Author: Mark Mong

Luke 12:22-31

²²He said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear. ²³For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. ²⁴Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! ²⁵And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? ²⁶If then you are not able to do so small a thing as that, why do you worry about the rest? ²⁷Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. ²⁸But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you — you of little faith! ²⁹And do not keep striving for what you are to eat and what you are to drink, and do not keep worrying. ³⁰For it is the nations of the world that strive after all these things, and your Father knows that you need them. ³¹Instead, strive for his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.”

As a Cleveland Browns fan, I am super excited about the direction the team is going.  Both the General Manager and the outstanding additions through free agency and the Coaching Staff and the superior development of those players, leave me excited and anticipating the football season.  But with everything going so well, the cynic in me starts to become worried.  What about injury, what about a lack of chemistry, what about personality clashes, what about …?  I cannot help but have anxiety and/or fear that with everything going well, something bad or unpleasant will happen.

So too with us in the Church.  We do not worry about our sports teams, but we do have a multitude of things to worry about.  Things like the economy and inflation, things like the shortage of gas and chicken wings, things like escalating tensions with China and Russia.  We can find an enormous number of things to have anxiety and/or fear of, that something bad or unpleasant will happen and happen soon.

Hear this Word of the Lord, Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear….  While 1^st Century churches did not have to worry about the stock market, or nuclear war, or the price of gasoline, they did have daily struggles that could consume them and their attentions.  Will we have enough food, will we have basic clothing, and will I be devoured by the local wildlife?  These struggles which thankfully we have phased out of our society still leads to anxiety and that we have plenty of.  While the stresses and triggers are quite different, something resides in our nature that wants to worry and fret about something bad happening today or tomorrow.

But we are told not to worry because life is more than food, and the body more than clothing.  These basic amenities of life were quite able to demand the attention of the ensouled bodies of the first Christians, but they needed reminded that life is more than the basic amenities of life.  While dreadfully important, these things are outranked by the more important elements, in which humans alone are capable.  Jesus uses the analogy to make his point, consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! While important, the basic amenities of life are outranked by things of higher value like virtue, righteousness, and justice.  God knows we need the basics but also has given us the urge for higher desires, the desires of virtue.

We are also told not to worry because, can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? If then you are not able to do so small a thing as that, why do you worry about the rest?  As creatures we cannot give ourselves a single hour, only our Creator can do that.  Time is allotted by the free and generous hand of God alone.  If we cannot give ourselves time, then why should we worry about all the other things that God alone can give?  As creatures we must learn to be content in and under the Providence of God to care and minister to God’s creatures, instead of replacing God with ourselves and try to give ourselves more time and more life.

Perhaps this speaks deeply of our fallen human nature to trust only in ourselves and not have to put anything on God.  But that is what Jesus describes as you of little faith! We do not and perhaps even cannot put ourselves under the care of God instead we put ourselves only on own shoulders.  To steal more time, to prevent the catastrophe from occurring, to solicit enough resources for our families, to purchase the food, clothing, and medicine in self-reliance.  But self-reliance is of little faith in God because you put your faith in yourself.  And when you put your faith in yourself, the end is only worry, anxiety and apprehension, because you must play God, with the Real and Living God has been excluded from our worlds.

But what real faith in God and not in us looks like is to strive for his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.  Seek the higher things of God’s Kingdom and the worldly conveniences of daily life will be added unto you.  To search, to desire, to obtain the Kingdom of God first and then our daily resources will be added unto us.  This just begs the question, what do we seek first and then the other things second?  The Kingdom of God and then worldly goods, or worldly goods first and then the Kingdom of God afterward.  This is still the path of worry and anxiety because God is not first and then our goods second, but we worry about our kingdoms and never have time or concern for God.  God is excluded and you are still playing God.

My brothers and sisters, through the Spirit of Jesus Christ we can learn to seek the Kingdom of God first and our daily bread will be added unto us.  To seek the higher concerns instead of the basic pieces of life.  God knows we need them, but God wants us to worry about virtue before food, righteousness before clothing, and justice before our bodies.  This is who God has made us through the work of the Word and the Spirit.  Will we become this people, who seek God’s Kingdom first and then our basic conveniences second? 

Matthew 4: 18-25

¹⁸ As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea—for they were fishermen. ¹⁹ And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.” ²⁰ Immediately they left their nets and followed him. ²¹ As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. ²² Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him.  ²³ Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people. ²⁴ So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought to him all the sick, those who were afflicted with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, and paralytics, and he cured them. ²⁵ And great crowds followed him from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and from beyond the Jordan.

One of my favorite activities to do while on vacation was to go fishing.  We used to rent a cabin at Lake Hope in southern Ohio for a week.  We would spend our time fishing in the lake for whatever we could catch.  Often over the course of the entire week we would have to walk the entire length of the lake.  We would not keep fishing where the fish were not, we would keep moving until we found the fish and when we did, we would stay there until they stopped biting.  We would not stay where there was no fish, we would move around to where the fish were and where the fish were biting.

So too is it when it comes to fishing for people.  In our text from Matthew, Jesus goes fishing for disciples, and to catch them, he must move to where they are.  So, Jesus leaves Nazareth and travels to the Sea of Galilee to fish for people.  The people he wants to catch are not in Nazareth, they are in Capernaum and to catch them, the fish do not move to the fisherman, but the fisherman move to the fish.  Instead of using bait to catch fish, Jesus uses his Word of Summons to call his prospective disciples.  “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.” So also with us, Jesus issues his Word of Summons to the entire world, through the Word of the Spirit, summoning us all to the sacred space of following Christ.

But a summons requires an answer and Jesus’ summons is no different.  The invitation into His sacred space must be responded to and the first disciple’s answer.  Immediately they left their nets and followed him.  They transitioned from being catchers of fish to catchers of people.  They entered the sacred space of following and learning and encountering Jesus.  So also with us, Jesus issues us His Word of Summons and that Word requires an answer from us.  If we are summoned to discipleship, we must answer with discipleship and that mean trust in the Master and obedience to his Word.  To Follow Jesus as the first disciples did is to trust and obey. 

But to obey Jesus is become fishers for people; and here is where our resistance enters this picture.  The difficult problem for us is we do not want to leave our closed, safe circles of family and friends and go fishing for strangers.  But if you fish only where there are no fish, you will never catch anything.  To truly catch something, the fisher must move to where the fish is.  Can we fish for people if we never leave the safety of our living rooms and easy chairs?  Can we fish for people if we never leave our sanctuaries and go out into our neighborhoods?  Can we fish for people if we never are around sick people, or jailed people, or unconverted people, or poor people, or people different from us?  How can we catch anyone, if we never leave our safe spaces and enter the spaces where the people are?

But Jesus is not just our Example, but also our Redeemer and this means that he did not come to cure our ignorance, as if that were enough to just tell us the truth.  But Jesus also came to deliver us and to recreate us.  So, Jesus did not just teach his disciples about catching people, but he actually went and did so.  Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people.  He did not just teach about reaching people, he went and reached people.

Who better to help us reach and connect with people than the one who not only revealed what being human truly is, but also the one who redeemed us from our inhumanity to remake us as humans?  Who better to help us become fishers of people than the one who is himself the great Fisher of people?  So, we not only are told what our true humanity is – in loving encounter with each other, but through Christ we become truly human – in loving encounter with each other.  In Christ and through Christ we become truly human again.

But my friends at some point if we are to be truly human, we need to leave the safe spaces of your own making and enter the spaces where people are.  We will not encounter them if we do not.  They will never be in our living room; we must move to them.  They will never come into our sanctuary; we must move to them.  They will never come to us; we must move to them.  The fish do not move to the fisher, the fisher moves to the fish.  Jesus fished for people, and to that end he moved towards the people.  Now is the time to go fishing, will you?

Acts 8:26-40

²⁶ Then an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Get up and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is a wilderness road.) ²⁷ So he got up and went. Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury. He had come to Jerusalem to worship ²⁸ and was returning home; seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah. ²⁹ Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over to this chariot and join it.” ³⁰ So Philip ran up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” ³¹ He replied, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to get in and sit beside him. ³² Now the passage of the scripture that he was reading was this:

      “Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter,
                         and like a lamb silent before its shearer,
             so he does not open his mouth.
        ³³ In his humiliation justice was denied him.
                        Who can describe his generation?
            For his life is taken away from the earth.”

³⁴ The eunuch asked Philip, “About whom, may I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” ³⁵ Then Philip began to speak, and starting with this scripture, he proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus. ³⁶ As they were going along the road, they came to some water; and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?” ³⁸ He commanded the chariot to stop, and both of them, Philip and the eunuch, went down into the water, and Philip baptized him. ³⁹ When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing. ⁴⁰ But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he was passing through the region, he proclaimed the good news to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.

Devotion
As a young boy, I enjoyed assembling models, whether made of plastic or wood.  I always had a profound sense of joy after opening the packaging and pulling out the sheets of plastic or wooden parts, and the painting and gluing together of the various pieces and seeing it come together.  But anyone who assembles models will tell you, the model at step 1 looks almost nothing like the finished piece.  The first piece of the engine does not bear any resemblance to the finished and painted car.  Step 1 must be followed by step 2 until all the steps are completed and then the finished model looks like the image on the box.  All the steps must be completed and completed for the masterpiece to be finished.

In our journeys of discipleship, we also walk in time and space by steps.  In our following of the Holy Spirit’s lead, we are led in stages of the one whole journey.  Our moments in the “present” time always take place after our “past” events and always take place before our “future” moments.  Our entire existence as the Covenant Community of Christ, is one long journey of discipleship towards the Shepherd, lived in stages or steps, 1, 2, 3, etc., until we reach the end or goal, the Kingdom of God.

In the story of Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch, Philip clearly displays “discipleship by steps.” Then an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Get up and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is a wilderness road.)   Here is step 1 of his journey for the moment but notice that the angel neither tells him the next step or even where and why he is going down this wilderness road.  He is only led and guided in a particular space and time, and the reason why and where the journey finishes is hidden from Philip.  Philip is just commanded to follow the Spirit’s lead and Philip does not bicker or complain about the command, he only obeys gladly the Spirit’s lead.

Here is where our discipleship not only differs from Philip’s but also becomes increasingly difficult.  We want to not only know the result of the Spirit’s leading but also what that trip is going to cost us.  As people who have survived the Enlightenment and Modernity, before we make many choices, we must calculate the risks and the costs of such a trip down our wilderness roads.  Where are we going, and do I want to go there?  Who will I meet, and do I want to meet them?  What is the point of going, and what will happen to me there?  Will I be mugged on that road or meet a new friend?  In essence we are not prepared to follow the Spirit’s lead and trusting in the greater purpose of God for that moment.  We want to know, like God knows, why, when, what, and will happen to me down that wilderness road.

We simply want to know what has been deliberately hidden from us by the Spirit.  Tell me the whole journey and the results and I will tell you if I want to go or not.  Is this discipleship towards the Spirit of Jesus Christ, or is this yet another attempt by us to play God and control our own lives?  Are we being the Church of Jesus Christ trusting in God even when the future is hidden, or are we being fallen humans, desiring to know as God knows, which really means we want to be God?  Can we handle being just humans that cannot and should not see the whole picture, traveling by stages trusting and obeying the lead of God, or must be calculate and lead ourselves through life’s stages?  Can we handle being a creature of God, or must we be our own God also?

Perhaps the only hope for us fearful and self-reliant creatures is the Word become Flesh, Jesus Christ our Lord.  Not only is he God who leads and sustains, but because he is also human, and a perfect one at that, he also follows and trusts.  Who better to help us follow the will of God as a human being, than the one who perfectly followed and discipled the Spirit of God?  And if Christ lives in us, then we can at long last, through Christ, begin to disciple God by stages.  And more importantly when we find ourselves in stage 1 of a new journey, and it seems like an absurd step 1 like an afternoon trip down the wilderness road, we can like Philip trust in the plan and sight of the Holy Spirit and obey accordingly. 

My brothers and sisters in Christ, I have no doubt that we all in our discipleship travels, have received at the time some absurd orders, and before we will comply with them, we often want to know the end of the journey with all the corresponding consequences before we begin.  But this is not faith. Faith is trusting the destination and the journey to the Spirit, even when steps 2 through 20 have been hidden from you and step 1 sounds and looks weird.  Through Christ and with Christ, let us follow God’s lead with faith and trust.  Amen.

John 15:1-11

¹“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. ² He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. ³ You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. ⁴ Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. ⁵ I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. ⁶ Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. ⁷ If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. ⁸ My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples. ⁹ As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. ¹⁰ If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. ¹¹ I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.

A picture speaks with a thousand words.  No doubt we have heard this cliché.  But the truth of this picture speaks clearly.  For the blind runner, everything depends on the trust he has for his guide.  Through the rope, he is led in the darkness through the course.  Through the rope, he is guided by the runner keeping pace beside him.  Everything depends on the compassion of the guide to keep him running straight and true.  Without the rope and the runner, everything falls back on himself, but with the rope and runner, the obstacles can be overcome. 

So too is it with us in our discipleship.  We are the blind runner struggling with the obstacles of our brokenness and our fallen nature.  But we are not alone in our struggles.  Through the mercy of our Guide-Runner Christ, we have one who condescends to our plight and out of compassion offers the rope of his Spirit to lead us and guide us, as we run our race.  As these two run the cross-country race set before them, so too do we and Christ run the race of human discipleship towards God.  Just as the guide-runner not only keeps pace beside but also leads the fellow runner, so too does Christ keep pace beside us as our fellow Brother, but also guides us in Power and Righteousness in front of us as the Word of God.

Perhaps this illumines the idea that I am the vine; you are the branches.  The vine and the branches share a common bond, the blind-runner and the guide-runner share a common bond, where the one sees for the other, and Christ and the Church share that same bond, Christ leads the Church, and the Church is led.  Just as everything depends on the mercy and lungs of the guide, and the trust of the follower, so too does everything depend on the mercy and the power of Christ and the trust of the followers.  Without keeping pace and guiding along the safe path the runner following is led into hazards and physical obstacles, without Christ keeping pace and guiding us along the safe path, His disciples are led into trials and temptations.  The Vine is joined to the branches, Christ is joined to His Church. 

But the two runners, just do not run for no purpose, so too does the disciple follow Christ, for a purpose.  Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.  The point of the runner following the guide is to reach the goal of completing the race.  The point of abiding or remaining or staying with Christ is to reach the goal of bearing fruit or righteousness.  What if this is why Christ became our Brother and our God, so that we might become right and true as Christ is Right and True.  They finished their race, we are to finish ours, the race of righteousness.

But imagine if you will what happens if the cord is cut.  The blind-runner is back to being alone, the disciple is back to being both guide and follower, and the branch must become the vine again.  Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.  The runner without a guide stops running, the branch without a vine dries up and dies, the disciple without Christ, loses not just the Guide but also their Sustainer.  Instead of running together and succeeding, we run alone and fall short and miss the mark as only a blind runner can.

Perhaps the entire point of this Word of God is the single Word “remain.”  As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; remain in my love.   To follow God is to remain in Christ, to stay in His love and his power.  To follow his lead and his guidance, to trust his compassion and his care for us, to keep the cord and allow Christ to be Master and Lord and we in contentment and joy follow Jesus’ path.  Remain in me and I in you. 

But you and I are not yet to the point of remaining in Christ every moment of every day.  We have our moments of being the branches on the vine, or being the runner clinging faithfully to the cord, but we also have our moments when we cut ourselves off from the vine or drop our end of the cord altogether.  This you see allows us to make our own choices, make our own goals or agendas, or in sheer spite just do what we want instead of following.  Perhaps those choices involve how we spend our money, how we use our time, or how we vote, or whether we worship this Sunday, volunteer with a charity, or invest in a relationship with a neighbor and staying home, working on our gardens, and investing in ourselves.  Instead of holding the cord, we cut the cord in independence and downright mutiny. 

My friends, what would it look like or what would it take for us to remain in Christ a little more in our lives and to leave Christ a little less this day and the ones to come?  Might it be a little more daily and weekly worship?  Perhaps a little more solitary prayer and a little more doing everything prayerfully?  Maybe more studying of our Bibles and reading difficult books that challenge and stretch our thinking?  What if it means more loving service of our neighbors?  Whatever it looks like for us, are we willing to remain more and more in Christ and reduce cutting or dropping the cord of Life?  This is our daily struggle, let us remain and abide in Christ as He remains and abides in us.  I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.  Amen and Thanks be to God. 

Mark 11:1-11

¹When they were approaching Jerusalem, at Bethphage and Bethany, near the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples ² and said to them, “Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately as you enter it, you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden; untie it and bring it. ³ If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ just say this, ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here immediately.’” ⁴ They went away and found a colt tied near a door, outside in the street. As they were untying it, ⁵ some of the bystanders said to them, “What are you doing, untying the colt?” ⁶ They told them what Jesus had said; and they allowed them to take it. ⁷ Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it; and he sat on it. ⁸ Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut in the fields. ⁹ Then those who went ahead and those who followed were shouting,
      “Hosanna!
            Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
        ¹⁰     Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David!
            Hosanna in the highest heaven!”
¹¹ Then he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple; and when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.

If you have tickets for the museum or the game or the show (back in the good old days before Covid), you did not peruse the museum from your car, you did not watch the game from the parking lot, and you did not watch the musical from the snack bar.  The point of the ticket was to gain entrance into the museum, game, or theatre.  So, when the time comes, you went into the place you bought a ticket to.  When the museum opened you went into the exhibits to view the displays.  When the game starts you went into the stadium or arena to watch the game from your seats.  When the lights go down on the audience, you went into the hall and took your seats to be entertained by the actors and actresses. 

So too is it with Christ.  On that first Palm Sunday, Jesus of Nazareth rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, which stepped upon cloaks and branches to the tune of singing pilgrims.  After his triumphant and lowly entrance, Jesus did not stop at an inn, Jesus did not visit the palace or the praetorium.  As the Gospel of Mark reads, Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple.  He went into the temple.  He did not remain outside, but went in, he arrived at the gates of the temple and he entered it.

But what is the temple and why of all the important places in Jerusalem, should Jesus first visit the Temple and why go in versus stay outside?  The temple is a great many things, certainly an institution, an order of priests and scribes, and a marketplace; and Jesus is quite correct to criticize them for poor stewardship of the Temple.  But the Temple is much more, because the Temple is the Covenantal Place to commune or connect with God.  God speaks and blesses the people here in this space and the people with gratitude and faithfulness bless, worship and work for God.  The Temple is the place of fellowship and communion between the faithful and mighty God and the people God has chosen to be objects of that faithfulness and might.  And so, the Son went into the Temple commune with His Father.  He went in.

By the Grace and Love of God, we at Trinity now face the prospect of our own Palm Sunday.  In times past, Palm Sunday has been many things to us.  Perhaps a day to work in the yard, or to vacation on Spring Break, or to attend the Indians games.  But this Palm Sunday is much different and quite special.  Because we have been without a sanctuary for the last few months, because we have been in quarantine and separate from our Covenantal Community, because we have been social distancing, our space for communing with God has been denied to us.  But now, like Christ on that Palm Sunday, we have a chance and an opportunity to come into the Sanctuary of God.  To hear the Word from God, to be blessed and renewed by God and to give back to God His portion, to bless God, to worship God, to glorify God and to serve God.  This Palm Sunday, we now have the ability, like Christ to go into the Sanctuary, like Christ we can go in.

No longer can we take this or any Sunday for granted.  No longer can we presume that we have a space and time to enter the sanctuary to commune with God.  No longer can we find other things more important to do on a Sunday morning, like working by choice, like mowing the grass, sleeping in, taking a trip, or visiting people.  Because we have been denied our sanctuary with God, we must learn a new appreciation for the time and space to come to God.  We must no longer find a reason or excuse to skip going to Church, because this pandemic has taught us that Church might not always be there.  We should no longer take the Covenant Community of God for granted, because the last few months, that we have been deprived of that Covenant Community.  No longer should we ever stay out, this and every Sunday we should always go in. 

My friends, this Palm Sunday is quite different and quite unique in that like Christ we are entering the Sanctuary of God for a “first” time in a long time.  Our “Hosannas” need to be real expressions of mind and heart and no longer empty rites spoken from habit and custom.  Our gifts given to God need to be real manifestations of our gratitude and thankfulness and no longer forced “taxes” given with bitterness and contempt. Our lives surrendered in faithful obedience need to be genuine representations of our baptismal vows and no longer vain attempts to avoid commitment and devotion.  This Palm Sunday we must really go into the Sanctuary as Jesus did and still does, with faith and obedience to the Father.  We must set apart the time this Palm Sunday and every Sunday, to enter the Sanctuary of God and live!

Galatians 2:15-21

¹⁵ We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; ¹⁶ yet we know that a person is justified not by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ. And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by doing the works of the law, because no one will be justified by the works of the law. ¹⁷ But if, in our effort to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have been found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! ¹⁸ But if I build up again the very things that I once tore down, then I demonstrate that I am a transgressor. ¹⁹ For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; ²⁰ and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. ²¹ I do not nullify the grace of God; for if justification comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing.

With the NFL playoffs nearly over, the coaching exodus has begun, and for a few teams already over.  Whether a head coach, a coordinator, a position coach, or a general manager, positions are vacated and then filled by new people.  Brown’s fans have much to be excited about in the management department because we did so well, the moving of coaches does not need to take place this year.  But other organizations are not so fortunate, and their fans must endure the moving around of coaches and systems and players.

Just as players and coaches move from positions to positions, so too is there a displacement in the life of every Christian.  As Paul writes, it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.  The head coach moves from one team to another; the place normally held by “I” has now become the place of “Christ.”  No longer is it “I” but is now “Christ.”  For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. Since we have been crucified with Christ, we are now displaced from being gods and lords over our entire existence and now Christ has taken our place.  No longer “I”, but “Christ.” 

This displacement is everything.  Since we have traded places with Christ, we are now made right or justified.  But as Paul reminds us, we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by doing the works of the law, because no one will be justified by the works of the law.  The Law is a great many things, but the law is for our purposes “us” taking the place of God.  I do, I do not.  We neither have the inclination to do as God does, nor can do as God does.  So perhaps the entire purpose of the Law is to wake us up to the idea that we are not and cannot be God.  We need displaced and that displacement is the trading of places with Christ.  I, yet not I but Christ. 

But this displacement hurts.  Look at the following chart and see what must change if Christ takes our place.

            Self-Created                                                                Christ-Created

            Self-Provided                                                              Christ-Provided

            Self-Legislated                                                            Christ-Legislated

            Self-Judged                                                                 Christ-Judged

            Self-Sanctified                                                            Christ-Sanctified

            Self-Atoned                                                                Christ-Atoned

            Self-Discipled                                                             Christ-Discipled

            Self-Ruled                                                                   Christ-Ruled

            Self-Determined                                                         Christ-Determined

            Self-Appointed                                                           Christ-Appointed

I could add another hundred ways Christ needs to displace us, but space and time is limited.  The point is that this being displaced in our lives is painful, fearful, and confusing.  The temptation will always be that when the displacement starts to happen, the pain, fear and confusion will always challenge us to remain in control and prevent Christ from becoming who he really is.  We clamp down trying to keep our place and forbid and work against Christ taking it. 

The process becomes even more difficult, as if this were not enough, to have Christ take our place, but the world wants to displace Christ out from everything and to put themselves in his place.  Governments displace Christ as Legislator, Executor and Judge.  Corporations displace Christ as Provider and Sanctifier.  Philosophies displace Christ as Creator and Wisdom.  Facebook and Twitter displace Christ as Censor and Moral Compass.  As if the struggle was not difficult enough to allow Christ to displace us as God and Lord, the world is actively struggling to displace Christ as God and Lord and putting themselves in his place. 

Perhaps this then illumines why Paul was so adamant that we live a live of faith in Christ, or perhaps a better translation of the Greek is we live a live by the faithfulness of Christ.  If not for Christ and his greater power than the World and Governments and Corporation and Philosophies and Big Tech and you and me, then Christ would never be able to displace us as God and Lord.  If Christ’s rivals and adversaries were equal to him in power than Christ is impotent to resist them.  But precisely because Christ is over all things, then Christ has no rival, that includes you.  Christ can displace us, and no one can truly displace Christ.  Alleluia. 

So, what needs displaced in you?  Christ creating you, Christ providing for you, Christ determining you, Christ atoning for you, Christ ruling you.  Is Christ your Lord and God yet?  If the answer is not yet, then we have more and more things to surrender to Christ, we have more and more need for a life of faith in Christ.  The good news of the Gospel is that our faithfulness in Christ has help in the form of the faithfulness of Christ in our place.  If he lives in us, then yes, we can.  That is our comfort for all time.  The challenge is then, we now have no excuse why we cannot become a people Christ-determined. 

My brothers and sisters in Christ, I have no doubt that being displaced as god and lord over our lives in painful, fearful and confusing, but when our first reaction is to clamp down and control, we must have a second reaction and that is to trust and to let go.  This is faith and this makes all the difference in the world.  Not only are we justified by faith in Christ, but we are continually living our daily lives in the faith of Christ.  Even when the world wants to remove Christ from his place as a head coach is removed, we must remember the only moving that can and must take place is for us to move out of his place and let Christ be God and Lord.  To God be the Glory for giving us Christ.  Amen. 

Ephesians 4: 11-16

¹¹ The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors, and teachers, ¹² to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, ¹³ until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ. ¹⁴ We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming. ¹⁵ But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, ¹⁶ from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.

Living around Lake Erie means having to deal with wind.  Whether that wind is a summer thunderstorm blowing over the water creating huge waves, or an “Alberta Clipper” blowing Lake Effect Snow through the trees and bushes, we know all too well how much the wind can toss things around.  We have seen the boats bobbing on the Lake like a cork, we have seen the trees swaying like a Samba dancer, we have seen the branches in the grass and the snow drifted in feet not inches.  We know how the wind can make things blow all over the place.

Just as the wind can blow things around, so too can things in this world blow us around spiritually.  The wind can blow a boat around on the lake, political leaders and their games can blow people all over the place regarding the issues of the day.  The wind can move through the trees threatening to push over or uproot, economic agendas and schemes can threaten to push people into unemployment, uproot retirement accounts, and drop people into poverty.  The wind can drift snow and pile leaves, and the Covid-19 virus has piled up hosts of the sick and dead.  We live in a world that tosses us around like a rag doll, with political tricks, economic hardships, and hidden viral assassins.  

Perhaps then in circumstances when the world tosses us about, the following Word of God is needed: we must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming.  We can relate to the things that tossed the Ephesians around, because they still do to us, heresies, trickeries, craftiness, deceits, schemes.  Are these hardships not today’s politics, economics, medicine, life?  But the word that strikes out the most in this passage is the word children.  Only children or a better word the immature allow themselves to be blown around by these things.  Someone without experience and/or wisdom falls for the traps and games and schemes of the day, whether in religion, politics, or academics. 

If the children are tossed about, then the Word says, but speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.  Children grow up and mature into adults with wisdom, experience, and endurance to cope with the problems of the age.  But in our case, we are not growing up into wisdom and perseverance in a literal sense, but we are growing up into Christ who is perfect wisdom, experience, and perseverance.  The one close to Christ is not tossed about because they are anchored in Christ and can weather the storms blowing around.  The closer to Christ, the greater the union and connection, and therefore the greater the storms that can be endured.  If we find ourselves tossed around, this might just be evidence we need to grow up into Christ more and more and find our true security and anchorage there.

In order to nurture growth, God through the Spirit of Jesus Christ, has given leaders to his people, the gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors, and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ.  The leader’s task is to nurture growth in their charges until their grow up.  This is their God-given calling to help God’s people mature closer and closer into Christ and to greater weather the challenges of the day. 

If we find ourselves tossed about by the deceits of “Big-Tech,” or grieved by the political shenanigans of a political party or upset by the Church’s Spiritual direction or lack thereof or laid low by the virus and its complications and losses or scandalized by the divisiveness of violent factions of liberals and conservatives, all this only serves to prove the point: that if we are being tossed around. we have some growing up to do.  If we are being blown around, we need to move closer and closer into our collective union with the Spirit of Jesus Christ.  This means that as leaders we have callings to fulfill and people to nurture.  But it also means that as laity, we have prayers to say, scripture to study, worship to offer God, and service to our neighbors to perform.  We all need to grow up into Christ to become more mature.  As leaders and disciples let us set our faces to our callings and with love move ever forward to greater maturity in Jesus Christ.  Let the world’s wind wail as it may, give me the Grace of God to rest in any day! Amen.

Psalm 46

To the leader. Of the Korahites. According to Alamoth. A Song.

¹ God is our refuge and strength,
    a very present help in trouble.
² Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change,
    though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea;
³ though its waters roar and foam,
    though the mountains tremble with its tumult. Selah

⁴ There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
    the holy habitation of the Most High.
⁵ God is in the midst of the city; it shall not be moved;
    God will help it when the morning dawns.
⁶ The nations are in an uproar, the kingdoms totter;
    he utters his voice, the earth melts.
⁷ The Lord of hosts is with us;
    the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah

⁸ Come, behold the works of the Lord;
    see what desolations he has brought on the earth.
⁹ He makes wars cease to the end of the earth;
    he breaks the bow, and shatters the spear;
    he burns the shields with fire.
¹⁰ “Be still, and know that I am God!
    I am exalted among the nations,
    I am exalted in the earth.”
¹¹ The Lord of hosts is with us;
    the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah

2021 is not looking any better.  I said this to myself yesterday as I heard reports of violence at the very seat of American government.  We endured in 2020 the pandemic and must endure more in 2021.  We endured economic turmoil in ‘20 and ‘21 seems to include more of the same.  We endured political upheaval in ’20 with a summer of protests, riots and the blame game and as I stared at the news feed on my phone, I thought to myself, ’21 is not looking any better than ’20.  I feel sick in my stomach, my anxieties about the future cause my hands to shake, I find myself continuously affixed to the news to see what else can go wrong and in particularly the way things are going, I am expecting Godzilla to show up or the Zombie Apocalypse.  I am worried and filled with fear in such an uncertain time as this.

This is the soil into which the Word of God spoke this morning and the Word spoken is this, God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble; therefore, we will not fear.  The Psalmist sung those words to the people of Israel in a time when the very cities were threatened with destruction, calamity, and upheaval.  While the anxiety and worry were quite palpable and the abyss of stress and uncertainty unfathomable, the Psalmist plants a different idea into the ground of fear: faith.  The Psalmist does not deny the reality of confusion and helplessness, nor the uncertainty and powerless, the Psalmist inserts God into that reality.  Into the worries of their time, God is the refuge amid calamities.  Into the impotency of national politics and insurrection, God is the greater strength than rebellion or protest.  Into the helplessness and overwhelming losses, God is the present help in time of trouble.  In the face of sorrow and fear, the Psalmist plants the faithfulness and power of God.

For the nation of Israel one of the greatest threats was the natural disaster: the changing earth, the mountains shaking in the heart of the sea, the waters roaring and foaming, the mountains trembling.  This was the daily reality of the people, the uncontrollable aspects of creation. We too in the modern age have the uncontrollable aspects of creation.  The record setting number of hurricanes this past season, the eruption of volcanoes, the polar vortexes, thirty-two inches of snow and global warming.  But amid the uncontrollable forces of creation, we are reminded that the City of God is not going to be moved, because God is stronger than the hurricane.  God is amid the city, what volcano can obliterate the God who created the volcano.? The river of God makes the city glad, what global warming can evaporate the Life of God?  God will help the City of God when the morning dawns upon it, what virus can dawn upon the creation, that can overpower the Might of God?  Creation can certainly take life away, but what can rival or threaten the One who rose again from the dead?

But the other great threat for the nation of Israel was the political disaster.  The nation of Israel and its people were always under the boot of another greater country: Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Greece, Rome, the Barbarians, the Turks, the Mongols, et. al.  Into oppression and occupation, invaders and infiltrators, coups and new regimes, the Psalmist sings, the nations are in an uproar, the kingdoms totters.  Well, America is certainly in an uproar, and America is certainly tottering.  But, amid them, the City of God is not moved, because the LORD of hosts is with us the God of Jacob is our refuge.  What army can vanquish God’s army?  What mob can annihilate God’s host?  What nation or kingdom can match or equal the Kingdom of God and God’s Messiah?  Nation or kingdom can certainly invade and destroy, but what can rival or threaten the One who sits on the throne of God’s Kingdom?

What war can creation make definitively against the One who makes wars cease to the end of the earth?  What weapons can be leveled against the One who breaks bows, shatter spears and burns shields with fire?  What power exists in creation that equals God in power or is greater in strength than the strength of God?  If the answer is nothing, then have some faith in God.  Trust that all things work out for God’s purposes.  Trust that you and your families are in good hands.  Trust that God will bring you through this difficult time.  Trust that our country and its institutions and purposes are under the capable Guidance and Governorship of Christ.  Be still and know that God is God, and you do not have to be!  Let this iron brick of anxiety be moved from our stomachs.  Let the peace of Christ calm the tremors in our hands.  Let the assurance of faith wash over our futures.  Let the faithfulness and love of God almighty move us to exalt God among the nations and in all the earth.  Let the ground of our fears be planted deeply and richly with the Word of Faith; and grow some faith to counter your fears!

My brothers and sisters in Christ, we have much that troubles us, but our God is greater still than them all.  Let us then not surrender our hearts and minds to the devil’s antics but let us instead surrender our hearts and minds to the Word of our God.  Let our fears be planted with faith in the Word of God and let us rest in and under the One who is our refuge and strength a very present help in trouble.  Amen. 

Scripture

Luke 1: 57-66
⁵⁷ Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son. ⁵⁸ Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown his great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her.

⁵⁹ On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him Zechariah after his father. ⁶⁰ But his mother said, “No; he is to be called John.” ⁶¹ They said to her, “None of your relatives has this name.” ⁶² Then they began motioning to his father to find out what name he wanted to give him. ⁶³ He asked for a writing tablet and wrote, “His name is John.” And all of them were amazed. ⁶⁴ Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue freed, and he began to speak, praising God. ⁶⁵ Fear came over all their neighbors, and all these things were talked about throughout the entire hill country of Judea. ⁶⁶ All who heard them pondered them and said, “What then will this child become?” For, indeed, the hand of the Lord was with him.

Devotion
There is no possible way that I am a father of a sixteen-year-old.  These are the thoughts and feelings rummaging around in my head as I write this blog.  Today is my son’s sixteenth birthday.  Sixteen years, where did that come from?  Where did they go?  Last time I looked we were teaching him how to walk and write letters, now I must teach him to drive, I do not think so.  I sit here in disbelief, that the reality staring at me in the face is that I am a middle-aged father of a coming-of-age young man.  My jaw is now firmly on the floor in incredulity and denial.  Disbelief.

So too was Zechariah in disbelief.  His problem was not that he has an almost adult child, his problem was that he had no children and he and his wife Elizabeth were beyond the childbearing age.  So, when the angel Gabriel tells him he is going to have a Son who will return the people to God and prepare the way for God’s Messiah, Zechariah cannot and will not believe it.  His response is not one of acceptance that God can create as God’s good pleasure and will choose, his response is one of astonishment that certainly two old people cannot make a baby.  Unlike Mary who will graciously accept the Word of God, Zechariah mentally rejects that same Word of God as something completely impossible and untrue.  Where did this come from?  How could that happen?  I do not think so.  Disbelief.

We all have a little Zechariah, or perhaps a lot, inside of us.  We hear the Word of God and instead of accepting it like Mary, we reject it like Zechariah.  There is no way that God could make me into a saint.  There is no way that God could forgive me.  There is no way that I could learn a new way of life.  There is no way that I am a sinner.  There is no way that the Word became flesh in Jesus of Nazareth.  There is no way that that Jesus rose again from the dead.  There is no way that….  We are after all living in the world of the scientific method, where miracles are excluded due their unprovability, where reason reigns as Lord over creation, where mathematics, physics and history have theorems and laws that must be respected and believed in more so than the power and good pleasure of the Word of God to re-create and to rule.  Disbelief like Zechariah instead of faith like Mary.

However, the Word of God is more than capable not only of enabling Elizabeth and Mary to conceive but also of enabling of Zechariah and us of believing.  For Zechariah, the method of teaching him the power and good pleasure of the Word of God is the curse of being unable to speak.  Until the day of the baby’s circumcision, Zechariah cannot speak.  Until the day, that Zechariah acknowledges the Word of God spoken to him, that Elizabeth will conceive a son, and that Son has s Godly destiny prepared by God and for God.  Until Zechariah believes and accepts the Word of God by naming the baby “Yohanan”, which means “God has shown favor” in Hebrew, Zechariah cannot speak.  His muteness is teaching him that God can do anything God chooses to do.  The important lesson is that the God through God’s Word can and does teach and transform Zechariah into a believer.  At the end he gets it, by believing in God like Mary believes in God, and he not only talks again, but gives God words of praise instead of denial. Faith.

Can the Word of God not do the same for us?  Do we not have the same lesson to learn?  Will God not also succeed?  The answer is always yes.  We might be like Zechariah, but the Word of God can and does change us from disbelieving “Zechariah’s” into believing “Mary’s.”  The tool of that creating and transforming Word of God, is the testimony about the miracles of God, the written and spoken Word of God.  We read of miracles of speaking people becoming mute and speaking again, all at the Word’s behest and will.  We read of miracles about barren women, conceiving, carrying, birthing, nursing, and circumcising Sons of Destiny, all at the Word’s behest and will.  We read of miracles about the crucifixion and resurrection of that same Word of God made flesh, all at the behest and will of the same Word.  And the only possible result is the transformation of us from disbelief into saving and justifying faith: all because the Word wants to and can!

As we begin this Christmas Season Proper, perhaps we need to be reminded of the miraculous nature of God’s saving work, both in John and in Jesus.  But more than being reminded of the nature of Christmas miracles, we need to be reminded of the purpose of such things: to bring doubters and disbelievers into the sphere of the faithful elect.  The purpose of the miracles of Christmas is to change us from the skeptic into the disciple.  The Word of God did it in and to Zechariah, may the Word become flesh in Jesus Christ, do it in and to us.  This is a time of Christmas miracles, may the miracles of John and Jesus, lead to the miracle of faith in you and in me!  Amen. 

Prayer

Dear God of Grace and God of Glory, we praise you for the gift of miracles this Christmas Season.  Use the miraculous to create in us not only a sense of awe and respect for your creative power but use them to create in us the same acceptance and belief that Zechariah and Elizabeth and Joseph and Mary had by being miraculous parents of the Sons of Destiny.  By the power of your Word become flesh, help our flesh to believe and accept your will for our lives.  In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen. 

Mark 1: 1-8

¹ The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

² As it is written in the prophet Isaiah,
      See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,
            who will prepare your way;
      ³ the voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
  ‘         ‘prepare the way of the Lord,
            make his paths straight,’”

⁴ John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. ⁵ And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. ⁶ Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. ⁷ He proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. ⁸ I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

Devotion
I like to bake.  Whether the result is a pie or cookies, I enjoy the entire process of baking.  But any good baker, which I do not consider myself to be, will tell you that before you begin baking, you must first prepare things.  You must first find a recipe, then you must purchase or root through your pantry to find the flour and sugar, then you must determine if you have the right equipment, a mixer, the right pan, and utensils.  Only then after the ingredients are present, the mixer has the beaters in, the oven is pre-heated, then you can crack the eggs, scoop the flour, and soften the butter.  To be a good baker is to be good in the preparations.

Just as it is with baking needing preparations, so too is it with the coming of Christ.  Before the coming of Christ, preparations need to be made.  In the Gospel of Mark, the book begins with a beginning, and we are told that the Gospel is going to be about the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.  This is the pie that is going to be created, but it is not a delicious pumpkin pie, the work that is begun is God’s work of salvation in his only beloved Son, Jesus Christ.  But like a pie, preparations need to be made, before the work proper can begin.  In this case, that work is not the purchasing of ingredients or the warming of the oven, but the preparations made by John the Baptist.

Mark uses the prophet Isaiah to characterize the work of the Baptist in preparation: See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way; ³ the voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,’” John’s work of preparation is about speaking a message.  The preparer is a messenger with a message to be messaged in the wilderness.  The road of the Lord is be straight because the Lord is coming.  In a sense, John’s message is to begin some “roadwork.”  The crooked roads are to be graded straight.  The hilly roads are to be paved flat, the potholes to be filled in.  So, God will have an easy path to get to his people.  The people were to make God’s road or “way” easy, so God had no obstacles in reaching and arriving at his destination, the people.

We can imagine the people putting up orange barrels, firing up the bulldozer to grade the rough places smooth and a backhoe to fill in the holes, and even the paver putting down miles of blacktop followed by the roller to smooth things out.  But the roadwork John calls the people to do is not a literal road, but a metaphorical one.  The pathway is not a spatial path, but a spiritual path.  The path is not from Babylon to Canaan, the path is from Heaven to the human heart.  The distance to be covered is not a location to another location, but a spiritual distance to be covered from a heart far away from God to a heart filled by God.  That is the road the people were to pave, to make the journey easy for God to come back to his people, to come closer to the human heart.

Perhaps, this explains why John transforms the preparing the way of the Lord to a repentance towards the forgiveness of sins.  The exile was not a literal distance from God to people, but a spiritual distance from people towards God.  People leave God, exiling themselves from God’s presence and lordship.  To symbolize the returning of God to the people, John reminds the people, that to confirm the returning of God, the people need to return to God.  The hill that needs to be brought low is human rebellion.  The hole that needs filled in is idolatry.  The curve that needs straightened is self-determination.  The slavery that needs abolished is of our own creation, a slavery to sin and death by our own daily choosing.  God will come and God will come to save, but our hearts need to be ready for such a gracious deliverance. 

As we make our final preparations for this Christmas season and for a new year, we also need to remember that in addition to getting more chocolate for that fudge, or another tube of wrapping paper, or mailing another card, we also need to do some preparations in our hearts to get them ready for Christ.  The road into our hearts needs some paving work: a little less guilt a little more forgiveness, a little less resistance, a little more acknowledgment, a little less self-concern a little more generosity, a little less despair a little more hope, a little less hate a little more love.  But perhaps the greatest roadwork that needs to be done, is our seasonal need to turn away from the world and ourselves and to repent or return to God.  To cease running away and closing ourselves off from God and to run towards and open ourselves to the coming one, Jesus Christ our Lord.  We all have some preparations to make for the coming of Christ we need more faith, more hope, and more love.  My friends, let the way to our hearts be made straight for the coming of the Son of God, to whom be the glory and praises of his people unto the ages of ages, Amen!

Prayer
O God of Grace and Glory, we thank you for the coming presence of your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.  In this time of anticipation and waiting for his arrival, help us to prepare ourselves for his coming.  Empty us of what is displeasing to you, change us to become more and more into your children, fill us with every good and perfect gift as we prepare ourselves for you.  In Jesus’ name we pray.  Amen.