signs that the end of this world is drawing near. He said, “When these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near” (Luke 21:28). 

We are like children who are managing on our own while a parent is away, and when he comes back, we will still be his children even if we have made mistakes. We certainly want to live in such a way that pleases God, who is our Father through Jesus Christ. But the way to do that is not through anxiety over rules to be obeyed moment by moment. We live in freedom as Christians. As people who have been awakened by God’s Spirit, we simply live our lives by that same Spirit. When Christ, our Savior, arrives, he will see the faith which is in our hearts, not just whatever actions are occurring at that moment.

The apostle Paul described our outlook on life in words he originally wrote to Christians in the city of Philippi.  His words are an encouragement for all of us to take the same view as we wait for Christ to come to earth once again:

  • Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. …  I do not consider that I have made it my own, but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us then who are mature be of the same mind; and if you think differently about anything, this too God will reveal to you. Only let us hold fast to what we have attained.   Brothers and sisters, join in imitating me, and observe those who live according to the example you have in us. … Our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. … Therefore, my brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way (Philippians 3:12-4:1).

May we so stand firm, and anticipate with joy (not fear) the coming of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

 

* Reference to book Love You Forever by Robert Munsch

Scripture quotations 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
Nov
2020

The King who Inscribes his Character on Us

A message for Christ the King Sunday

  • Our King does not dominate or dictate
  • Our King invigorates us to be like him


There are a number of churches around the world named “Christ the King.” The Cathedral of Christ the King in Mullingar, Ireland, is reportedly the first church given that name. The Cathedral of Christ the King in Atlanta is one of the ten largest congregations in the United States. Those are just a couple of the big Christ the King churches. There are numerous smaller congregations too. 

I don’t know of any churches named “Christ the Tyrant” or “Christ the Despot” or “Christ the Dictator.” I Google-searched for such names, but couldn’t find any. I did find an opinion piece arguing that Christians tend to view their Lord that way–as a benevolent dictator. But if there are people of faith who take that view, they’re mistaken. Christ the King is certainly not like some military strongman or arbitrary emperor, nor even like a benevolent dictator.  Christ is not someone who looks upon us as weak subjects who do his bidding simply to suit his whims. Christ did not become our king by standing above us, pointing out what we must do from moment to moment. Christ became our king by standing with us, among us, leading us in a path we could not have followed without his leadership. Jesus said to those who followed him, “I am among you as one who serves” (Luke 22:27). On the night he said that, Jesus proved his point by getting down on the floor and washing his disciples’ feet (cf. John 13).

Quite clearly, Jesus is the opposite of a tyrant.  He won our allegiance by going into battle against tyrants and overlords for us. The tyrant was sin. The tyrant was the devil who accuses and all the demons that torment us. Those are the sorts of rulers that dictate and demand, that control us by fear and guilt. Christ is not like that.

Jesus is also much different from even the most benevolent dictator. Such a ruler believes that he must decide all things for the people underneath him because they are underlings and he is so much above them. Now, it is true that Christ, our King, certainly does know what is best for us.  Christ is “the wisdom of God” (1 Corinthians 1:24).  As high as the heavens are above the earth, so far are his thoughts higher than our thoughts (cf. Isaiah 55:9). But the fact that Christ is superior to us in all things does not mean he deals with us as inferiors. Rather, he comes alongside us and shares his life and strength with us. He invigorates us with his words, his Spirit, so that we become alive in him. We become more and more like him as we grow in our relationship with him.

I have known God-fearing people who haven’t understood this, who haven’t grasped how Christ is seeking to lead them. They trouble themselves over every detail of their lives, searching desperately for some sort of sign from God. “What is God’s will?” they’ll say; “What does God want me to do?” I knew a woman who struggled over the smallest decisions like that. She begged to know what actions God wanted her to take, almost hoping a daily to-do list would appear like handwriting on the wall, so she’d know she wasn’t making any mistakes. In her anxiousness, she once put two pens side by side on the table and asked, “Now, which pen does God want me to use? The blue one or the black one?” That’s going too far in expecting God to direct our lives. Yes, Christ is our leader by night and by day. But Jesus leads us not as though we are blindfolded and he must guide our feet for every step we take. He instills his character and his way of life in us, so that we make our own decisions as the new persons that we are in Christ (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:17).  It’s an outmoded way, a childish way, to want God to dictate every direction to us, to tell us exactly what to do in every instant. It’s a new way of life, as we become mature in Christ, that we  make our own decisions and take actions that flow from the mind of Christ which is in us (cf. 1 Corinthians 2:16). 

Consider the Epistle assigned for this weekend for the festival of Christ the King.  The prayer for the Christians at Ephesus remains an apostlic prayer for us today.  Notice the emphasis on how the power of Christ works in us and inspires us as he extends his kingdom into our hearts.

  • I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you … and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power. God put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion ….  And he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all (Ephesians 1:17-23). 

Christ as king is head over all things for us. That’s not an image of some giant head floating in the air like the Great and Powerful Oz. There’s no false pretense of power with Christ our King. He rules in a way far better than the way any authority in this world operates.  Even while Christ is seated high above in the heavenly places, he is at the same time intimately connected to us, like the head to members of the body. His thoughts pulse through us and we operate in unity with him. We are his feet to run out into the world, his hands to extend help and care to persons in his name, to put into practice his love.

Consider also the description of what Christ will find when he returns at the end of time, when he “comes in his glory, and all the angels with him” and “all the nations will be gathered before him” (Matthew 25:31-42).  Who are the people he calls his own, who truly have known him? 

  • The king will say to those at his right hand, “Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me” (Matthew 25:34-36).

When Christ says this to his people, what is their reaction?  “When did we do that?” They wonder what he’s talking about. Christ’s people do such actions on behalf of “the least of these” fellow members of the human family not because they’re keeping score of their good deeds, not because they’re trying to impress God by their actions. They do such things just because that’s who they are, because the spirit of Christ inhabits them and propels them into action.  The people of Christ’s kingdom serve everyone they encounter without thinking, “This is something I must do because the king has issued an executive order.” Yes, the kingdom of Christ has laws, but those laws are designed by our Lord for our good and the good of our neighbors. As we grow in our understanding and relationship with our King, we embody more and more the spirit and compassion and action that he has for all who are in need. We become Christ to our neighbors.

Martin Luther famously wrote on that theme–that we become like “little Christs.” In his booklet On the Freedom of a Christian (1520), Luther wrote:

  • Since God has overwhelmed me with such inestimable riches, why should I not freely, cheerfully, and with my whole heart do all that I know will be pleasing to him? I will therefore give myself, as a sort of Christ, to my neighbor, as Christ has given himself to me. I will do whatever is advantageous and wholesome for my neighbor, since by faith I abound in all good things in Christ. … We each become a sort of Christ to each other, so that we may be mutually Christs, and that the same Christ may be in all of us; that is, that we may be truly Christians.

Our life as Christ’s people, in his service, is not like serving an earthly ruler who dominates and bullies to get his way, and whose subjects survive by trying to ingratiate themselves with the ruler. We serve as people whose character has been transformed by the grace and goodness of our king. We become his allies in extending the life of his kingdom into a world that has not understood him and operates by principles so often opposite to his.

Which leads to one final point that must be mentioned.  We need to take notice of the other sort of approach that predominates in this world. It is an approach not only by the rich and powerful, who lord it over others in positions of power and authority. It’s also an approach adopted by people in general toward authority — including God’s authority.  It may work with the powers that be in this world, but it doesn’t work with God. In the Gospel reading for today, did you notice how those who are on the wrong side of Christ respond when Christ says they did not do the things that people of his kingdom do?  They say, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you” (Matthew 25:44)?  And he will answer them, “Just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me” (Matthew 25:45).  They thought they had done good things.They thought of themselves as good people. They expected God should be pleased with them, because they had minded their own business and stayed out of trouble. They may even think they had done great undertakings for the King, that they would have an elevated position in his kingdom because of high-powered things that they did. Jesus described such persons in his Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 7:21-23):

  • Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. On that day many will say to me, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many deeds of power in your name?” Then I will declare to them, “I never knew you; go away from me, you evildoers.”

Too often people have the wrong idea, thinking Jesus owes it to everybody to be nice to them.  And they also think that if they go out of their way to do things they think God wants, that then they are entitled to extra rewards, sort of like people may think their donations or efforts on behalf of some political leader entitle them to perks and privileges in that person’s administration. But Christ our King doesn’t operate by those principles. Christ calls his people to follow him, not worldly “philosophy and empty deceit” or “human tradition” (Colossians 2:9). We are called to follow the truth according to Christ, whose kingdom is not of this world (cf. John 18:36). So let’s not be confused. Let’s not slip back into worldly thinking, into tallying up our good deeds as though keeping a scoresheet will impress Christ the King, or boasting about where we think we stand with God or how right or righteous we are. Being servants of Christ’s kingdom means setting ourselves aside and simply serving others. Christ established his kingdom by laying down his life for those whom he loved and came to serve. As servants of Christ the King, we carry on in his kingdom and extend his kingdom in the same way. We deny ourselves. We take up whatever crosses we may be asked to carry, and we do all we can to help others carry their crosses too (cf. Luke 29:23-25).  As the word of our King tells us, “Bear one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ (Galatians 6:2). That’s how we serve–and whom we serve–as the people of Christ the King. 

Posted by David Sellnow
05
Oct
2020

When you realize everything you were was wrong

Becoming aware that mercy triumphs over judgment

by David Sellnow

The evangelist Luke, chronicler of the Acts of the Apostles, was a writer who sought to give “an orderly account” of events (cf. Luke 1:3).  Luke’s reporting concerning the conversion of Saul (also known as Paul) sticks to the facts of what happened. Saul had been “breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord” (Acts 9:1).  He sought permission from the highest religious authorities to go to Syria to round up followers of “the Way” — believers in Jesus as the Christ. Saul wanted to take them into custody and bring them back to Jerusalem as religious criminals.  The Lord had other plans. He blinded Saul with light from heaven and said, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”  Those traveling with Saul “led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. For three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank” (Acts 9:8-9). In Damascus, Saul was brought into the Christian community and baptized, and “began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, saying, ‘He is the Son of God’” (Acts 9:20).

Today, we’re used to journalists asking, “How did you feel?” when they interview persons after some life-changing experience.  Luke didn’t pause to provide insights into Saul’s emotional state. We can well imagine the shock of it, though — suddenly becoming aware that everything he thought and everything he’d done had been aimed in the wrong direction. He had felt he was serving God by the rigid religious principles he pursued. But his insistence on his own rightness had prevented him from seeing what a merciful God really had in mind. In the encounter on the Damascus road, Jesus had said to Saul, “It hurts you to kick against the goads” (Acts 26:14). Like a work animal kicking back against a master prodding it forward, Saul was resisting the message of grace that God was calling him and all people to believe. Rather than striving to squelch and suppress those who had come to see Jesus as Christ, the Messiah, Saul should have been joining “the Way” and working with them.  And by God’s grace, that’s exactly what he then did.  As the Apostle Paul, he later expressed his amazement that even though he had been “a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a man of violence,” yet he received mercy because he “had acted ignorantly in unbelief.” He was awed by the grace of God that overflowed to him “with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 1:13). 

The Epistle lesson for this Sunday (the 18th Sunday after Pentecost) provides another window into how Paul felt about his conversion from self-righteous Pharisee to someone trusting in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Paul wrote:

  • If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.
  • Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith (Philippians 3:4b-9).


In the church today, the tendency easily resurfaces to become adamant against “sinners” and “heretics,” the way Paul was prior to his face-to-face encounter with Jesus. Being convinced of one’s rightness and propriety can lead to overzealous efforts to keep the church “pure,” purged of those who aren’t the “right sort” of persons. When that thinking sets in, the fact that no one is the “right sort” of person has been forgotten. The truth is that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23), and all are to be extended the mercy in Jesus’ name without distinctions or prejudices. The purpose of the church is not to police people’s opinions and condemn those who don’t comply with existing traditions. In fact, the Lord is unhappy with those who try to impose their own expectations and restrictions on others. “For judgment will be without mercy to anyone who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment” (James 2:13).  Love and mercy and welcome are to be shown to “a poor person in dirty clothes” who comes into a church assembly no differently than if a rich person “with gold rings and fine clothes” walked through the door (James 2:2).  God is defined by love and mercy toward all persons more so than by laws and policies and dress codes and rules. 

If you catch yourself thinking that your religious convictions are elevated above others, or that there are certain types of persons you don’t want in your church with you, be careful. You may be kicking against the Lord, insisting on maintaining a form of spiritual inertia rather than moving forward in mercy where the Lord calls you to go. What you have thought may need to be discarded as rubbish, compared to “the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus as Lord”  (Philippians 3:8), and the compelling mission of extending mercy to all others in his name. 

—-

Scripture quotations 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