redemption

03
Apr
2023

Ponderings for Palm Sunday

We Serve the One who Served Us

Do you ever feel like if people really knew you, they’d see you aren’t as good or capable as you appear to be? Psychologists call this “impostor phenomenon.”  Some call it impostor syndrome, but that makes it sound like a pathology that applies to just a few, when actually this is a widespread tendency across the human experience. Even the most highly accomplished people can feel like they aren’t good enough. Maya Angelou, the award-winning author and poet, once said, “I have written eleven books, but each time I think, ‘Uh-oh, they’re going to find out now. I’ve run a game on everybody, and they’re going to find me out.’” The impostor phenomenon names the gap that persists between what we know is inside ourselves—multiple, contradictory, incoherent feelings, swirls of shame and regret and competing desires—and how we try to present a more composed, consistent version of ourselves to the world. As one of the original researchers of the phenomenon has described it, impostor feelings come from a conviction that “I have to mask who I am.” (See “Why Everyone Feels Like They’re Faking It,” by Leslie Jamison, The New Yorker, 2/6/2023.)

Beyond the psychological dimension of feeling inadequate about who we are, there’s also a spiritual dimension. In our souls, we are aware of our inferiority. It’s not because we are inferior to each other. We all are equal. But we know deep down that we fail to measure up to the standards of what we should be. In biblical terms, “there is no distinction, since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:22,23). Inwardly, we all know that truth about ourselves … but often we are not ready to admit it. We try to mask it. We try to prop ourselves up superficially with self-image and ego, and we minimize our failures. We seek to assert ourselves, our position, and our own opinions as having high importance. In reality, we are all insignificant individuals in the sea of humanity—except for the importance and value given to each of us by a gracious God.

God is important. He is supreme, sacred, superior. Jesus Christ is as perfect as perfect can be. There is no inferiority in him. And yet he was willing to step down and lower himself, to become one with us in our struggling, imperfect world. He did so to lift us up so we can be all that we are meant to be in him. As a result, we can stop hiding behind masks and feeling like we can’t ever measure up. Through Jesus coming down to our level to redeem us and make us his own, we can be confident about ourselves and who we are, because we are God’s people. And we will serve one another and others in the same way Jesus served us.

Let’s consider Christ’s humility and the honor and worship now due to him because of what he did. Ponder these words about our King from Philippians 2:11, quoting from Eugene Peterson’s The Message translation:

  • Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn’t claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion.
  • Because of that obedience, God lifted him high and honored him far beyond anyone or anything, ever, so that all created beings in heaven and on earth—even those long ago dead and buried—will bow in worship before this Jesus Christ, and call out in praise that he is the Master of all, to the glorious honor of God the Father.

Martin Luther, in a sermon for Palm Sunday concerning this Philippians scripture, commented on the description of Christ as God becoming human:  

  • Unquestionably, Paul proclaims Christ true God. Had he been mere man, what would have been the occasion for saying that he became like a man, and was found in the fashion of other men, and that he assumed the form of a servant, though he was in form divine? Where would be the sense in my saying to you, “You are like a human being, are made in the fashion of a human being”? You would think I was mocking you, and might appropriately reply: “I am glad you regard me as a human being, I was wondering if I were an ox or a wolf. Are you crazy?”  (Sermons of Martin Luther, volume VIII, page 176)

Jesus’ original identity is not as a man, but as God. He has existed from eternity. In the beginning he was with God and he was God and he is by nature God (cf. John 1:1).  Even in his incarnation, becoming human, Jesus’ divine nature and form remained clear to see. He was flawless and perfect in every action. He taught the teachers, even when he was a boy. He did miracles of power and amazement that only God can do. He preached messages of authority that set him apart from all other rabbis and teachers. Even as a human being, Jesus still displayed the attributes of God. Who he was was obvious from how he was: absolutely powerful and wise and sinless. He is God.

And yet Jesus did not consider this equality with God something he had to cling to or exploit, but made himself nothing to serve us, in our humanity. Though all glory and power was naturally his, Jesus emptied himself of it. In that final week leading up to his death, Jesus set aside his powers as God. Never did he appear more human:

  • He would be arrested. How do human beings arrest God and take him into custody? 
  • He would be put on trial. How can corrupt human justice accuse the one who is the judge of the universe?
  • He would be beaten and whipped, pummeled and punched, spit on and mocked. How can God be a victim of abuse?
  • He would be nailed and hanged, crucified, dead, and buried. How can God die?

God, in Jesus could do all these things, because he emptied himself of his divine rights, did not use his divine powers, and let himself stand in for us humans in fully human helplessness. He became obedient to the Father’s will, suffering for our sins. He became obedient even to the point of a most horrible death. That is how low and how humble Jesus made himself in his work of redeeming us.  Again, as Luther described:

  • He accepted the most ignominious death, the death on the cross, dying not as a man, but as a worm; yes, as an arch-villain, a scoundrel above all scoundrels … Losing even what favor, recognition, and honor were due to the assumed servant form in which he had revealed himself, and he perished altogether. (Sermons of Martin Luther, volume VIII, page 178).

Jesus died a death reserved for only the worst in the world, when, indeed, he is the best and purest of any who ever walked this earth.

Already the way Jesus entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday showed his intent to divest himself of his regal, divine privilege. A mighty king or ruler would have ridden in on a mighty steed, an impressive horse of proud bearing and gait. Jesus comes in on a donkey – on a colt, the foal of a donkey. In modern terms, whereas great leaders parade into town in limousines with police escorts and traffic-halting motorcades, Jesus would be coming in on his own, on a bicycle – on a bike with training wheels, the baby of a bicycle. Palm Sunday was a humble entrance to what would be an even more humbling week, as Jesus very literally made himself nothing, to save us nothings and make us something.

And because Jesus did this, we worship him. God has exalted him. The Father has restored him, and Jesus sits at his right hand, in all authority and glory. We bow to Christ in love and trust and admiration, in service and praise. We serve the one who served us. He gave us an identity in him and with him, allowing us to live without putting on a mask to hide who we are.

How do we go about serving and praising Jesus as our Lord? The initial verse of Paul’s psalm of praise in Philippians tells us where we fit in: “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5). “Think the same way that Christ Jesus thought” (CEV). The way that Jesus humbled himself is to be a pattern for us as we live for him.

So, how humble are we? How selfless and self-sacrificing are we willing to be? How readily do we take on ourselves the form of a servant? Or do we imagine ourselves instead as masters of our own destiny, lords of our own castles, owners of our own bodies, in charge of our own possessions?

As disciples of Jesus Christ, we will not be about pushing ourselves forward. Rather, we will be about serving one another in service to God. We are God’s servants, indebted to him out of love for how he was treated so shamefully for us. We are not merely to be waiting for God to wait on us, like we’re restaurant patrons and church is where God serves up our spiritual Sunday dinner. Certainly he does serve us. That’s why we call the worship hour “the divine service.” God serves us in our souls with his word and sacraments. But if we attend church only to be served by him, to take from him, we are only considering half of the story. Then who is the Lord and who is the servant? Do we treat God sometimes like some sort of waiter or busboy, and we are the very important persons who expect him to be at our beck and call whenever we want something?

My friends, we are not lords and masters, we belong to the Lord, our Master. We remember how the Lord, our Master, lowered himself to come and serve us.  Our attitude shall be the same as that of Christ Jesus. He, the God of all creation, gave up his position of power and glory to come and serve us—even to the point of pain and shame and dying for us, to forgive us of all our selfishness. Surely, now in return, we can give up ourselves and our selfish interests and become servants to him, and serve our neighbors as he served us all. We will devote heart and mind, body and soul, money and materials, energy and efforts, and our very lives to God and to his glory, at home and in our congregations and in our communities. May God by his grace and by his Spirit make that happen among us. “Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!” (Matthew 21:9)  Let us confess and live daily the truth “that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:11), and to the benefit of our fellow, redeemed human beings.  

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For a previous Palm Sunday blog post, see:
“Cheering on Sunday, Jeering by Friday”

 

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

 

Posted by David Sellnow
20
Mar
2023

Jesus overcame temptation for us

During the season of Lent and in Holy Week, we ponder all that Jesus suffered in carrying out our salvation. There’s another emphasis to remember too. Not only was Jesus taking our curse away by his sufferings and death for us. He also had supplied a life of righteousness for us, as part of his role as our Redeemer.

This devotion focuses on Jesus’ active obedience to all that God has commanded of us.

The Lord is our Righteousness

“Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil” (Matthew 4:1).

See full account:  Matthew 4:1-11

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COL; (c) City of London Corporation; Supplied by The Public Catalogue Foundation

I remember a teachers’ guide that our congregation’s Sunday School teachers had in the 1990s. This was around the same time that WWJD—”What would Jesus do?”—was becoming a popular phrase.  For the lesson on Jesus dealing with the devil in the wilderness, the guidebook focused entirely on how Jesus taught us to say no to temptations. Is that really the main lesson of what Jesus was doing when he was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil?  If the main thing about Jesus is what example he set for us, would he have needed to come into our world? 

Certainly, our struggles with temptation are a concern. We regularly pray, “Lead us not into temptation,” asking God to show us pathways away from sin. At the same time, though, we also pray, “Deliver us from evil.” You may have memorized an explanation of what that means: “We pray in this petition, in summary, that our Father in heaven would rescue us from every evil of body and soul, possessions and reputation, and finally, when our last hour comes, give us a blessed end, and graciously take us from this valley of sorrow to himself in heaven” (Martin Luther, Small Catechism). It’s not just this temptation today and that temptation tomorrow that concern us. Most of all, we pray for deliverance from temptations’ result—from evil, from the Evil One, and from the death and despair the devil wants to pull us down into. When Jesus went into the desert to meet the devil head-on, he wasn’t merely teaching us strategies to stay safe against temptation. Christ’s ultimate purpose was to rescue us from sin and the devil by overcoming those deadly forces for us, on our behalf. Jesus is not just our help in temptation, he is our salvation. Jesus battled the devil and his temptations as part of his work of redemption. He was doing for us what we could not do on our own. He was our substitute, carrying out atonement for us vicariously.  

Jesus overcame every temptation—those he endured in the wilderness after he’d fasted for forty days and all other temptations while he walked on this earth. Jesus did all that the law of God expects of us, and he did it for us. By the one man’s obedience [the obedience of Christ], the many of us are made righteous (Romans 5:19). Jesus’ holy life is given to us as our own.  As the prophet Jeremiah had foretold, “This is the name by which he will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness’” (Jeremiah 33:16).

At the outset of Jesus’ messianic work, after Satan’s multiple temptations, we’re told that the devil departed from Jesus “until an opportune time” (Luke 4:13). The wilderness temptations weren’t the only challenges Jesus would face. The devil would keep coming back, again and again. Jesus is not someone “who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses,” but rather, he is “one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15).

Allow me to call to mind a few other examples of ways Jesus continued to be pressured and tested, and responded rightly to each test.

  • After Jesus spoke in his hometown synagogue in Nazareth and revealed himself as the one who came in fulfillment of the prophecies about Messiah, the people reacted with hostility and were ready to throw him off a cliff. Jesus had the power to strike them all dead for their unbelief, to rain down fire and brimstone on them. Instead, he simply “passed through the midst of them and went on his way” (Luke 4:30). 
  • During the second year of Jesus’ ministry, he began teaching quite openly to his disciples that “the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again” (Mark 8:31). Jesus’ disciples didn’t want to hear such things. Peter took Jesus aside and began to contradict him, saying, “This must never happen to you” (Matthew 16:22). But Jesus rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things” (Mark 8:31-33). Jesus was resolute in carrying out his divinely-ordained mission.
  • In the hours leading up to his crucifixion, Jesus was dragged before the high priest in Jerusalem. During the interrogation, one of the temple guards struck Jesus on the face, saying, “Is that how you answer the high priest?” Jesus answered calmly, “If I have spoken wrongly, testify to the wrong. But if I have spoken rightly, why do you strike me” (John 18:23)?

Throughout his whole life, Jesus acted with integrity. He did not retaliate against his enemies, and he would not shrink back from the work he came to do on our behalf. As Isaiah had prophesied about the Messiah, he gave his back to those who struck him. He did not hide his face from insult and spitting (Isaiah 50:6-7). He set his face like flint and carried on in the face of every temptation, in the face of agony and suffering and death.

All through his life, living in our place, Jesus lived a life of love in fulfillment of the law (cf. Romans 13:8-10). He showed compassion to the poor. He healed the sick. He strengthened the suffering. He comforted the bereaved. He did all that for us, as our rescuer, as our Redeemer. His saving work replaced anything lacking in our lives with the goodness he carried out in our place. That’s the most important thing as we think about how Jesus lived his life, how he took on every challenge and temptation, how he defeated the devil and sin.  He did all of that for us, as our Savior. 

That said, we certainly also can learn from Jesus’ life as an example for how to live our lives. We are urged in Scripture to “be imitators of God … and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (Ephesians 5:1-2). We will strive to follow Jesus’ example of loving each and every person—something we’re now able to do because of the love Jesus has given us. And we will follow Jesus’ example in facing temptation.

  • The devil approached Jesus when he was desperately hungry and urged him toward a path of instant gratification. We have learned from Jesus to be better than that, to look for more than that. We want—we need—something that lasts. We need not just a quick fix, a boost of something to make us feel better for the moment. We rely on spiritual sustenance, on “every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). 
  • The devil approached Jesus with the suggestion to throw himself off a roof, to risk life and limb and count on God to keep him safe, to send angels to keep him from harm. We have learned from Jesus not to twist God’s promises into permission slips. We don’t jump in front of a bus to test if God’s angels are with us. We don’t dive into sins saying, “It’s okay, God will forgive me anyway.” 
  • The devil approached Jesus with a temptation to power and ego. Sure, God in heaven says he is Lord over all things. But anybody observing the way things work down here can see that the devil dominates the way things go on earth. Even Jesus acknowledged the devil as “the ruler of this world” (John 12:31). “The whole world lies under the power of the evil one” (1 John 5:19).  So, the devil in fact had something to offer when he “showed Jesus all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor” (Matthew 4:8), saying Jesus could have it all if he came over to the dark side and gave his allegiance to Satan as “the god of this world” (2 Corinthians 4:4). Jesus has shown us that apparent shortcuts to success that compromise godly, higher standards are paths that lead to destruction.  With Jesus, we will say,  “Away with you, Satan! for it is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him’” (Matthew 4:10).

As we live our lives day by day, certainly, let’s remember Jesus’ example. We can think, “What would Jesus do?” and strive to respond to challenging situations with resoluteness of character as Jesus has taught us. But most important of all, we will keep our eyes on Jesus as our Savior, our strength, our hope in all things. “Let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, on whom our faith depends from beginning to end. Think of what he went through; how he put up with so much hatred from sinners. So do not let yourselves become discouraged and give up.” (Hebrews 12:2,3 Good News Translation).

Temptations will keep coming at us day after day. Our Savior encourages us to walk in his ways and say no to sin. We can overcome temptations when we are connected by grace to Jesus.  But whenever we do sin, we also remember: We have Jesus as an advocate with the Father. Jesus Christ, the righteous one, is the atoning sacrifice for our sins (1 John 2:1-2). 

Jesus is our constant hope and strength, our salvation from temptation and sin.

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

Posted by David Sellnow
01
Jan
2023

Resolution

A brief study at the start of a new year

Prepare to read. Original public domain image from Wikimedia Commons

Several years ago, I was asked to work with writers and edit a series of Bible studies for youth ministry.  The following brief study came from that project. It seems appropriate to share at New Year’s time, on the subject of making resolutions.

This is formatted as a leader’s guide for a group study. If you are reading this on your own, feel free to use it for your own meditation on the selected Scriptures. I’d welcome comments from any readers who come across this post.  As a change from the blog’s usual devotional format, do you find a study outline format like this useful?  

Resolution

Preliminary questions to consider

How many of you have ever made a New Year’s Resolution?  So many New Year’s resolutions fail. Why do you think that is?

  • We may set goals that are so lofty it is all but impossible to keep them. Sometimes we just aren’t all that determined to keep them. Our resolve is weak.  Other times we fail because our sinful nature is the problem.  We try to overcome our sinful nature on our own.

This study isn’t only about New Year’s resolutions. Let’s  think about our resolve in general—our determination to do what we know we should do.  What specific goals have you made for yourself?

  • Answers will vary. Think of some goals you have set in your life, not just New Year’s resolutions.

Consider the goals, resolutions, or promises you have made. Why is it worth putting a lot of effort into them?

  • Answers will vary. Hopefully, our goals are beneficial ones that will result in better health, helping others, and better stewardship of God’s blessings. One good goal always is to devote ourselves to contact with God’s Word and sacraments so that faith will be strengthened.

Sometimes the motivation behind our goals and promises is faulty. What possible faulty motivation could be behind the goals and promises we make?

  • We may be trying to feed our egos. We may be trying to make ourselves look better than others. We may have selfish goals.


Getting into the Word

Verse #1
1 Corinthians 2:2 …  “For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.”

The apostle Paul’s resolve was focused on Christ crucified.  Look at the context of this verse (verses 1-5). What might the people have thought was the motivation behind Paul’s preaching?

  • They might have thought he was trying to make a name for himself by his oratorical skills. Or at least that he was trusting in his own wisdom and eloquence to convert others.

Why was Paul resolved to focus only on Christ?

  • He understood that faith was the working of God’s power through the message about Jesus’ death and resurrection. Finally, the most important thing was for people to believe in Christ as their Savior.

What do these words tell us about the focus of our resolutions, goals, and promises?

  • Our most important goals are those that will have eternal benefits. That’s not to say that we can’t have other goals, and we can make promises related to our day-to-day lives. But it is important to remember spiritual priorities.

In what way can keeping promises to others, as well as faithfully pursuing “non-spiritual” goals, reflect on the cross or have spiritual implications?

  • By our diligence and faithfulness, we are honoring Christ, whose name we bear. As others witness our faithfulness, they may be inclined to listen to the hope we have in Christ.


Verse #2
Luke 9:51 … “As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem.”

What was the context of this statement? Why are these words from Scripture so comforting?

  • As the time came for Jesus to accomplish his work and return to heaven, he set out, determined to go to Jerusalem and suffer the consequences of our sins. He was resolute in carrying out his mission to redeem us.

Evaluate this statement: Jesus kept his eyes focused not just on Jerusalem, but on the necessity of his death.

  • Jesus knew the cross that awaited him. But he knew that our eternal well-being depended upon him. So he was determined to take the cross upon himself.

 How did we benefit as a result of Jesus’ resolve?

  • The result of Jesus’ resolve is our eternal welfare. We have life now and forever because of his resolve on our behalf.

 How does Jesus’ work influence our goals and promises?

  • Nothing is more important than the hope and peace that is ours through Christ.


Closing Prayer

  • Dear Jesus, our Savior, please help us to keep our resolutions, especially those that have spiritual implications. We live gratefully in you, for you carried out your resolution for us by dying on the cross. You did not shrink back from the most difficult task of all, because you were determined to bring benefit to us all. Instead of running away from our own good goals, help us to trust in you and overcome our fears of failure. In your name, our resurrected Lord, we pray. Amen.

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Quoted verses from: Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Posted by David Sellnow
11
Sep
2022

Ask God to Remember Who He Is

We pray to the One who is faithful, even when we are faithless

A sermon for September 11, 2022  (Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost)

Scripture for consideration:  Exodus 32:7-14


There is a tension inside of parents. Parents want their children to be good, to behave well, to do well. You have a godly desire for them to live productive, well-directed lives. You are upset when your children do things wrong, when they run away from you, when they do the opposite of what you know is good for them. At the same time, the core of a parent’s character is unconditional love. A parent will be there always for them, will never abandon them. A parent will search and strive and keep reaching out if ever children wander off or lose their way, intent on holding them close again in love, embracing them with forgiveness.

God describes himself to us as a parent to us; he is our Father. There is something of that same tension within God’s heart and in his Word to us. God has a righteous desire for rightness, obedience, and well-ordered lives for us. The Ten Commandments serve as a summary of the Law of God, his plans and principles for us. But law alone is not the essence of who God is. Above all, God’s love for us and promises to us always will be paramount. God’s essential character will not let him turn away from unconditional love, commitment, and caring for persons he has called to be his own. Even when we are not “good children,” when we are like prodigal sons who run off and squander our inheritance from our Father in “dissolute living” (Luke 15:13), our Father is waiting and watching for us every day, filled with compassion. Hi is ready to run and put his arms around us and welcome us home the moment we come back to him (cf. Luke 15:20). 

Mount Sinai (via Wikimedia Commons)

Today (in consideration of this Sunday’s Old Testament reading), we ponder what happened when Moses prayed on behalf of God’s people, and we hear that God “changed his mind” in response. This happened when the people of Israel were gathered in the southern Sinai Peninsula, at the base of Mount Sinai. Just three months prior, the people had exited Egypt amid astonishing signs and wonders and miracles that God enacted to deliver them from slavery. But when Moses was up on the mountain receiving teaching from God for forty days, the people lost faith. They reverted to the sort of worship they had seen in idolatrous Egypt.  They crafted a symbol, something like the Egyptian bull god Apis, a sacred cow, an image of fertility and strength. The LORD God, who had delivered Israel from Egypt, was angry at their apostasy. He announced to Moses that he was ready to destroy them and start over, making a new nation out of Moses and his descendants.  Moses, whom “the Lord used to speak to … face to face, as one speaks to a friend” (Exodus 33:11), spoke back to God and said, “No, you don’t want to do that.”  Moses asked why God would turn his power against the Israelites when he had promised to carry them forward as his people. “Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants,” Moses said. “You swore to them by your own self, saying to them, ‘I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your descendants.’” (Exodus 32:13). Moses reminded God of his own character, his own promises, his own ultimate goal of gospel and mercy. At that, we are told, “The Lord changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people” (Exodus 32:14).  

This is amazing, isn’t it? Do you sense the conundrum in a statement like, “The Lord changed his mind”?  Haven’t we been taught that the heavenly Father “does not change like shifting shadows” (James 1:17 NIV)? And regarding the path of our lives, we confess that “all the days that were formed” for us were already written in God’s book “when none of them as yet existed” (Psalm 139:16). So, if God knows all things in advance, how can he have had one plan in mind and then changed plans?  How is it possible that God was intending to end his relationship with the people of Israel, and then, in response to Moses’ prayer, turned around and “did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened” (Exodus 32:14 NIV)?

Well, that is the wonderful mystery of prayer, isn’t it? It also reveals something of the wonderful mystery of God’s being and how he deals with us.  God already knows what is best for us before we ever utter a single prayer, and assures us that he has foreseen the whole plan of our lives (cf. Psalm 139). Yet he also urges us to pray and promises that he responds to our prayers. Pondering a deep mystery of God such as this makes us say, “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is so high that I cannot attain it” (Psalm 139:6). It is true that God knows all things, and therefore knows in advance all that will transpire in our lives. On the other hand, it is also true that God hears and responds to our prayers, even changing the course of history in reply to the prayers of his people. We do not try to reconcile this logical paradox; rather, we acknowledge that God’s knowledge is far past our understanding.

It’s good that there are two differing perspectives in how God deals with us, because It’s not just Israel’s idolatry with the golden calf that deserved God’s punishment. Scripture says, “There will be anguish and distress for everyone who does evil” (Romans 2:9), and, ultimately, everyone is guilty of evildoing. “There is no one who is righteous, not even one” (Romans 3:10).  Yet the same God who handed down the law that holds the whole world morally accountable also is full of mercy for us sinners. This is indeed a happy contradiction! God’s gospel (good news) stands opposed to his law of judgment. If it were not so, we would all be condemned forever. But God makes this promise to us:

Let the wicked forsake their way, and the unrighteous their thoughts;
let them return to the Lord, that he may have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. …
For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts  (Isaiah 55:7-9).

The higher wisdom of God goes above and beyond rules that say, “The person who sins shall die” (Ezekiel 18:2). God provides an answer to his own demands from the depths of his own mercy.

At a later time in the history of Israel, when the people were about to be carried away to Babylon for 70 years of exile, God instructed the people to pray for a return home. God’s knowledge of their future included the prayers they would offer to him.  “For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope. Then when you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you. When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart, I will let you find me, says the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile”  (Jeremiah 29:10-14).

Notice that God’s plans for us that look into the future include also plans that we will pray and he will respond to our prayers. That doesn’t mean that our prayers are all pre-scripted, as if God has programmed us like computers. Think bigger than that. No matter how many options or scenarios there may be, there is nothing of our lives that is outside of God’s awareness, including our prayers and all the different possibilities of our actions day by day. 

The Christian church father Augustine commented on our freedom to act (and to pray) fitting within God’s overall knowledge of all things: “Our wills themselves,” Augustine wrote, “are included in that order of causes which is certain to God, and is embraced by his foreknowledge. For human wills are also causes of human actions, and he who foreknew all the causes of things would certainly among those causes not have been ignorant of our wills” (quoted from City of God, Book V, chapter 9). That’s complicated, I know, but did you catch what Augustine was saying? God’s knowledge and will is so vast and all-encompassing that every possible change of direction by us, or every petition of prayer we might offer, is included. Our God is not small!

September 11 (via Wikimedia Commons)

As Christians, we are not fatalists. We do not believe that God has pre-chosen every detail of our existence in such a way that all we are doing is going through mindless motions. We are not God’s puppets; we are his people. In a prominent confession, Lutheran theologians rejected all notions of fatalism. “We reject and condemn as contrary to the standard of God’s Word the delirium of philosophers who . . . taught that everything that happens must so happen, and cannot happen otherwise, and that everything that man does, even in outward things, he does by compulsion, and that he is coerced to evil works and deeds [such as] robbery, murder, theft, and the like” (Formula of Concord, Epitome, Article II). If you take a fatalistic view, then you would have to blame God for the behavior of the Israelites in worshiping the golden calf, as if he made them do that. Or you would have to blame God for the actions of the terrorists that caused so much destruction on September 11th twenty-one years ago, as if God willed for them to do that. In a history classroom at a religious college, on more than one occasion, I had to correct students who wanted to say the Holocaust–the massacre of Jews and others hated by Hitler and the Nazi regime–must have been God’s will because God is in charge of everything. That sort of thinking is an atrocity in itself and an affront to God’s character. “God is love” (1 John 4:8). “God cannot be tempted by evil and he himself tempts no one” (James 1:13).  When human beings do evil things, we do that of our own accord. Persons are tempted by their “own desire, being lured and enticed by it; then, when that desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin” (James 1:14-15).

Do not assign death and destruction and harm and calamity to the will and desire of God. Moses knew God cannot do evil. So, when God denounced how stiff-necked and unfaithful his people were, and said, “Let me alone, so that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them” (Exodus 32:10), Moses said, “No, Lord, that’s not who you are.”  The goal of God is never our destruction but our salvation. He is patient with us, “not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). Think of someone like Paul, who had been such a self-righteous Pharisee, “a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a man of violence” (1 Timothy 1:13).  But God showed him mercy, redeeming him from his ignorance, outpouring on him an overflow of faith and love in Christ (1 Timothy 1:14). Think of how Jesus described God’s intent and purpose–like a shepherd who will keep seeking and not give up on even one lost sheep, like a woman cleaning every corner of the house in search of just one lost coin (cf. Luke 15:1-10).  Emmy Kegler, in her book, One Coin Found: How God’s Love Stretches to the Margins (2019), describes God’s loving purpose toward us well. She writes: “We too are lost and dusty coins. We have gone unnoticed, rusted from others’ indifference, misspent and misused, and our friends and leaders did not see our neglect. But God, in big and little ways, has picked up a woman’s broom and swept every corner of creation. God, in big and little ways, has tucked up her skirts and flattened herself on the floor, dug through dust bunnies and checked every dress pocket. God has found us, dustier and rustier and without any luster, and held us up to the light to say: No matter how you rolled away or what corner you were dropped in, you are mine.” 

We may wander. We may roll away. People near and dear to us may go astray, may lose faith and begin worshiping other things rather than staying true to God.  But God remains faithful to us and to them. Even “if we are faithless, he remains faithful—for he cannot deny himself” (2 Timothy 2:13). God invites us to pray to him (Psalm 50:15, Ephesians 6:18). He invites our prayers in response to whatever is going on in our lives and in the world around us. And he promises he will respond to our prayers. We pray with confidence that prayer indeed can change things, for God has promised: “If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you” (Matthew 17:20).

We have a God whose character is anchored in a desire to rescue, to help, to save, to forgive. Our God invites us to be in conversation with him, to ask him to change his mind when we or others have sinned much “and indeed deserve only punishment.” Though “we are worthy of nothing for which we ask, no have we earned it … we ask that God would give us all things by grace”–and he does. Let us keep calling on God in prayer, asking him to remember his gospel promises. Like Moses prayed boldly even when his people were at their worst, we will keep on praying to our God “boldly and with complete confidence, just as loving children ask their loving father.”

(Quotations in final paragraph from the Small Catechism, cf. Lutheran Book of Worship, p. 1163, 1164).  

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

Posted by David Sellnow
07
Mar
2022

The Lord is our righteousness

A preface to this post:

Our hearts are with the people of Ukraine at this time, as they struggle to protect their country and many have been forced to flee their homes.  A number of years ago, I visited Ukraine to teach a course at a seminary there. I asked a contact of mine what, if anything, those of us far away could do in the present crisis.  He responded, “Thank you very much for your prayers and concern. Here is a link where you can donate to Ukrainian Army: https://uahelp.monobank.ua/.”  [If you go to the site, a donation of 1000 hryven’ at today’s current exchange rate is 33.28 in US dollars.]   Others may be inclined to show support via humanitarian agencies. The Guardian newspaper recently published links to charitable agencies working to alleviate suffering: “How Americans can help people of Ukraine.”

At the beginning of in Lent in 2009, I was privileged to preach to a group in Ternopil. I’ll share a version of that message for the first week in Lent here. Let us pray for and support one another in all the struggles and tests of faith that this life brings.

This is the name by which he will be called: “The Lord is our righteousness” (Jeremiah 23:6).

In the wilderness, tempted by Satan

What are your temptations in life?

Are you tempted to be greedy, to want more than you have?  Are you tempted to be lazy, to do less than you can do?  Or are you tempted to be a workaholic?  Do you never let yourself rest?

Are you tempted to be judgmental, to look down on other people? Are you tempted by jealousy and hostility?  Are there persons that make you so angry you want to hit them?  Maybe you don’t actually hit them, but you’ve got a hammer in your heart that pounds and pounds with hatred or envy.

Are you tempted to be lonely?  To feel isolated?  To feel sorry for yourself?  To feel like God has put you on a path that is too often too difficult and doesn’t give the rewards you want?

Are you tempted to be frustrated and afraid—about the state of affairs in the world or in your life or for your church?  Do you keep wishing earth would be more like heaven, even though you know it is not (and cannot be)?

We all know what it is to be tempted.  We are bombarded with temptations day after day.  The devil knows which ones work particularly well on each of us. We are attacked at every point where we are most vulnerable. 

You know your own temptations and sins.   You could pour out your soul in confession all day long.  You’d never run out of unpleasant thoughts and words and deeds to confess, because so very often temptation wins, godliness loses. You are at fault for this failure, that offense, those ugly behaviors, these unkind words, and countless shameful omissions of the many good things you might have done.

You are guilty, as am I.  We are like the man in Jesus’ parable, standing at a distance from God, not even daring to look up to heaven, acknowledging our failings and saying, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner” (Luke 18:13).  Think about it: the sins we’ve been mentioning are things that occur to us now, while we are Christians, while God’s Spirit is within us. Yet still we fall or slip or dive headfirst into sin so many times.  Imagine the bondage of sin we were in before the Spirit came to us. What great need of salvation there is for every one of us!

And what a Savior we have in Jesus Christ!  The first thing he did—the first, immediate task he took up after his anointing—was to expose himself to Satan’s every temptation and overcome them all.  He did that for us.  As soon as he was identified as the Christ by his baptism at the Jordan River, “the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness.  He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan” (Mark 1:12-13). Jesus went head-to-head with Satan—and not merely for sport.  As God, Jesus could trounce the devil underfoot eternally, destroy him absolutely.  But the fullness of time had come, and God the Son, “born of a woman, born under law to redeem those under law” (Galatians 4:4,5), was working out our redemption under the law.  He was fulfilling all righteousness for us, carrying out every commandment in our stead as a human being. He deflected every temptation, proclaiming the word of God in the face of evil.  Thus, in Jesus, God has provided a record of human obedience to his will that is faultless, spotless—“one who in every respect has been tested, as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15).

What Jesus did in the desert is much more than an example for us to follow.  If Jesus only serves as an example to us, our situation would still be hopeless.  Who of us can follow Christ’s example and be perfect as he was and is?  Christ came not merely as example.  Christ is our substitute, our life, our salvation.  He did all that he did to atone for us, to provide us with holiness.

The confrontation with temptation in the desert was Jesus’ first official act as the Anointed One, the Messiah.  But it was not the only vicarious act he performed as atonement for us.  His whole life was lived as a substitute for ours.  Every time Jesus obeyed Mary and Joseph when he was a child, he was doing so in our place.  Every time Jesus performed an act of love and mercy for the sick, the sorrowful, the demon-possessed, the bereaved, he was doing perfectly all the things we never could do well enough. 

The forty days that Jesus spent in the desert at the beginning of his ministry were not the only occasion when the devil sought to distract Jesus, damage him, derail his mission.  When this round of temptation was over, the devil left Jesus—but only for a time (Luke 4:13). He would be back.  Satan would strike again and again at Jesus—just the same way that the devil strikes again and again at us.  As Jesus pursued his path as the Christ on this earth, he set his face like flint and marched on (cf. Isaiah 50:7, Luke 9:51).  He marched on all the way till they threw a rough-hewn wooden beam across his shoulders and told him to drag it out to the place of execution. There he was put to death in our place, just as he had lived in our place.

Jesus supplied a record of righteousness for us by his obedience to every moral duty, by his rejection of every sinful temptation.  And then he removed the record of shamefulness that stained us by his anguish on the cross.  He who had no sin was made to be sin for us—“the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6)—so that “in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Now, when we are tempted, we run for refuge into Jesus’ arms, the one who has already defeated the devil on our behalf, and we find strength in his strength.

Now, when we sin, we return to Jesus, in repentance, to be renewed by his righteousness, to be received by his love, to be revitalized for new life. 

Christ is our forgiveness and hope and source of life.  Through his victory, we live victoriously. Through his victory, we are given strength to overcome temptations.  Through his victory, we are assured a place beside him in eternity.

Thank God that Jesus went out into the desert to be tempted by the devil.  He did it for us, and he won that battle for us … just as he has won every other spiritual battle.  Because of him, we are blessed “in Christ with every spiritual blessing” (Ephesians 1:3).  Our trust, day after day, is in Jesus, who defeated all temptation for us.

Reading for the 1st Sunday in Lent
The Temptation of Jesus – Luke 4:1-13

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
Jan
2022

The Lord has redeemed you

Just published:  Sermons on Selected Psalms.

I gathered some of my past messages, meditating on key themes from several psalms.  From Monday, January 24 through Friday, January 28, the Kindle version of the book will be available for free download through Amazon, for reading on Kindle devices or online using the Kindle Cloud Reader app. Reviews of the book would be welcomed!  A paperback version is available (for purchase) also if preferred.

If interested, for the week of January 23-28, two other books available on Amazon are offered for 99 cents:

For a blog post this week, here is an excerpt from the book, Sermons on Selected Psalms.

Your sins are forgiven

An excerpt from sermon on Psalm 130:7-8

Israel, hope in Yahweh,
for there is loving kindness with Yahweh.
Abundant redemption is with him.
He will redeem Israel from all their sins.

People sometimes have asked me, “What if Jesus came back today, and caught me in the middle of a sin when he came? Would I go to hell?” My usual response to that is: “Tell me a day and a time when Jesus could come back and not catch you in some sort of sin.” We are constantly wrestling with sin in our souls, embedded with sin in our nature. We daily commit wrongdoings and omit good things we could be doing. Even our most noble deeds are typically tainted with aspects of selfishness. As Isaiah confessed for all of us, all our own righteousness is “like a polluted garment” (Isaiah 64:6). Remember that the word “sin” means to miss the mark, to come up short, to be fractured and imperfect.  It’s a description of the entirety of our lives. We always come up short. We’re never perfect. There is always something we’re lacking. Even if we were to sit in a chair and do absolutely nothing—trying to be motionless and clear our minds of all thoughts—we could not avoid sin that way.  Even the holiest of monks who isolated themselves in the desert struggled with sinful thoughts. And avoiding action could well be sinful in itself, when there are other persons in the world around us who need our action.

So the reality is, we cannot free ourselves from sin by our own power. We need Jesus at every moment. We need Jesus day after day. Only Jesus can complete us.  We are not perfect persons, but Jesus is the “author and perfecter of faith.” He keeps us from growing weary, “fainting in our souls” as we keep “striving against sin” (Hebrews 12:2-4).  Jesus makes us worthy of heaven. He fills in what is lacking for us. Jesus, who had no sin, was “made to be sin on our behalf, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).  In connection to Jesus, attached by faith to Jesus, we are made whole. Jesus comes to us and enters our hearts so that we are forgiven today and stay forgiven every day.

Since Jesus is with us every day, we can stop fearing the future. We tend to worry enormously about the future—which also is because of sin. If there were no sin, we wouldn’t worry about tomorrow. We’d know tomorrow would be good because all days were good. In a world without sin, there would be no worry. But sin is in our world and in us. That means tomorrow is never sure. We don’t know what mess might fall on our heads. We don’t know what messes we might make for ourselves. We don’t know what messes and misery others will inflict by their sins against us and around us. But we do know this for sure: Jesus will be there tomorrow, with us, just as he has been yesterday and today. That’s our constant, confident hope. The psalmist says, “Israel, hope in Yahweh, for there is loving-kindness with Yahweh. Abundant redemption is with him” (Psalm 130:7).  The Lord’s loving-kindness is unflinching, unfailing, rock-solid. The Lord’s redemption is abundant, abiding, all-encompassing.  God’s grace to us is something that never changes, never quits, never dies. He has redeemed us fully, completely. He bought us back from the evil of the world and the sin within ourselves. Full redemption, nothing left out—that’s what our Lord God gives to us. His love, his redemption, is an ironclad promise.

Bible quotations from the World English Bible (public domain).

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
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
18
Jan
2020

God came to a world in need

Originally posted on The Electric Gospel on December 29, 2019.

God came to a world which needed him

by David Sellnow

It was a time when international power dwarfed the day to day lives of everyday people. The world managed to avoid an all-engrossing global war; there was a general peace, of a sort. But that peace was maintained only by fear of what giant military might could do. Meanwhile, outbreaks of violence and suppression of revolution regularly dotted the map.

It was a time when political rulers made promises to appeal to the masses, while at the same time doing what was most advantageous for maintaining their own rank and position. The most brutal leaders would go as far as using imprisonment or death to eliminate threats to their power.

It was a time when a fraction of the world’s population controlled the bulk of the worlds’ wealth, and the poor and working classes struggled to maintain their existence.

It was a time when women were dominated by men and had to navigate societal institutions in which men held sway, and when dominant peoples and groups subjugated minority populations and disadvantaged groups.

It was a time when differing religious and philosophical systems competed for people’s loyalties. Some beliefs were accepted in society; others were ostracized. Persons could be persecuted for following beliefs that went against accepted norms, and attacks by one religious group on another were not uncommon.

It was the world of the Roman Empire at the beginning of the Common Era. Augustus ruled as Caesar, maintaining the Roman peace by the force of Roman armies.  Augustus famously would bemoan the loss of some of his legions in battle vs. Germanic tribes in the Teutoberg Forest, but in most places, Rome ruled with an iron fist. They also granted leeway to local rulers that served their purposes, such as Herod in the province of Judea. Herod was the kind of man willing to slaughter even babies in order to protect his own position (cf. Matthew chapter 2).  In the Roman world in those days, the top 1½% of the population controlled 20% of all existing wealth, according to Walter Schiedel and Steven Friesen, writing in The Journal of Roman Studies (Volume 99, November 2009). The majority of individuals eked out a living, and as many as one in five persons across the empire were held in slavery (Ancient History Encyclopedia).  Religions and philosophies varied across the empire, while at the same time a cult of religious reverence for the emperor himself was beginning to take shape.

It was into this sort of world that God intervened with his incarnational presence. Jesus was born, God in the flesh, as God’s response to all that was (and is) wrong with the world.  In response to brute power, God displays his power in love through the gift of Christ.  In response to an economy of inequality, God establishes mercy and charity as the way for persons to interact with one another. In response to religious division and confusion and worship of persons and things of this world, God offers a Savior who answers all persons’ religious hopes.

The descriptions at the beginning of this message about what the world was like in those days may well have reminded you of what the world is like in our time today. That’s not surprising. “There is nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9).  The good news is that the Savior, Jesus Christ—who entered our world in those days when “Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world” (Luke 2:1) and when Herod ordered the death of all baby boys in Bethlehem because it was said the King of the Jews had been born there (Matthew 2:2-8, 16)—Jesus remains God’s gift to the world today and always.

It is not with perishable things such as silver or gold (or any material things) that we are redeemed from the empty way of life that is otherwise common to the human race.  Our redemption is in Christ, who was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for our sake.  Through him we believe in God, and so our faith and hope are in God (1 Peter 1:18-21).

Posted by David Sellnow
18
Jan
2020

Faith cries out

Originally posted on the Electric Gospel on November 10, 2019.

Faith cries out

by David Sellnow

What happens inside your soul when crisis or disaster strikes your life?  How do you feel?  What do you say? Let me share with you words of pain from someone whose faith was put to the test by devastating losses. When life hurts, have you ever screamed thoughts like this?

  • “Why didn’t I die at birth, my first breath out of the womb my last? … I could be resting in peace right now, asleep forever, feeling no pain.”
  • “I hate this life! Who needs any more of this?”
  • “God, how does this fit into what you once called ‘good’? … Can’t you let up, and let me smile just once …before I’m nailed into my coffin, sealed in the ground, and banished for good to the land of the dead?”
  • “Please, God … address me directly so I can answer you, or let me speak and then you answer me. How many sins have been charged against me? Show me the list—how bad is it? Why do you stay hidden and silent? Why treat me like I’m your enemy?”
  • “My spirit is broken, my days used up. … I can hardly see from crying so much. … My life’s about over. All my plans are smashed, all my hopes are snuffed out.”
  • “Why do the wicked have it so good, live to a ripe old age and get rich? … Their homes are peaceful and free from fear; they never experience God’s disciplining rod.”
  • “God has no right to treat me like this—it isn’t fair! If I knew where on earth to find him, I’d go straight to him. [But wherever I go, he’s not there.]”
  • “People are dying right and left, groaning in torment. The wretched cry out for help, and God does nothing, acts like nothing’s wrong!”
  • “I shout for help, God, and get nothing, no answer! I stand to face you in protest, God, and you give me a blank stare! … What did I do to deserve this? … Haven’t I wept for those who live a hard life, been heartsick over the lot of the poor? But where did it get me? I expected good but evil showed up. I looked for light but darkness fell. My stomach’s in a constant churning, never settles down. Each day confronts me with more suffering. I walk under a black cloud. The sun is gone.”

Have you ever had thoughts like that in the midst of trouble? If you have, does that mean you aren’t a good Christian? If you scream at God when you feel like God has disappeared from your world, have you failed the test of faith?  Should you be more like Job, famous for his faith when afflicted with suffering?  He lost his family (his adult children were killed). He lost his wealth. He lost his health. And yet he spoke with rock-solid conviction.  Job’s famous words were written down and inscribed in a book forever:  “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at the last he will stand upon the earth; and after my skin has been thus destroyed, then in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see on my side, and my eyes shall behold, and not another” (Job 19:25-27 NRSV).

Perhaps you are more like Job than you realize.  All of the words I quoted to you at first — words of complaint, of accusation against God, of desperation and wanting to be dead — those all were words of Job.  (Bible quotations were from The Message, copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. Referenced verses – Job 3:11,13; 7:16; 10:3,20-22; 13:20-24; 17:1,7,11; 21:7,9; 23:2-3,8-9; 24:11-12; 30:20-28.)

Job’s words of resurrection confidence are surrounded in Scripture by many words of grief and doubt and heartache. People speak of “the patience of Job” — and yes, the patience of a faithful heart remained alive in Job.  But that patience of faith existed in the midst of the frayed nerves and tortured soul of a life under horrible strain. Job’s wife is often criticized for telling her husband to “curse God and die” (Job 2:9) when everything fell apart for them. But I’m sympathetic toward Job’s wife. She was a mother who lost her children and could not be comforted. Her heart was overwhelmed with pain. And Job, too, struggled with that pain. Job wrestled with God in his heart, and went back and forth in his thoughts.  The same person who expressed all the anger and hurt I shared with you a few moments ago also said:

  • “Even if God killed me, I’d keep on hoping.” (Job 13:15 The Message)
  • “All through these difficult days I keep hoping, waiting for the final change—for resurrection!” (Job 14:14 The Message)
  • “Where then does wisdom come from? And where is the place of understanding? … God understands the way to it, and he knows its place. … Truly, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.”  (Job 28:20,23,28 NRSV)

Isn’t that the way that faith is in our lives? We go back and forth in our thoughts, between hurt and hope. We cry out to the Lord, “I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24)  If you read the Psalms, you’ll hear words of joy and praise as well as words of anguish and questioning. If you listen to Jesus himself, hanging on the cross, you’ll hear him scream, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34) as well as, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit” (Luke 23:46 NRSV). You’ve likely seen this same thing in the lives of Christians you have known, or in your own hearts as God’s people fighting the good fight of faith. I’ve sat with a woman outside the intensive care unit, where her husband was going through organ failure after diabetes had done decades worth of damage to his body.  I’ve sat with the family of an Air Force colonel  who died in a tragic plane crash — not in battle, but while assigned to supervise younger pilots practicing for an air show.  Things happen that seem senseless, merciless, unfair, intolerable.  We cry out in distress and anguish, and at the same time call out to God in hope.  When God seems to have abandoned us, that’s when we cling most urgently to his promise that he never will leave us, never will forsake us (Deuteronomy 31:6, Hebrews 13:5).

Martin Luther spoke often about how God reveals himself to us in hidden ways, in the midst of pain and suffering and the cross. We tend to want God to show himself by big and bold and obvious blessings happening in our lives. But more often, God’s deepest work on our hearts happens through difficult things we don’t want to endure. In his Heidelberg theses (which he composed when under pressure to defend his teachings), Martin Luther said this:

  • “Now it is not sufficient for anyone and does no good to recognize God in his glory and majesty, unless he recognizes him in the humility and shame of the cross. Thus God destroys the wisdom of the wise, as Isaiah 45:15 says, ‘Truly, you are a God who hides himself.’” 

God’s greatest work in this world was accomplished when God seemed to be absent from the scene, when Jesus was hanging on a cross, dying in shame, with people shouting obscenities at him.  That’s not where people thought they’d find God. Yet that was how God had chosen to show himself and to save the world, through Jesus’ suffering.  And in our own lives too, we are drawn closer to God, made more dependent on God, when facing life’s agonies and, ultimately, death.  So when the difficult days come, yes, we will cry, we will scream, we will hurt. But we also will trust God is working in his own mysterious ways to draw us closer to himself and to draw us on in the direction of heaven.  Because ultimately, “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1 NRSV).

The fact that we have faith doesn’t make us immune to hurt. Sometimes we forget that. I’ve known some Christians who’ve undergone a great loss or catastrophe, and they paste on a smile because they think a Christian should never be sad. They don’t allow themselves to grieve because they think grieving would mean they weren’t expressing hope. They may shed a tear at the funeral, but the day after they expect themselves to be putting all the sadness behind them. That’s an artificial understanding of our Christian hope. We don’t pretend we aren’t hurting. We acknowledge the full reality of pain and suffering, of sin and death, of the grave and loss. And at the same time, we cling to hope in the power of the resurrection. Think of Jesus, who broke down in tears when his friend Lazarus died – even while he knew he was going to raise Lazarus back out of his grave. Jesus felt death’s pain even when he had the power to overturn death. We need not gloss over the ugliness and bitterness of awful things that happen to us in this world. In the midst of that ugliness, we still seek God’s face (Psalm 105:4) and believe in his mercy.

When you’re facing loss, hardship, heartache, tragedy, it’s normal for you to cry out in pain. The great patriarch Job cried out again and again, begging God for answers. God remained silent for a time, but he did hear Job and he did finally answer him. And God hears you when you cry too. God is helping you even when you have a hard time feeling his support. He reminds you of his promises. His Spirit helps you hang on and have hope. Maybe you don’t have the patience of Job. Then again, even Job didn’t have the patience of Job! But all of us, as God’s people, will join with Job in confessing our faith. We say:

  • “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at the last he will stand upon the earth; and after my skin has been thus destroyed, then in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see on my side, and my eyes shall behold, and not another” (Job 19:25-27 NRSV).

That is our confidence, our cry of faith, even when this life is so often so full of so much pain. We cry with hurt, but we also cry with hope. How our hearts yearn within us!

Posted by David Sellnow