Isaiah 9:2, 6
2 The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light.
For those who lived in a land of deep shadows—
light! sunbursts of light!
6 For a child has been born—for us!
the gift of a son—for us!
He'll take over
the running of the world.
His names will be: Amazing Counselor,
Strong God,
Eternal Father,
Prince of Wholeness.
Matthew 6:9-11
You can pray very simply. Like this:
Our Father in heaven,
Reveal who you are.
Set the world right;
Do what's best— as above, so below.
Keep us alive with three square meals.
Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others.
Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil.
You're in charge!
You can do anything you want!
You're ablaze in beauty!
Yes. Yes. Yes.
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Saturday, November 24, 2007
November 25, 2007 Message
Psalm 40:1-3
“What Happens When We Pray: Does It Change Anything?”
One summer, some folks, new to boating, were having a problem. No matter how hard they tried, they couldn’t get their brand-new 22-foot motorboat to do what it was suppose to do. It wouldn’t get up to speed at all, and it was really sluggish in almost every maneuver, no matter how much power was applied.
After about an hour of trying to make it go, they putted over to a nearby marina, thinking someone there could tell them what was wrong. A thorough topside check revealed everything in perfect working order. The engine ran fine, and everything else seemed to be okay.
Then, one of the marina guys jumped in the water to check underneath. He came up choking on water, he was laughing so hard. Under the boat, still strapped securely in place, was the trailer.
What’s this to do with today’s lesson? Just wait…
The last two Sundays, we have touched on two of three questions concerning prayer, ‘Why are we to pray?’ and ‘How do we pray?’ I have concluded, “We pray because we desperately need to – even though we are not always ready to.” It is how God wants us to live, as modeled by Jesus, our Lord. We pray all the time, because God is here, right beside us, all the time - especially when it doesn’t appear God is answering our prayers. It is just that we need to listen!
Today we conclude our series on prayer by answering the question, “What Happens When We Pray: Does It Change Anything?” Perhaps we need only look to Psalm 40 for help in answering this question. Verses 1-3 read (The Message): “I waited and waited and waited for God. At last he looked; finally he listened. He lifted me out of the ditch, pulled me from deep mud. He stood me up on a solid rock to make sure I wouldn't slip. He taught me how to sing the latest God-song, a praise-song to our God. More and more people are seeing this: they enter the mystery, abandoning themselves to God.”
We wait. Then, God lifts us up, as we learn to ‘sing a new song of praise’ to our God. We “enter the mystery, abandoning ourselves to God.” And that’s exactly what happens. It is a mystery for sure, but it is as simple – or complex – as that! We wait. We “patiently” wait, having thrown up a “cry” (40:1) like a lifeline, to God, hoping God will grab it. When we do, God does.
Of course, our rescue doesn’t happen in the blink of an eye or in the time it takes to cry, “Save me!” Those who have been brought up from the pits of despair testify to a stressful journey. Yet that just increases the gratitude and praise.
God lifts us up. God is the agent of change. God initiates the lifting action. God lifts us up. God does not pull us down. Our being stuck in the mud is not because God has put us there in the first place. God lifts us out of the ditch and the deep mud, from along side the road we should be on. God lifts us from a place where forward movement, any movement, is impossible because we find ourselves “stuck in the mud.” God sets our feet on the road again. God lifts us, from the ditch and the deep mud to a solid rock (pavement). We’re safe. We can walk with confidence again.
We learn to ‘sing praise’ to our God. Psalm 40 provides another way; it is a model prayer that combines both movements of our soul — the fear of falling and grateful praise for being rescued. Life might often be described as a rhythm of falling and praising, praising and falling, then praising again. Doesn’t it sometimes seem that way? When we believe our depression will literally suck us into a dark pit and never let us go or our fears of what might happen make our feet seem as if they are stuck in deep, gooey mud. We are unable to move and our faith is wrapped tightly by our fear. Somehow a hand reaches out in the darkness. A word comes from the Lord, often spoken by another person, that lifts us… as our fears are reduced and our faith strengthened. We take the next best step, trusting God, resting in the confidence that the future belongs to the Lord and not to us alone. We are lifted from the ditch – to standing on solid ground, probably still covered in mud, but alive again, no longer afraid, but now giving thanks and praise to the God of our salvation.
All this happens when we “enter the mystery, abandoning ourselves to God” – in prayer. An important lesson of this psalm is that praise precedes petition. This joyful praise comes from the remembrance of past experiences of God’s goodness and deliverance. What has been done in the past becomes the ground of all praise and thanksgiving and the sure confidence that God will indeed continue to deliver in the future. Faithful believers can live boldly in the present by recalling the past with hope for the future.
Because we know God was with us in the past, we are more confident that God is with us now and will be with us in the future. This allows us to step out in faith, not because we are confident in ourselves, but because we know God will always be with us.
We become transformed into wholeness, living obediently in grateful praise, “delighting to do God’s will.” God enables us to understand things differently, making it possible for us to “change our tune” from a sad song to a song of praise. Our praise and thanksgiving then leads to singing a new song, telling others the glad news of deliverance, bearing witness to God’s faithfulness by word and deed. The Psalmist describes all these acts as responses to God’s saving help – and a way of saying, “Here I am Lord.”
What the psalmist helps us to understand is that our abandoning ourselves and trusting in God is a green light, a sign to God that we are ready to receive what God can give us. Remember the story of the boat earlier in the message, and the owner failure to disconnect it from the trailer?
One of the great stories of faith is the story of Ruby Bridges as related by Robert Coles, who has written so much about the development of children.
He met her when she was a 6-year-old girl. She was African-American. She attended a public school. But every day as she went to school, she had to pass through rows of adults screaming threats and insults at her. Coles and others noticed that every day as she went through the rows of screaming adults, protected by federal marshals, you could sometimes see her lips moving. Coles discovered Ruby was praying. She was praying for strength to endure the abuse, and she was praying to God to forgive the people yelling at her.
A 6-year-old girl got it. She understood how to be receptive to God. She knew if she trusted in God and sought what God could give her, God would see her trust as a green light and God would come to her and come into her life with strength and grace.
Rabbi Harold Kushner, author of “When Bad Things Happen To Good People,” has said, “Prayer is not asking. Prayer is not pleading. Prayer is not bringing our wish list to God. Prayer is simply coming into the presence of God and being changed by that… Simply being in the presence of God makes it possible for me to live in a messy world, unfair world… The purpose of praying to God when you’re in dire straits is not to make the problem go away. It’s to make it possible for you to live in a pain-filled world because God is holding your hand.”
Why do we pray? We pray because we desperately need to – even though we are not always ready to.
How do we pray? We pray all the time, because God is here, right beside us, all the time, listening to us as we should be listening to God – all the time. We enter the mystery of God’s presence in prayer, abandoning ourselves to God.
What happens when we pray? Does it change anything? Yes it does. When we pray, we are changed.
And that can be very good news indeed!
“What Happens When We Pray: Does It Change Anything?”
One summer, some folks, new to boating, were having a problem. No matter how hard they tried, they couldn’t get their brand-new 22-foot motorboat to do what it was suppose to do. It wouldn’t get up to speed at all, and it was really sluggish in almost every maneuver, no matter how much power was applied.
After about an hour of trying to make it go, they putted over to a nearby marina, thinking someone there could tell them what was wrong. A thorough topside check revealed everything in perfect working order. The engine ran fine, and everything else seemed to be okay.
Then, one of the marina guys jumped in the water to check underneath. He came up choking on water, he was laughing so hard. Under the boat, still strapped securely in place, was the trailer.
What’s this to do with today’s lesson? Just wait…
The last two Sundays, we have touched on two of three questions concerning prayer, ‘Why are we to pray?’ and ‘How do we pray?’ I have concluded, “We pray because we desperately need to – even though we are not always ready to.” It is how God wants us to live, as modeled by Jesus, our Lord. We pray all the time, because God is here, right beside us, all the time - especially when it doesn’t appear God is answering our prayers. It is just that we need to listen!
Today we conclude our series on prayer by answering the question, “What Happens When We Pray: Does It Change Anything?” Perhaps we need only look to Psalm 40 for help in answering this question. Verses 1-3 read (The Message): “I waited and waited and waited for God. At last he looked; finally he listened. He lifted me out of the ditch, pulled me from deep mud. He stood me up on a solid rock to make sure I wouldn't slip. He taught me how to sing the latest God-song, a praise-song to our God. More and more people are seeing this: they enter the mystery, abandoning themselves to God.”
We wait. Then, God lifts us up, as we learn to ‘sing a new song of praise’ to our God. We “enter the mystery, abandoning ourselves to God.” And that’s exactly what happens. It is a mystery for sure, but it is as simple – or complex – as that! We wait. We “patiently” wait, having thrown up a “cry” (40:1) like a lifeline, to God, hoping God will grab it. When we do, God does.
Of course, our rescue doesn’t happen in the blink of an eye or in the time it takes to cry, “Save me!” Those who have been brought up from the pits of despair testify to a stressful journey. Yet that just increases the gratitude and praise.
God lifts us up. God is the agent of change. God initiates the lifting action. God lifts us up. God does not pull us down. Our being stuck in the mud is not because God has put us there in the first place. God lifts us out of the ditch and the deep mud, from along side the road we should be on. God lifts us from a place where forward movement, any movement, is impossible because we find ourselves “stuck in the mud.” God sets our feet on the road again. God lifts us, from the ditch and the deep mud to a solid rock (pavement). We’re safe. We can walk with confidence again.
We learn to ‘sing praise’ to our God. Psalm 40 provides another way; it is a model prayer that combines both movements of our soul — the fear of falling and grateful praise for being rescued. Life might often be described as a rhythm of falling and praising, praising and falling, then praising again. Doesn’t it sometimes seem that way? When we believe our depression will literally suck us into a dark pit and never let us go or our fears of what might happen make our feet seem as if they are stuck in deep, gooey mud. We are unable to move and our faith is wrapped tightly by our fear. Somehow a hand reaches out in the darkness. A word comes from the Lord, often spoken by another person, that lifts us… as our fears are reduced and our faith strengthened. We take the next best step, trusting God, resting in the confidence that the future belongs to the Lord and not to us alone. We are lifted from the ditch – to standing on solid ground, probably still covered in mud, but alive again, no longer afraid, but now giving thanks and praise to the God of our salvation.
All this happens when we “enter the mystery, abandoning ourselves to God” – in prayer. An important lesson of this psalm is that praise precedes petition. This joyful praise comes from the remembrance of past experiences of God’s goodness and deliverance. What has been done in the past becomes the ground of all praise and thanksgiving and the sure confidence that God will indeed continue to deliver in the future. Faithful believers can live boldly in the present by recalling the past with hope for the future.
Because we know God was with us in the past, we are more confident that God is with us now and will be with us in the future. This allows us to step out in faith, not because we are confident in ourselves, but because we know God will always be with us.
We become transformed into wholeness, living obediently in grateful praise, “delighting to do God’s will.” God enables us to understand things differently, making it possible for us to “change our tune” from a sad song to a song of praise. Our praise and thanksgiving then leads to singing a new song, telling others the glad news of deliverance, bearing witness to God’s faithfulness by word and deed. The Psalmist describes all these acts as responses to God’s saving help – and a way of saying, “Here I am Lord.”
What the psalmist helps us to understand is that our abandoning ourselves and trusting in God is a green light, a sign to God that we are ready to receive what God can give us. Remember the story of the boat earlier in the message, and the owner failure to disconnect it from the trailer?
One of the great stories of faith is the story of Ruby Bridges as related by Robert Coles, who has written so much about the development of children.
He met her when she was a 6-year-old girl. She was African-American. She attended a public school. But every day as she went to school, she had to pass through rows of adults screaming threats and insults at her. Coles and others noticed that every day as she went through the rows of screaming adults, protected by federal marshals, you could sometimes see her lips moving. Coles discovered Ruby was praying. She was praying for strength to endure the abuse, and she was praying to God to forgive the people yelling at her.
A 6-year-old girl got it. She understood how to be receptive to God. She knew if she trusted in God and sought what God could give her, God would see her trust as a green light and God would come to her and come into her life with strength and grace.
Rabbi Harold Kushner, author of “When Bad Things Happen To Good People,” has said, “Prayer is not asking. Prayer is not pleading. Prayer is not bringing our wish list to God. Prayer is simply coming into the presence of God and being changed by that… Simply being in the presence of God makes it possible for me to live in a messy world, unfair world… The purpose of praying to God when you’re in dire straits is not to make the problem go away. It’s to make it possible for you to live in a pain-filled world because God is holding your hand.”
Why do we pray? We pray because we desperately need to – even though we are not always ready to.
How do we pray? We pray all the time, because God is here, right beside us, all the time, listening to us as we should be listening to God – all the time. We enter the mystery of God’s presence in prayer, abandoning ourselves to God.
What happens when we pray? Does it change anything? Yes it does. When we pray, we are changed.
And that can be very good news indeed!
Monday, November 19, 2007
November 25, 2007 Readings
Psalm 40:1-3 (The Message)
1-3 I waited and waited and waited for God.
At last he looked; finally he listened.
He lifted me out of the ditch,
pulled me from deep mud.
He stood me up on a solid rock
to make sure I wouldn't slip.
He taught me how to sing the latest God-song,
a praise-song to our God.
More and more people are seeing this:
they enter the mystery,
abandoning themselves to God.
Luke 22:39-46 (The Message)
39-40 Leaving there, he went, as he so often did, to Mount Olives. The disciples followed him. When they arrived at the place, he said, "Pray that you don't give in to temptation."
41-44 He pulled away from them about a stone's throw, knelt down, and prayed, "Father, remove this cup from me. But please, not what I want. What do you want?" At once an angel from heaven was at his side, strengthening him. He prayed on all the harder. Sweat, wrung from him like drops of blood, poured off his face.
45-46 He got up from prayer, went back to the disciples and found them asleep, drugged by grief. He said, "What business do you have sleeping? Get up. Pray so you won't give in to temptation."
1-3 I waited and waited and waited for God.
At last he looked; finally he listened.
He lifted me out of the ditch,
pulled me from deep mud.
He stood me up on a solid rock
to make sure I wouldn't slip.
He taught me how to sing the latest God-song,
a praise-song to our God.
More and more people are seeing this:
they enter the mystery,
abandoning themselves to God.
Luke 22:39-46 (The Message)
39-40 Leaving there, he went, as he so often did, to Mount Olives. The disciples followed him. When they arrived at the place, he said, "Pray that you don't give in to temptation."
41-44 He pulled away from them about a stone's throw, knelt down, and prayed, "Father, remove this cup from me. But please, not what I want. What do you want?" At once an angel from heaven was at his side, strengthening him. He prayed on all the harder. Sweat, wrung from him like drops of blood, poured off his face.
45-46 He got up from prayer, went back to the disciples and found them asleep, drugged by grief. He said, "What business do you have sleeping? Get up. Pray so you won't give in to temptation."
Sunday, November 18, 2007
November 18, 2007 Message
1 Thessalonians 5:12-28; Matthew 17:14-23
Last Sunday, we touched on the first of our three questions concerning prayer, ‘Why are we to pray?’ It was concluded, “We pray because we desperately need to – even though we are not always ready to.” We pray also because this is how God wants us to live, as modeled by our Lord, Jesus.
Jesus was a man of prayer. The gospels tell us that He prayed often and very definitely before the major events in His life. Before beginning his public ministry, Jesus went into the desert to fast and pray for 40 days. And before going to the cross, he prayed intensely in the Garden of Gethsemane.
The apostle Paul was a man of prayer as well. In his letters, he continually focused on his need, and that of others, for prayer. “Pray all the time," he told the Thessalonians, “thank God no matter what happens. This is the way God wants you, who belong to Christ Jesus, to live.
Followers of Christ, then, are to be people of prayer – or simply put, people who pray. But it is important that we know what prayer involves. Just what was the nature of the prayer Jesus and the apostles were talking about?
That becomes then our question for today, ‘How are we to pray?”
Joseph Cardinal Bernardin, Archbishop of Chicago from 1982-1996, and recipient of the Albert Einstein Peace Prize and the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his leadership in raising our nation's awareness of the difficult issues behind the nuclear arms race and the economic problems faced by our nation's poor, wrote this concerning prayer: “In no way should prayer insulate us from the real world. In no way should it become a crutch preventing us from facing up realistically to life.” His thought was that prayer should help to bring us into an intimate, loving union with God. It is not a tool for bringing about God’s action in one’s life – to make things better - but rather a means to better relationship with God. Prayer is about relationship.
And that type of relationship can happen when we realize these four things.
God is the same God. God is still a loving, powerful, merciful, generous, and faithful God = always was, always will be. And in the sameness of our lives, which is as much of a grind today as it has always been, or at times when the world crumbles around us – as it can do at any time - we need such a God.
Be open to what the Spirit is doing. There are times we don’t feel like praying. And yet we are always to give thanks to God in all circumstances. Paul's direction to the Thessalonians insists that every moment of life lived with the Holy Spirit is a moment filled with promise and possibility. Paul says, Be joyful! Be prayerful! Be thankful! – always, no matter what the circumstances. Understand though, they’re not things we have to do. Rather they are attitudes that describe our life because of the work of the Holy Spirit.
All circumstances are used for good. We are to depend entirely on the power of God's spirit at work in our life. God is committed to making us holy, and will not fail. God's love and presence will be made known in all situations. Paul tells us that there can be joy, love, life and laughter in every situation, at all times.
Every moment is open to God. There are so many demands on our time, so many things going on. Life can be so busy that we consider any time spent ‘not doing anything’ as time hopelessly lost. We might even think we have to pray at certain times, saying just the right words. Paul wasn’t saying the faithful needed to continually be engaged in literal prayer. What he was saying was that just as the gift of the Holy Spirit makes joy theirs at all times, they also have God's ear at all times. A Christian may turn to God at any moment of the day, under any circumstances, and be in communication with God. However, this is not a one-sided sort of thing. God is to have our ear at all times as well.
So that means we must always LISTEN. And to listen – for God to be heard - we may need to be quiet.
J. Walter Cross, in "Noises in the Night," tells of an artist who had just finished a major work and invited a famous critic to a private viewing. On the appointed day, the critic was met at the door of the studio and ushered into a darkened room where he was asked to wait. A half-hour had passed before the artist came. He apologized and explained the reason for the delay. "I was afraid that coming in directly from the bright sunlight, it might be impossible for you to see the subtle inter-workings between the colors." Sometimes the light can be too bright for us to see the true shades of life.
And sometimes the sound of our own voices or those of others is just too loud for us to hear the voice of God. It is then we need to find a silent place or be open to the moments of silence that arises during the week. Each may be a precious opportunity to listen to what God has to say.
This week sometime, try this - when driving down the highway alone, turn off the radio and 'hear' for a change God's scenery going by or when relaxing in front of the TV, turn the TV off, close your eyes and for the first time 'watch' the silence. Take advantage of all the opportunities everyday to listen to what God has to say, to offer up prayers, to be thankful for all you have. In all the silent places you find yourself in this week, open yourself to the life-altering power of possibility available through the Holy Spirit.
When you spend every waking moment attending only to the business of the day, you often ignore your spiritual needs. By putting off prayer until Sunday morning, confining thankfulness to a quick grace before meals you miss out on God in your life everyday.
Today’s text says there can be joy, love, and laughter in every situation, at all times. It speaks of a completeness and unity possible only through God's presence. The "peace" God gives is, in the Hebrew sense of "shalom," is a physical, spiritual and communal well-being. Paul prays that the Thessalonians can go beyond the holiness they enjoy as members of Christ's body and experience this “peace” or harmonious unity of "spirit and soul and body" - or sanctification – that would allow them to stand "blameless" before God, when Christ returns.
This same “holiness” or “peace” can be ours as well. That is good news, indeed!
Last Sunday, we touched on the first of our three questions concerning prayer, ‘Why are we to pray?’ It was concluded, “We pray because we desperately need to – even though we are not always ready to.” We pray also because this is how God wants us to live, as modeled by our Lord, Jesus.
Jesus was a man of prayer. The gospels tell us that He prayed often and very definitely before the major events in His life. Before beginning his public ministry, Jesus went into the desert to fast and pray for 40 days. And before going to the cross, he prayed intensely in the Garden of Gethsemane.
The apostle Paul was a man of prayer as well. In his letters, he continually focused on his need, and that of others, for prayer. “Pray all the time," he told the Thessalonians, “thank God no matter what happens. This is the way God wants you, who belong to Christ Jesus, to live.
Followers of Christ, then, are to be people of prayer – or simply put, people who pray. But it is important that we know what prayer involves. Just what was the nature of the prayer Jesus and the apostles were talking about?
That becomes then our question for today, ‘How are we to pray?”
Joseph Cardinal Bernardin, Archbishop of Chicago from 1982-1996, and recipient of the Albert Einstein Peace Prize and the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his leadership in raising our nation's awareness of the difficult issues behind the nuclear arms race and the economic problems faced by our nation's poor, wrote this concerning prayer: “In no way should prayer insulate us from the real world. In no way should it become a crutch preventing us from facing up realistically to life.” His thought was that prayer should help to bring us into an intimate, loving union with God. It is not a tool for bringing about God’s action in one’s life – to make things better - but rather a means to better relationship with God. Prayer is about relationship.
And that type of relationship can happen when we realize these four things.
God is the same God. God is still a loving, powerful, merciful, generous, and faithful God = always was, always will be. And in the sameness of our lives, which is as much of a grind today as it has always been, or at times when the world crumbles around us – as it can do at any time - we need such a God.
Be open to what the Spirit is doing. There are times we don’t feel like praying. And yet we are always to give thanks to God in all circumstances. Paul's direction to the Thessalonians insists that every moment of life lived with the Holy Spirit is a moment filled with promise and possibility. Paul says, Be joyful! Be prayerful! Be thankful! – always, no matter what the circumstances. Understand though, they’re not things we have to do. Rather they are attitudes that describe our life because of the work of the Holy Spirit.
All circumstances are used for good. We are to depend entirely on the power of God's spirit at work in our life. God is committed to making us holy, and will not fail. God's love and presence will be made known in all situations. Paul tells us that there can be joy, love, life and laughter in every situation, at all times.
Every moment is open to God. There are so many demands on our time, so many things going on. Life can be so busy that we consider any time spent ‘not doing anything’ as time hopelessly lost. We might even think we have to pray at certain times, saying just the right words. Paul wasn’t saying the faithful needed to continually be engaged in literal prayer. What he was saying was that just as the gift of the Holy Spirit makes joy theirs at all times, they also have God's ear at all times. A Christian may turn to God at any moment of the day, under any circumstances, and be in communication with God. However, this is not a one-sided sort of thing. God is to have our ear at all times as well.
So that means we must always LISTEN. And to listen – for God to be heard - we may need to be quiet.
J. Walter Cross, in "Noises in the Night," tells of an artist who had just finished a major work and invited a famous critic to a private viewing. On the appointed day, the critic was met at the door of the studio and ushered into a darkened room where he was asked to wait. A half-hour had passed before the artist came. He apologized and explained the reason for the delay. "I was afraid that coming in directly from the bright sunlight, it might be impossible for you to see the subtle inter-workings between the colors." Sometimes the light can be too bright for us to see the true shades of life.
And sometimes the sound of our own voices or those of others is just too loud for us to hear the voice of God. It is then we need to find a silent place or be open to the moments of silence that arises during the week. Each may be a precious opportunity to listen to what God has to say.
This week sometime, try this - when driving down the highway alone, turn off the radio and 'hear' for a change God's scenery going by or when relaxing in front of the TV, turn the TV off, close your eyes and for the first time 'watch' the silence. Take advantage of all the opportunities everyday to listen to what God has to say, to offer up prayers, to be thankful for all you have. In all the silent places you find yourself in this week, open yourself to the life-altering power of possibility available through the Holy Spirit.
When you spend every waking moment attending only to the business of the day, you often ignore your spiritual needs. By putting off prayer until Sunday morning, confining thankfulness to a quick grace before meals you miss out on God in your life everyday.
Today’s text says there can be joy, love, and laughter in every situation, at all times. It speaks of a completeness and unity possible only through God's presence. The "peace" God gives is, in the Hebrew sense of "shalom," is a physical, spiritual and communal well-being. Paul prays that the Thessalonians can go beyond the holiness they enjoy as members of Christ's body and experience this “peace” or harmonious unity of "spirit and soul and body" - or sanctification – that would allow them to stand "blameless" before God, when Christ returns.
This same “holiness” or “peace” can be ours as well. That is good news, indeed!
Sunday, November 11, 2007
November 18, 2007 Readings
1 Thessalonians 5:12-28 (The Message)
12-13 And now, friends, we ask you to honor those leaders who work so hard for you, who have been given the responsibility of urging and guiding you along in your obedience. Overwhelm them with appreciation and love!
13-15 Get along among yourselves, each of you doing your part. Our counsel is that you warn the freeloaders to get a move on. Gently encourage the stragglers, and reach out for the exhausted, pulling them to their feet. Be patient with each person, attentive to individual needs. And be careful that when you get on each other's nerves you don't snap at each other. Look for the best in each other, and always do your best to bring it out.
16-18 Be cheerful no matter what; pray all the time; thank God no matter what happens. This is the way God wants you who belong to Christ Jesus to live.
19-22 Don't suppress the Spirit, and don't stifle those who have a word from the Master. On the other hand, don't be gullible. Check out everything, and keep only what's good. Throw out anything tainted with evil.
23-24 May God himself, the God who makes everything holy and whole, make you holy and whole, put you together—spirit, soul, and body—and keep you fit for the coming of our Master, Jesus Christ. The One who called you is completely dependable. If he said it, he'll do it!
25-27 Friends, keep up your prayers for us. Greet all the followers of Jesus there with a holy embrace. And make sure this letter gets read to all the brothers and sisters. Don't leave anyone out.
28 The amazing grace of Jesus Christ be with you!
Matthew 17:14-23 (The Message)
14-16 At the bottom of the mountain, they were met by a crowd of waiting people. As they approached, a man came out of the crowd and fell to his knees begging, "Master, have mercy on my son. He goes out of his mind and suffers terribly, falling into seizures. Frequently he is pitched into the fire, other times into the river. I brought him to your disciples, but they could do nothing for him."
17-18 Jesus said, "What a generation! No sense of God! No focus to your lives! How many times do I have to go over these things? How much longer do I have to put up with this? Bring the boy here." He ordered the afflicting demon out—and it was out, gone. From that moment on the boy was well.
19 When the disciples had Jesus off to themselves, they asked, "Why couldn't we throw it out?"
20 "Because you're not yet taking God seriously," said Jesus. "The simple truth is that if you had a mere kernel of faith, a poppy seed, say, you would tell this mountain, 'Move!' and it would move. There is nothing you wouldn't be able to tackle."
22-23 As they were regrouping in Galilee, Jesus told them, "The Son of Man is about to be betrayed to some people who want nothing to do with God. They will murder him—and three days later he will be raised alive." The disciples felt terrible.
12-13 And now, friends, we ask you to honor those leaders who work so hard for you, who have been given the responsibility of urging and guiding you along in your obedience. Overwhelm them with appreciation and love!
13-15 Get along among yourselves, each of you doing your part. Our counsel is that you warn the freeloaders to get a move on. Gently encourage the stragglers, and reach out for the exhausted, pulling them to their feet. Be patient with each person, attentive to individual needs. And be careful that when you get on each other's nerves you don't snap at each other. Look for the best in each other, and always do your best to bring it out.
16-18 Be cheerful no matter what; pray all the time; thank God no matter what happens. This is the way God wants you who belong to Christ Jesus to live.
19-22 Don't suppress the Spirit, and don't stifle those who have a word from the Master. On the other hand, don't be gullible. Check out everything, and keep only what's good. Throw out anything tainted with evil.
23-24 May God himself, the God who makes everything holy and whole, make you holy and whole, put you together—spirit, soul, and body—and keep you fit for the coming of our Master, Jesus Christ. The One who called you is completely dependable. If he said it, he'll do it!
25-27 Friends, keep up your prayers for us. Greet all the followers of Jesus there with a holy embrace. And make sure this letter gets read to all the brothers and sisters. Don't leave anyone out.
28 The amazing grace of Jesus Christ be with you!
Matthew 17:14-23 (The Message)
14-16 At the bottom of the mountain, they were met by a crowd of waiting people. As they approached, a man came out of the crowd and fell to his knees begging, "Master, have mercy on my son. He goes out of his mind and suffers terribly, falling into seizures. Frequently he is pitched into the fire, other times into the river. I brought him to your disciples, but they could do nothing for him."
17-18 Jesus said, "What a generation! No sense of God! No focus to your lives! How many times do I have to go over these things? How much longer do I have to put up with this? Bring the boy here." He ordered the afflicting demon out—and it was out, gone. From that moment on the boy was well.
19 When the disciples had Jesus off to themselves, they asked, "Why couldn't we throw it out?"
20 "Because you're not yet taking God seriously," said Jesus. "The simple truth is that if you had a mere kernel of faith, a poppy seed, say, you would tell this mountain, 'Move!' and it would move. There is nothing you wouldn't be able to tackle."
22-23 As they were regrouping in Galilee, Jesus told them, "The Son of Man is about to be betrayed to some people who want nothing to do with God. They will murder him—and three days later he will be raised alive." The disciples felt terrible.
November 11, 2007 Message
Luke 11:1-13
“Why Pray”
This week, and for the next two weeks, our scripture readings and lessons will center on prayer – not only an essential part of our worship service each Sunday, but also of our daily lives as well. Each Sunday, we will consider a different question: Why Do We Pray? How Often Do We Pray? (Pray Continually, Even When Prayers Are Unanswered), and What Happens When We Pray? (Does Prayer Change Anything?) I hope you are able to be here for all three and will invite others to be here as well. Prayer is that important.
Today our focus is on ‘Why Do We Pray?’ I don’t think we pray because it makes life easier or it gets us the things we want. There is an old African Proverb that says: “The prayer of a chicken hawk does not get him a chicken.” Prayer does not get us things. Although it does get us close to God and that is a good thing. English poet, P. J. Bailey wrote a century ago, “Prayer is the spirit speaking truth to Truth.” Perhaps that is why we pray – so that we can speak to God. Or maybe we pray because ‘everyone is doing it’ – at least in the Bible.
Prayer is biblical …and it is something Jesus did quite a bit of. There are many times in scripture we are told of Jesus praying. For him, prayer was essential. So much so that when asked, he taught his disciples how to pray ‘his prayer’ to God, the Father - the prayer from today’s gospel, known as The Lord’s Prayer. For us, it is to be the model for all prayer and perhaps the answer to our first question – why do we pray?
We pray because of our need to praise God (adoration), to admit our mistakes to God (confession), to thank God (thanksgiving), to ask God to provide something (supplication), and to ask for God to help others (intercession). The Lord’s Prayer is all of these, rolled up into one.
Our worship each week is to include our response to those needs to pray – to praise and thank God, to seek God’s help and provision, and to ask God’s forgiveness. And that is why we pray the Lord’s Prayer as well.
Note I said ‘pray’ and not ‘say’ – you’ve been there before, right? You have been told that if you slow down and listen to what you are saying in the Lord's Prayer, you will no longer be able to just "recite" it. Instead, you will be able to pray it. Maybe many of you have even practiced doing just that at sometime or another in the past. However, sooner rather than later, the Lord's Prayer became once again nothing more than a recitation - a memorized script mumbled forth on cue with no thought about its meaning or implication to life.
For a moment - imagine what it would mean if we actually prayed the words of the Lord’s Prayer and actually meant them? Chances are, most of the time, we have just mouthed the words. For many in my generation, this is so true. The scenario goes something like this: At some point in the worship service, the pastor says, "… as Jesus taught his disciples to pray," and the congregation ‘chants’ the words of the Lord's Prayer. The prayer is often a memorized recitation rather than an expression of the heart. The only point of reflection is whether to say "forgive us our debts," "forgive us our trespasses," or "forgive us our sins" - if the words are not printed in the bulletin.
Sometimes the Lord's Prayer has been examined in a Sunday School class or Bible study we have been in. It has been taken apart and analyzed phrase by phrase, if not word for word. The intimate character of the term Abba, Father is learned; as is the meaning of that strange word, "hallowed"; and the sorts of evil from which we might pray for deliverance.
Either way, whether in our recitation or in our study, we may have lost sight of the prayer itself or its significance to our own prayer life. Perhaps, when it comes to this prayer, not only have we been standing on holy ground and did not have the good sense to remove our sandals, we have not yet been ready to actually pray it.
Because to pray this prayer indicates a desire (on our part) to be set free from those ideas, those habits, those attitudes that seek to hold us captive. So the question becomes, "Are we at all certain that we want to be set free?" Are we ready to really pray as Jesus has taught us?
Many of us are comfortable with our lives and the faith associated with it. To change things could be uncomfortable, if not painful… and we don’t want that. What we do each day may not include those things that nourish the soul, yet we’re not willing to find room in our schedules for necessary spiritual disciplines. We know that we are impatient, unforgiving, sarcastic or inattentive to those we love and who love us, and we really don't like being that way. But given the choice between exerting the energy to change or continuing as we are, too often we choose the status quo. We shy away from embracing the implications of calling God "Father."
In short, we may need to be freed from whatever enslaves us, but the haunting question is whether we want to be set free. If praying the Lord's Prayer -- if calling God "Father" -- is to acknowledge God’s liberating power and to confess our desire to participate in that liberating experience, then, perhaps, the Lord's Prayer is a prayer that cannot yet be prayed.
When we ask for God’s kingdom to come, we are bound by cords of grace to all sorts of persons who profess faith in Jesus as the Christ. We are all kingdom-mates, brothers and sisters in the kingdom of God - even those whose Christian beliefs do not conform to our own. We may not be ready for that yet! Even though a kingdom - in which those differences that would divide are less important than the One whose kingdom it is – is exactly what we need to pray for.
We also need to pray for the basics of life - no more, no less – for the ‘daily bread’ and survival of all people. However, if truth be told, our satisfaction requires more than just bread. We’ve worked hard to surround ourselves with creature comforts to which we have become attached. The simple lifestyle may be okay for some folks, but most of us just not there yet. And yet, that is exactly why we need to pray.
And especially we need to pray for the ‘daily bread’ of the millions in this world who, in N.T. Wright’s words, “…didn't have bread yesterday, don't have any today, and in human terms are unlikely to have any tomorrow either." However it would be a cheap grace to pray, "give US OUR bread," knowing where MY bread is coming from, but I leave it up to God to figure out where THEY will get THEIR bread. Praying those words invites God to act through us, providing hunger relief, giving people hope, and advocating changes in policies, both locally and internationally, that keep people impoverished and hungry. This, too, is why we need to pray.
So, why do we pray? I think we pray because we desperately need to – even though we sometimes realize we are not ready to. Prayer can be a dangerous thing. Especially a prayer like the Lord’s Prayer that asks God to lead us, as Victoria Rebeck has said, “down some risky and unfamiliar paths.” St. Francis of Assisi explained that praying the Lord’s Prayer is: “praying that we might know God better and better; that we might be brought into God’s kingdom to love God perfectly; giving ourselves completely in service to God; asking for what sustains us - God’s Son, our Lord Jesus Christ; recognizing God’s mercy when it comes to forgiveness and our need to forgive others in the same way; and, lastly, concerning our time of trial –a pass would be nice.”
So, perhaps in the future, we should always begin, "Lord, make us able to pray your prayer. “Father ...."
hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread.
And forgive us our sins,
for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.
And do not bring us to the time of trial.
“Why Pray”
This week, and for the next two weeks, our scripture readings and lessons will center on prayer – not only an essential part of our worship service each Sunday, but also of our daily lives as well. Each Sunday, we will consider a different question: Why Do We Pray? How Often Do We Pray? (Pray Continually, Even When Prayers Are Unanswered), and What Happens When We Pray? (Does Prayer Change Anything?) I hope you are able to be here for all three and will invite others to be here as well. Prayer is that important.
Today our focus is on ‘Why Do We Pray?’ I don’t think we pray because it makes life easier or it gets us the things we want. There is an old African Proverb that says: “The prayer of a chicken hawk does not get him a chicken.” Prayer does not get us things. Although it does get us close to God and that is a good thing. English poet, P. J. Bailey wrote a century ago, “Prayer is the spirit speaking truth to Truth.” Perhaps that is why we pray – so that we can speak to God. Or maybe we pray because ‘everyone is doing it’ – at least in the Bible.
Prayer is biblical …and it is something Jesus did quite a bit of. There are many times in scripture we are told of Jesus praying. For him, prayer was essential. So much so that when asked, he taught his disciples how to pray ‘his prayer’ to God, the Father - the prayer from today’s gospel, known as The Lord’s Prayer. For us, it is to be the model for all prayer and perhaps the answer to our first question – why do we pray?
We pray because of our need to praise God (adoration), to admit our mistakes to God (confession), to thank God (thanksgiving), to ask God to provide something (supplication), and to ask for God to help others (intercession). The Lord’s Prayer is all of these, rolled up into one.
Our worship each week is to include our response to those needs to pray – to praise and thank God, to seek God’s help and provision, and to ask God’s forgiveness. And that is why we pray the Lord’s Prayer as well.
Note I said ‘pray’ and not ‘say’ – you’ve been there before, right? You have been told that if you slow down and listen to what you are saying in the Lord's Prayer, you will no longer be able to just "recite" it. Instead, you will be able to pray it. Maybe many of you have even practiced doing just that at sometime or another in the past. However, sooner rather than later, the Lord's Prayer became once again nothing more than a recitation - a memorized script mumbled forth on cue with no thought about its meaning or implication to life.
For a moment - imagine what it would mean if we actually prayed the words of the Lord’s Prayer and actually meant them? Chances are, most of the time, we have just mouthed the words. For many in my generation, this is so true. The scenario goes something like this: At some point in the worship service, the pastor says, "… as Jesus taught his disciples to pray," and the congregation ‘chants’ the words of the Lord's Prayer. The prayer is often a memorized recitation rather than an expression of the heart. The only point of reflection is whether to say "forgive us our debts," "forgive us our trespasses," or "forgive us our sins" - if the words are not printed in the bulletin.
Sometimes the Lord's Prayer has been examined in a Sunday School class or Bible study we have been in. It has been taken apart and analyzed phrase by phrase, if not word for word. The intimate character of the term Abba, Father is learned; as is the meaning of that strange word, "hallowed"; and the sorts of evil from which we might pray for deliverance.
Either way, whether in our recitation or in our study, we may have lost sight of the prayer itself or its significance to our own prayer life. Perhaps, when it comes to this prayer, not only have we been standing on holy ground and did not have the good sense to remove our sandals, we have not yet been ready to actually pray it.
Because to pray this prayer indicates a desire (on our part) to be set free from those ideas, those habits, those attitudes that seek to hold us captive. So the question becomes, "Are we at all certain that we want to be set free?" Are we ready to really pray as Jesus has taught us?
Many of us are comfortable with our lives and the faith associated with it. To change things could be uncomfortable, if not painful… and we don’t want that. What we do each day may not include those things that nourish the soul, yet we’re not willing to find room in our schedules for necessary spiritual disciplines. We know that we are impatient, unforgiving, sarcastic or inattentive to those we love and who love us, and we really don't like being that way. But given the choice between exerting the energy to change or continuing as we are, too often we choose the status quo. We shy away from embracing the implications of calling God "Father."
In short, we may need to be freed from whatever enslaves us, but the haunting question is whether we want to be set free. If praying the Lord's Prayer -- if calling God "Father" -- is to acknowledge God’s liberating power and to confess our desire to participate in that liberating experience, then, perhaps, the Lord's Prayer is a prayer that cannot yet be prayed.
When we ask for God’s kingdom to come, we are bound by cords of grace to all sorts of persons who profess faith in Jesus as the Christ. We are all kingdom-mates, brothers and sisters in the kingdom of God - even those whose Christian beliefs do not conform to our own. We may not be ready for that yet! Even though a kingdom - in which those differences that would divide are less important than the One whose kingdom it is – is exactly what we need to pray for.
We also need to pray for the basics of life - no more, no less – for the ‘daily bread’ and survival of all people. However, if truth be told, our satisfaction requires more than just bread. We’ve worked hard to surround ourselves with creature comforts to which we have become attached. The simple lifestyle may be okay for some folks, but most of us just not there yet. And yet, that is exactly why we need to pray.
And especially we need to pray for the ‘daily bread’ of the millions in this world who, in N.T. Wright’s words, “…didn't have bread yesterday, don't have any today, and in human terms are unlikely to have any tomorrow either." However it would be a cheap grace to pray, "give US OUR bread," knowing where MY bread is coming from, but I leave it up to God to figure out where THEY will get THEIR bread. Praying those words invites God to act through us, providing hunger relief, giving people hope, and advocating changes in policies, both locally and internationally, that keep people impoverished and hungry. This, too, is why we need to pray.
So, why do we pray? I think we pray because we desperately need to – even though we sometimes realize we are not ready to. Prayer can be a dangerous thing. Especially a prayer like the Lord’s Prayer that asks God to lead us, as Victoria Rebeck has said, “down some risky and unfamiliar paths.” St. Francis of Assisi explained that praying the Lord’s Prayer is: “praying that we might know God better and better; that we might be brought into God’s kingdom to love God perfectly; giving ourselves completely in service to God; asking for what sustains us - God’s Son, our Lord Jesus Christ; recognizing God’s mercy when it comes to forgiveness and our need to forgive others in the same way; and, lastly, concerning our time of trial –a pass would be nice.”
So, perhaps in the future, we should always begin, "Lord, make us able to pray your prayer. “Father ...."
hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread.
And forgive us our sins,
for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.
And do not bring us to the time of trial.
Friday, November 09, 2007
November 11, 2007 Readings
James 4:7-10 (The Message)
7-10 So let God work his will in you. Yell a loud no to the Devil and watch him scamper. Say a quiet yes to God and he'll be there in no time. Quit dabbling in sin. Purify your inner life. Quit playing the field. Hit bottom, and cry your eyes out. The fun and games are over. Get serious, really serious. Get down on your knees before the Master; it's the only way you'll get on your feet.
Luke 11:1-10 (The Message)
1 One day he was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said, "Master, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples."
2-4 So he said, "When you pray, say,
Father,
Reveal who you are.
Set the world right.
Keep us alive with three square meals.
Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others.
Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil."
5-6 Then he said, "Imagine what would happen if you went to a friend in the middle of the night and said, 'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread. An old friend traveling through just showed up, and I don't have a thing on hand.'
7 "The friend answers from his bed, 'Don't bother me. The door's locked; my children are all down for the night; I can't get up to give you anything.'
8 "But let me tell you, even if he won't get up because he's a friend, if you stand your ground, knocking and waking all the neighbors, he'll finally get up and get you whatever you need.
9 "Here's what I'm saying:
Ask and you'll get;
Seek and you'll find;
Knock and the door will open.
10 "Don't bargain with God. Be direct. Ask for what you need. This is not a cat-and-mouse, hide-and-seek game we're in.
7-10 So let God work his will in you. Yell a loud no to the Devil and watch him scamper. Say a quiet yes to God and he'll be there in no time. Quit dabbling in sin. Purify your inner life. Quit playing the field. Hit bottom, and cry your eyes out. The fun and games are over. Get serious, really serious. Get down on your knees before the Master; it's the only way you'll get on your feet.
Luke 11:1-10 (The Message)
1 One day he was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said, "Master, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples."
2-4 So he said, "When you pray, say,
Father,
Reveal who you are.
Set the world right.
Keep us alive with three square meals.
Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others.
Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil."
5-6 Then he said, "Imagine what would happen if you went to a friend in the middle of the night and said, 'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread. An old friend traveling through just showed up, and I don't have a thing on hand.'
7 "The friend answers from his bed, 'Don't bother me. The door's locked; my children are all down for the night; I can't get up to give you anything.'
8 "But let me tell you, even if he won't get up because he's a friend, if you stand your ground, knocking and waking all the neighbors, he'll finally get up and get you whatever you need.
9 "Here's what I'm saying:
Ask and you'll get;
Seek and you'll find;
Knock and the door will open.
10 "Don't bargain with God. Be direct. Ask for what you need. This is not a cat-and-mouse, hide-and-seek game we're in.
Friday, November 02, 2007
November 4, 2007 Message
November 4, 2007
Matthew 5:1-12, Matthew 7:24-27
“When Less Is More”
Yertle the Turtle is a great story about a turtle that thought he was big stuff. He was important. Yertle was a king… of a small pond that is. Everything he could see from the rock throne in the middle of that pond was his, or so he thought. But he couldn’t see everything, could he?
“He sat on a rock and could see all the pond,
But Yertle could not see the places beyond...”
So he figured if he could see farther, he could see more things… and they would all be his. And to see farther, all he had to do was to get up a little higher.
“So, he ordered nine turtles to swim to his stone,
And using these turtles he built a new throne.”
Those turtles got up on the stone in the middle of the pond and stood one on top of the other – with Yertle right there on top of the stack. You’d think the higher he was, the happier he would be. But not Yertle! Even when he could see a mile, and declared that the cow and the mule and the house and the cat and the blueberry bush were all his, he had to get higher yet. It seemed the more he could see, the more he wanted to see… and the more he stepped on others, until…
“That plain little turtle below in the stack,
That plain little turtle whose name was just Mack,
Decided he'd taken enough. And he had.
And that plain little lad got a little bit mad.
And that plain little Mack did a plain little thing:
He burped! And his burp shook the throne of the king.”
When that happened, Yertle fell from the top of the stack pretty fast, right into the pond… and into the mud. This story of Yertle is a little like the story Jesus told of the foolish man who built his house on the sand instead of on a rock and “When a storm rolled in and the waves came up, it collapsed like a house of cards." Yertle fell from his high place because he didn’t build his throne on a solid foundation, but on the backs of other turtles with only a tiny burp between his lofty, high perch and the sticky, slimy mud of the pond below.
Not only did his high position, above everyone else, rest on a ‘not so good’ foundation, the motivation behind it wasn’t good either. Remember, Yertle’s reason for being up so high was so he could see more, so more would be his. He was selfish and greedy. He wanted to get higher and higher so that more would be his. It was all about making his kingdom bigger.
Each day we have choices as well regarding the foundations on which our lives are built and how solid we want those foundations to be. Sure we can build on values like selfishness and greed. We can ignore or not care about people around us who need help. Or we can build on the values Jesus teaches.
He tells his followers and the church today: “These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundational words, words to build a life on.” We can be like the Yertle the Turtle and the man who built his house on the sand or we can put “our house” on a rock solid foundation capable of getting us through the ‘storms and floods of life’ …and all the small burps as well.
His warning not to build our lives “on sand” is part of, what many consider, the most important sermon ever given: Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. His message that day included the Beatitudes, in which we find the very foundational elements on which we are to build our life as the people of God - the basic premise being found in Jesus’ words: “With less of you there is more of God and his rule.”
You see, when we become less concerned about thinking only of ourselves… and more concerned of others, we become meek… and more of God. The biblical understanding of meekness has more to do with humility, with seeing ourselves as we really are, no better or no worse than we are… or anyone else for that matter. That is, after all, how God sees us as well.
Once upon a time, there was a place where everybody, including the butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker, wore a crown.
One day a traveling photographer, who made his living by taking pictures of kings and queens and their families, came to this country. He would take his camera throughout the country and take a picture of everyone wearing crowns. Then he would put them in an album and sell them to the king of the country for a lot of money.
The traveling photographer set up his camera and started tak-ing pictures in this place where everyone wore a crown. Person after person – every man, woman, and child – who walked by were all wearing crowns, so he took their pictures. He took a lot of pictures! And he began thinking. "How could so many people be part of the royal family?"
So he began asking questions. "Excuse me, Mister Butcher-with-the-Crown. What relation do you have to the king?" "I'm one of his children," the butcher replied, "so I guess I am a prince."
The photographer asked the baker, "Excuse me, ma'am. How are you related to the king?" She answered, "I'm one of his chil-dren, a princess." In fact, everyone he met was either a prince or a princess (or at least they claimed to be).
Finally, he had used up all his film (that was before you could download your pictures, erase them from memory and start over again). He printed the photos and headed to the castle with the largest album ever. He knocked at the door, only to be greeted by another man wearing a large crown. "You must be the king," the photographer said. "No, I am one of the king's aides. I'm also a prince."
"Another prince!" The photographer was amazed. "Tell me, prince, how can there be so many crowns? How can everybody be a prince or a princess? Doesn't it make the king unhappy that everyone is wearing a crown?"
"Of course not,” the king's helper told the photographer, "there is even a crown here for you, too, if you want it. The king issued a royal decree that everyone who enters this land becomes a member of his family. Everyone here wears a crown. Everyone here is a prince or princess. But there is one rule: we must remember that he is the king and that we all belong to the king's family!"
The lesson here is that to be meek is to know our identity as human beings - that God calls all of us to be his children. We are all princes and princesses in the kingdom of God. But we must always remember that God is the King. Our meekness – our humil-ity - requires our remembering that God is the head of the royal family.
With less of us there can be more of God… Perhaps the Beatitudes are not so much about ‘who is blessed in this world,’ but about ‘when we are blessed.’ And that is really quite simple – we are blessed when, in our lives, there is less of us, and more of God.
You're blessed when you're at the end of your rope…
Or you feel you've lost what is most dear to you…
Or are content with just who you are—no more, no less…
Or you've worked up a good appetite for God…
Or when you care…
Or when you get your mind and heart—put right…
Or when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight…
Or when your commitment to God becomes a nuisance…
Or when people put you down or speak lies about you to discredit me.
Then, and perhaps only then, will we begin to realize it’s not so much about us as it is about God. That’s when less becomes more – our relying less on us and more on God. That is when we are blessed. That is when we are all children of God. That is the foundation on which we are to build our life. A foundation in Jesus Christ who taught we are all children of God, heirs to a kingdom, that is as near as our becoming less and God becoming more.
Matthew 5:1-12, Matthew 7:24-27
“When Less Is More”
Yertle the Turtle is a great story about a turtle that thought he was big stuff. He was important. Yertle was a king… of a small pond that is. Everything he could see from the rock throne in the middle of that pond was his, or so he thought. But he couldn’t see everything, could he?
“He sat on a rock and could see all the pond,
But Yertle could not see the places beyond...”
So he figured if he could see farther, he could see more things… and they would all be his. And to see farther, all he had to do was to get up a little higher.
“So, he ordered nine turtles to swim to his stone,
And using these turtles he built a new throne.”
Those turtles got up on the stone in the middle of the pond and stood one on top of the other – with Yertle right there on top of the stack. You’d think the higher he was, the happier he would be. But not Yertle! Even when he could see a mile, and declared that the cow and the mule and the house and the cat and the blueberry bush were all his, he had to get higher yet. It seemed the more he could see, the more he wanted to see… and the more he stepped on others, until…
“That plain little turtle below in the stack,
That plain little turtle whose name was just Mack,
Decided he'd taken enough. And he had.
And that plain little lad got a little bit mad.
And that plain little Mack did a plain little thing:
He burped! And his burp shook the throne of the king.”
When that happened, Yertle fell from the top of the stack pretty fast, right into the pond… and into the mud. This story of Yertle is a little like the story Jesus told of the foolish man who built his house on the sand instead of on a rock and “When a storm rolled in and the waves came up, it collapsed like a house of cards." Yertle fell from his high place because he didn’t build his throne on a solid foundation, but on the backs of other turtles with only a tiny burp between his lofty, high perch and the sticky, slimy mud of the pond below.
Not only did his high position, above everyone else, rest on a ‘not so good’ foundation, the motivation behind it wasn’t good either. Remember, Yertle’s reason for being up so high was so he could see more, so more would be his. He was selfish and greedy. He wanted to get higher and higher so that more would be his. It was all about making his kingdom bigger.
Each day we have choices as well regarding the foundations on which our lives are built and how solid we want those foundations to be. Sure we can build on values like selfishness and greed. We can ignore or not care about people around us who need help. Or we can build on the values Jesus teaches.
He tells his followers and the church today: “These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundational words, words to build a life on.” We can be like the Yertle the Turtle and the man who built his house on the sand or we can put “our house” on a rock solid foundation capable of getting us through the ‘storms and floods of life’ …and all the small burps as well.
His warning not to build our lives “on sand” is part of, what many consider, the most important sermon ever given: Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. His message that day included the Beatitudes, in which we find the very foundational elements on which we are to build our life as the people of God - the basic premise being found in Jesus’ words: “With less of you there is more of God and his rule.”
You see, when we become less concerned about thinking only of ourselves… and more concerned of others, we become meek… and more of God. The biblical understanding of meekness has more to do with humility, with seeing ourselves as we really are, no better or no worse than we are… or anyone else for that matter. That is, after all, how God sees us as well.
Once upon a time, there was a place where everybody, including the butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker, wore a crown.
One day a traveling photographer, who made his living by taking pictures of kings and queens and their families, came to this country. He would take his camera throughout the country and take a picture of everyone wearing crowns. Then he would put them in an album and sell them to the king of the country for a lot of money.
The traveling photographer set up his camera and started tak-ing pictures in this place where everyone wore a crown. Person after person – every man, woman, and child – who walked by were all wearing crowns, so he took their pictures. He took a lot of pictures! And he began thinking. "How could so many people be part of the royal family?"
So he began asking questions. "Excuse me, Mister Butcher-with-the-Crown. What relation do you have to the king?" "I'm one of his children," the butcher replied, "so I guess I am a prince."
The photographer asked the baker, "Excuse me, ma'am. How are you related to the king?" She answered, "I'm one of his chil-dren, a princess." In fact, everyone he met was either a prince or a princess (or at least they claimed to be).
Finally, he had used up all his film (that was before you could download your pictures, erase them from memory and start over again). He printed the photos and headed to the castle with the largest album ever. He knocked at the door, only to be greeted by another man wearing a large crown. "You must be the king," the photographer said. "No, I am one of the king's aides. I'm also a prince."
"Another prince!" The photographer was amazed. "Tell me, prince, how can there be so many crowns? How can everybody be a prince or a princess? Doesn't it make the king unhappy that everyone is wearing a crown?"
"Of course not,” the king's helper told the photographer, "there is even a crown here for you, too, if you want it. The king issued a royal decree that everyone who enters this land becomes a member of his family. Everyone here wears a crown. Everyone here is a prince or princess. But there is one rule: we must remember that he is the king and that we all belong to the king's family!"
The lesson here is that to be meek is to know our identity as human beings - that God calls all of us to be his children. We are all princes and princesses in the kingdom of God. But we must always remember that God is the King. Our meekness – our humil-ity - requires our remembering that God is the head of the royal family.
With less of us there can be more of God… Perhaps the Beatitudes are not so much about ‘who is blessed in this world,’ but about ‘when we are blessed.’ And that is really quite simple – we are blessed when, in our lives, there is less of us, and more of God.
You're blessed when you're at the end of your rope…
Or you feel you've lost what is most dear to you…
Or are content with just who you are—no more, no less…
Or you've worked up a good appetite for God…
Or when you care…
Or when you get your mind and heart—put right…
Or when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight…
Or when your commitment to God becomes a nuisance…
Or when people put you down or speak lies about you to discredit me.
Then, and perhaps only then, will we begin to realize it’s not so much about us as it is about God. That’s when less becomes more – our relying less on us and more on God. That is when we are blessed. That is when we are all children of God. That is the foundation on which we are to build our life. A foundation in Jesus Christ who taught we are all children of God, heirs to a kingdom, that is as near as our becoming less and God becoming more.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)