Trinity Blog

April 1, 2020

Mark 10:13-22

¹³ People were bringing little children to him in order that he might touch them; and the disciples spoke sternly to them. ¹⁴ But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. ¹⁵ Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.” ¹⁶ And he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them.

¹⁷ As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” ¹⁸ Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. ¹⁹ You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; You shall not defraud; Honor your father and mother.’” ²⁰ He said to him, “Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.” ²¹ Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, “You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” ²² When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.

Ten years separate me from my youngest, older brother.  This means that as a wee lad, I was often outside of the conversations and discussions going on.  My older siblings and my parents would be conversing about something, like where we would go on vacation, what was going on with the family, decisions regarding important matters.  I was often excluded because as a little tyke, what could I offer to the discussion and if the topic of conversation was serious perhaps even deathly serious, I was not even allowed in the room.

So too was it with the disciples and children.  In Mark, people were bringing their children to Jesus in order that he might touch them and bless them, and the disciples were shooing them away.  We are not really told the reasons why the disciples did this, perhaps a wanting to keep Jesus for themselves, or even his blessings for themselves, perhaps they thought that this was an adult matter, exclusively for those responsible enough to hear and understand the topics of conversation.  Whatever the reason we are not told, but they wanted to keep the kids away from Jesus. 

Jesus becomes irate, indignant; he gets downright mad at his disciples because they are keeping the children away from him.  The children are coming to him and accepting him, but the disciples are pushing them away, perhaps until they grow up.  Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs.  The Kingdom of God belongs to such as these children.  The Kingdom is not an exclusive club or group or social fraternity or sorority, keeping the young people out until they grow up or wise up.  No Jesus explains the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these.

But, even more severe than just allowing the kids to come near and toddle over, and ask incessantly ending questions, Jesus doesn’t just allow their presence, he tells the adults they need to become kids again.  Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.” Kids have the advantage over adults, they even are better at something than grownups are.  Faith.  A little child must depend on their caregivers for every need.  Someone else must provide, someone else must cook and clean, someone else must clean their scrapes, and buy their clothes.  So, a child knows all about faith in another, because they have no choice but to trust and depend on someone else to take care of them.

Perhaps as adults we have forgotten that.  We grow up to provide for ourselves and we should responsibly do so.  We grow up to cook and clean and tend our own houses and we should responsibly do so.  We grow up to trust and provide and heal ourselves, and we should probably do so.  But with no surprise, we grow up trusting in ourselves and we have no room for trusting in God; like the rich man, who had followed the law since he was young, and who had many possessions.  With a life so full of himself and so full of stuff, how could he trust in God?  When the times became tough, he had his obedience and his bank account, but he had no room for God because he didn’t need God.

My friends, we find ourselves in a peculiar place.  Everything we as a nation, as a people and as a church have put our trust in, except God, has been taken away from us.  We placed out trust in money, and in a flash, the stock market has crashed, our retirements are gone and all we have left is God.  We placed our trust in our politicians, and in a flash many, not all, have shown their true colors, trying to keep their jobs instead of doing their jobs, and all we have left is God.  We have placed our trust in science, and in a flash, the scientists are scrambling for a cure, and I hope they find one, but they will still be powerless to resurrect the hundreds of thousands of corpses, and all we have left is God.  We have placed our trust in actors/actresses, athletes and musicians, only to find out of their mortality, as even they in vulnerability hide in their mansions and even get sick, and all we have left is God.  And when it all is gone and we are stuck alone with ourselves in quarantine, all we will have left is God.

We will have become like little children again.  Little children dependent on and requiring the care of our Heavenly Father.  And as we see revealed in Jesus Christ, then is when God will take us up in his arms, lay his hands on us, and blessed us.  Because we will have become little children again, and all we will have is God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  The money will be gone, but we will still have God.  The power will be gone, but we will still have God.  The fame will be gone, but we will still have God.  The knowledge will be gone, but we will still have God.  The life will be gone, but we will still have God.  It can all fall away, but we will still have God; because God is faithful and mighty. 

My friends, what if we can still find a silver lining amid the black clouds.  What if all of the things in our lives that steal us away from God have been quickly taken away from us, so that in our hour of need, we might be returned to our true humanity: creatures trusting in their Creator.  I beg you not to worry about the things that have been lost, but instead to see the one thing, the most important thing that we have gained.  While we might have the lost the things of the world, we now, like children, can truly enter the Kingdom of God.  Let us not go back, let us instead enter in.  Amen. 

Prayer

O Loving and Holy God, we thank you for creating and sustaining us and for your love that will never let us go.  Help us through the Spirit of your Son Jesus, to accept your rule and your Kingdom, as children trusting and depending on you instead of all the things that might have been taken away from us.  In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen. 

March 31, 2020

Psalm 13

To the leader. A Psalm of David.

¹ How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?
    How long will you hide your face from me?
² How long must I bear pain^[a] in my soul,
    and have sorrow in my heart all day long?
How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?

³ Consider and answer me, O Lord my God!
    Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep the sleep of death,
⁴ and my enemy will say, “I have prevailed”;
    my foes will rejoice because I am shaken.

⁵ But I trusted in your steadfast love;
    my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.
⁶ I will sing to the Lord,
    because he has dealt bountifully with me.

In college, I worked for a summer in a factory.  The company took large rolls of metal and through a roll-forming process turned the flat metal into finished parts by the thousands.  We made car parts, appliance parts.  Any kind of part that could be made, we made it.  I was astounded about how an engineer could design a set of 20 rollers that incrementally would shape the flat metal gradually in stages, into a tube or channel or shaped part. Daily, we would use rolls and rolls of metal making thousands of parts that started with the raw untreated and unprocessed metal and turned it into a finished product, put into service.

The purpose of today’s Psalm is also about forming and processing a raw material into a finished product.  Through its three stages, the Psalm takes the raw material and processes it, molds it, shapes it, and works upon it, until it produces the finished product.  But while the tools and dies take metal and produce parts, this Psalm takes grief and turns it into joy.  This Psalm take the raw material of pain and suffering and processes it into hope.  The beauty and wonder of this Psalm is that it takes the deepest and most profound human sorrow and shapes that sorrow into faith and confidence. 

How long O Lord?  The Psalmist says it perfectly.  The Psalmist is stuck in the middle between God on one hand and trouble on the other.  But in this moment, God appears absent but the enemy, the trouble, seems to be ascending and greater in power.  The enemy, the sickness or the group of people surrounding the Psalmist is all that the author could see, and God was not in the picture.  So, the author asks,

        ¹ How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?
            How long will you hide your face from me?
        ² How long must I bear pain in my soul,

and have sorrow in my heart all day long?
      How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?

How Long indeed!  The Psalmist says it perfectly.  Caught between the might of an enemy and the absence of God, all the author could do was lament!  How long O Lord?

Are we not the same?  We are stuck in between like the Psalmist, between an enemy ascending, an enemy that only seems to grow stronger and more invasive by the day, and our God who has appeared to disappear, who appears to have forgotten us, who has turned his face away from us, who has ignored us in our pain and sorrow or who has allowed this virus to prevail over us.  Like the Psalmist all we can do in our anxiety and in our despair is to do as the Psalmist does and to lament.  And so, we add our voice to the Psalmist, How long O Lord?  How long in quarantine O Lord?  How long will your people die?  How long must we suffer pain and sorrow?  How long must we suffer the fools in charge?  How long must this enemy prevail upon us and over us?  All we can do is lament and moan, How long O Lord?  How long indeed!

But while we have sorrow and despair aplenty as does the Psalmist, the point of the Psalm is to form and process that sorrow and despair into something else.  So, while the largest section of the Psalm is the lament, speaking about our worry and anxiety, the Psalmist is led into prayer.  How long O Lord becomes help me O Lord. 

        ³ Consider and answer me, O Lord my God!
            Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep the sleep of death,
        ⁴ and my enemy will say, “I have prevailed”;
             my foes will rejoice because I am shaken.

Grief and sorrow are then motivations for prayer begging and pleading for help.  The pain and despair cause the Psalmist to reach out and to throw themselves onto the mercy of God.  “How long” becomes “help!”  

If the point of the lament is to move us from the whirlwind of emotions and worries to prayer, then our own “How Longs,” need to become a motivation and an attitude towards prayer.  Our “How long” lead us to our “Helps!”  Consider me O Lord my God.  Remember me God, don’t forget or turn away from me.  Give light to my eyes.  Lord I can’t see the end of this.  Lord I can’t understand how or why this is happening.  Or I will sleep the sleep of death, Lord all I see is my own grave fast approaching.  And my enemy will say, “I have prevailed”; my foes will rejoice because I am shaken.  All I can see O Lord is the virus winning and you not even trying.  The point of our own laments is to lead us to pray our own prayers asking God for Grace and Mercy.

But the Psalmist is not finished.  The Psalmist has lamented, that lament turned into a prayer, but that prayer has also formed into something else.  The lament became a prayer and the prayer became a quiet certainty.  The many phrases of emotion become two phrases of certainty. 

      But I trusted in your steadfast love;
            my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.
        ⁶ I will sing to the Lord,
            because he has dealt bountifully with me.

After uttering his prayer, the Psalmist is reminded.  The Psalmist is reminded of the steadfast love of God in which a person having such trust is never put to shame.  The Psalmist’s heart will rejoice in being delivered.  The Psalmist shall sing to the Lord, because God will deal bountifully with him.  What started off as angst and agitation has now become a calm, worshipful faith.  The process is complete, the finished product has been fully processed.  The worry and despair have become faith and hope.

What if our lament becomes our prayer and what if our prayer becomes this same calm, worshipful faith?  “How long” becomes “help” and “help” becomes “and yet I put my trust in you O God,” because of your steadfast love which nor virus can slay, because you will deal bountifully with me, which no virus can thwart, because of your salvation, which no virus can become an obstacle to.  At long last the process in us in complete, our sorrow and worry has become faith and hope.  We still are stuck in between the virus and God, but our present circumstances can be accepted, because our difficult present will become a joyous future. 

Therefore my friends, in this difficult moment when we have no answers to our questions, when we don’t see how long this trouble will last, when we see an enemy rising and our God quiet and absent, let us do as the Psalmist does.  Let us lament our frustrations, because our laments will become our prayers asking for help, and our prayers for help will become a quiet and confident faith in God, who will keep God’s promises in God’s time and in God’s results.  May our sorrow and frustrations be transformed into a quiet and certain, faith and hope.  Amen.

Prayer

O God of steadfast love and deliverance, we thank you and praise you for your Grace and Power freely given in Jesus Christ.  Through the work of your Holy Spirit help us to lament our emotions, knowing our laments leads us to prayer, and knowing that prayer will lead us to quiet trust in you.  In Jesus’ Name we pray.  Amen.

Here is the link to Sunday’s video service:

March 30, 2020

Mark 9:33-37

³³ Then they came to Capernaum; and when he was in the house he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the way?” ³⁴ But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another who was the greatest. ³⁵ He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” ³⁶ Then he took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them, ³⁷ “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.”

As a kid in elementary school, I once got in trouble because of running in the hallways going to lunch.  A friend and I were in quite a hurry to get to lunch and be first in line, apparently the food for lunch was quite desirable.  Halfway down the hallway we got caught by a teacher.  Naturally, the teacher, who knew exactly what we were doing, held us up until every other kid in the school got their lunch and then he allowed us to go.  Instead of being first we ended up being last.  Instead of having the best slice of square lunch-room pizza, we ended up having peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, that was all they had left.

Just as my friend and I had to switch places, Jesus tells his disciples also to switch places.  He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.”  The first place in things has always been considered a place of honor, a place worth fighting for and competing for.  Whether it is the admiration of others, the power the position brings, the influence and control the position has, everyone wants to be first. But, Jesus tells his disciples that in order to truly be great one should not seek the first, but instead seek the last place, the place no one wants, in order to be last of all and servant of all.  Jesus tells his disciples to switch places.

What precipitated these comments, is the argument between the disciples about who is the greatest, who was going to be in the first place.  The disciples it seems were jockeying for who would fill that first spot, the right-hand man, the grand vizier of Jesus’ kingdom.  I can almost see the argument, each of the 12 boasting and bragging about their personal merits, abilities and accomplishments.  I can do this, I am better at this, my family is better than yours, I have more money, I am better educated, I am more charismatic, I….  Each of the 12 were trying to triumph over the other 11 to obtain the first place, the biggest piece of the pie, the admiration and the power of being Jesus’ first disciple.  The disciples had traded the Grace of God for power and glory.  The disciples had switched places.

Shamefully, with much grief, causing great personal angst, the same thing is going on today in America’s churches.  Many church leaders, ministers of grand cathedrals, and seminary presidents, have traded away the Grace of God for political power and human admiration.  Instead of having gratitude and humility as disciples of Jesus Christ, these leaders are vying for power and glory.  Everyone wants the President’s ear to influence policy and direction.  Everyone wants to be open for Easter, regardless of the cost in the human lives of their congregations.  Everyone wants the Presidential Medal of Freedom, or a million listeners, or a million viewers, or a million book buyers.  Everyone wants their church or institution open on Easter, the Sunday with the greatest attendance, the greatest giving.  And we have traded away the Grace of God for human political power and human admiration.  We have been caught arguing about who is the greatest; we have been caught in triumphalism, instead of discipleship. 

I can see the 12 arguing and I can see today’s Christendom arguing, but I can also see Jesus shaking his head; because just as the disciples had their teachable moment, so too do we.  Jesus sits his disciples down and he begins to teach them and to teach us.  Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.”  Then he took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.”  The significance of the child and the 12 welcoming a child, does not seem so strange and challenging to us today, but to the world of the disciples, this idea and saying was scandalous.  Because in a patriarchal and chauvinistic society, raising and tending children was women’s work, not the work of disciples studying under a rabbi.  The job of the disciple was study and imitating the teacher.  Jesus says to be his disciple or student, one must not be seeking to become the Master of many, but instead the servant of all.  And that is shocking and outrageous, instead of trying to be better than others, one should instead make others better, not power over others, but power into others

While you and I do bear no responsibility for Seminaries or universities, nor bear responsibility for Cathedrals or a congregation of tens of thousands of people, nor have the ear of public officials and those in great influence, we do bear responsibility for our own little corner of the Kingdom of God.  While others might be scrambling for more, we seek to bear responsibility for the sake of others.  While leaders might desire to become proud of their churches, or institutions, seeking glory and recognition and wealth, we as leaders of our small flock and small institution seek to serve and better others as expense of ourselves.  Instead of seeking to make Trinity and ourselves famous, we only wish to share the name of Jesus Christ.  While others are trading Grace for power, we seek only in gratitude and humility to trade power for Grace.  While others are trying to prove their theology and ethics and morality is better than others, we instead try to meet people where they are in the hopes of empowering and better that other person.  We seek not to triumph; we seek instead to serve.

My friends you and I are facing not only a difficult moment because of our quarantines, we also face a difficult moment because the old temptations are creeping in again.  The church in every age is sorely tempted not just by plague and famine outside, but we are sorely tempted by heresy and error inside.  None are greater than the Church’s temptation to triumphalism, the desire to argue and fight over who is the greatest!  But surely as Jesus Christ taught the 12 and the 12 eventually listened; so too will we, who are the bearers of the Jesus’ Spirit hear the call and Word of the Master, not to seek the first place but to be last of all and servants of all.  Jesus never exchanges Grace for power, neither should we.  Let us instead learn gratitude and humility in discipleship.  Let us learn to trade power for Grace.  Amen and Thanks be to God!

Prayer

O Holy and Loving God, we thank you for your love and your Grace which never lets us go, even unto ourselves and our poor choices.  We ask once again for the Spirit of your Son Jesus, which will lead us and equip us with all gratitude and humility necessary to follow your will for our lives.  In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

March 28, 2020

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

13 If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. ² And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. ³ If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

⁴ Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant ⁵ or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; ⁶ it does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth. ⁷ It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

⁸ Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. ⁹ For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; ¹⁰ but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. ¹¹ When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. ¹² For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. ¹³ And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

We have all heard the cliché that all good things must come to and end, but to those that must suffer through three months of winter in Northeast Ohio, not many will call winter a good thing.  But at least we can be sure that winter has come to an end.  The crocuses and daffodils have bloomed in my flower beds, reminding me that I need to get outside and clean them from leaves.  The grass that was once brown and ordinary is now sprouting daily it seems, reminding me that grass cutting season is near.  The sky is full of Canadian geese flying north for the spring, robins looking to build nests and pollen driving my nose and eyes obscenely crazy.  Winter is over and now Spring has begun.

In our text from 1 Corinthians, Paul writes about other things that will come to an end.  He writes, but as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end.  For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part;but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end.  Paul is talking about that when the Kingdom of God comes in Jesus Christ, certain temporary things will not be needed.  The things the Church needed for the time in between the first and second coming of Jesus Christ will no longer be needed, because the journey is over.  No longer will the church need prophecies, because the future is the present and because Jesus will speak directly to us.  Tongues and knowledge will no longer be needed, because having arrived at the destination, the Spirit will so fill us with life, we have all them.  Knowing in part becomes superfluous, because we will know and be known completely.  The interim time has come to an end and no longer do we need those temporary things, they have come to an end.

Except love that is. Paul writes that while everything else comes to an end, Love never ends.  Love is not just the temporary companion of the Church on its journey forward, but Love is both the motivation for making such a trip and also the goal and final state of all things.   To enjoy the love of God in Christ Jesus is the eternal state of blessedness for all time.  The things on the way are needed for the journey, but when the destination is reached, we put aside those things to enjoy the forever things.  We are told that the three great Christian pillars of our discipleship are now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the most important word is perhaps now.  Because we are still making our journey, faith, hope and love are important we are not yet there.  So, we must still believe and hope, but when Christ comes, we can put away our faith and hope, we will not longer need them, because we now have Christ face to face.  But the verse has another phrase ever so important, and the greatest of these is love.  Because while in eternity we will put away our faith and hope, having come to and end, love is the greatest of the three, because love will remain forever.  Our faith and hope are only necessary on our journey of discipleship, but having reached our eternal state, the love with which we loved God and our neighbor on the trip, will dwell forever.

This means my friends that not only will our faith and hope come to an end because Jesus Christ will return, but it also means that this time of quarantine will come to an end.  The days of self-isolation will come to an end and we will once again see face-to-face.  The days of worry and anxiety will come to an end and we will once again enjoy the peace and security which only Christ can give.  The days of scarcity and conflict will come to an end and we will enjoy the abundance and harmony that only God can create.  This temporary circumstance demanding faith and hope and love on our part will come to and end, but love will not.

So who are you loving now?  No doubt we are struggling with our discipleship in this difficult moment with prayer and study and online worship and service, but who are you loving while doing those 4 great Christian Practices?  Paul writes that If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.  If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.  In this time of quarantine, what good is our prayer life if we don’t have love for the people on whose behalf we pray?  In this time of self-isolation, what good is our studying scripture and theology dwelling in right truths and understandings, if we aren’t moved to love God and our neighbor with all that we have and are?  What good is our acts of service if we despise the ones we are trying to help and judging guilty the ones that won’t help?  What good is a thousand online worship services and streams if the Church of Jesus Christ doesn’t end up obeying the command to love God and our neighbor?  If we don’t love we are noisy gongs, clanging cymbals, and ultimately nothing.  So, who are you loving now?

Even though that question was quite difficult and uncomfortable, we have a quite harder one put to us, the question of how we love.  What if currently and in this place, someone is needing my patience and I don’t have any?  What if that same person or even another is needing my kindness and I keep it to myself?  What if a third is tired of my boasting and incessant pride?  What if I am rude, or self-seeking (which I am)?  What if I am easily angered, keeping records with whole bookcases of every wrong done to me?  What if I delight in evil and wickedness?  What if I am not interested in protecting those that need my protection, what if I have trust issues, what if I am not interested in justice for the other, what if I cannot hope and have my hopes dashed yet again, what if my perseverance quits on me?  What if my Love isn’t really Love but something else?

The good news of the Gospel, brothers and sisters is not that we must conjure or actuate a latent ability to love like this, the good news of the Gospel is that through the work of the Holy Spirit, you and I have been baptized or immersed into the love of God in Jesus Christ.  Because God has surrounded and penetrated us with this love first, we can now share in that love, and at long last come to love.  Because God has first loved us, we can now come to love.  Because we share in God’s Love, we can now share love.  Allow me to reword my question “who are you loving and how are you loving them because God has loved you and loved you like that?”

All things come to an end, when Christ comes to end the old age.  When the complete comes even our faith and hope will cease because we see and enjoy Christ face-to-face.  This means that even this virus and our quarantines will come to an end.  But love will never cease, Love will exist without end.  So, if now faith, hope and love abide these three.  are you loving God and your neighbor and are you loving them as you first have been loved by Christ?  We have been shown the most excellent way of discipleship, now is the time for us to take responsibility and step into and onto that way and love!  Amen.

Prayer

O Holy and Loving God, we thank you for the love that never lets us go, for the love that imparts life, for the love that lifts us above the drudgery of our lives.  We ask now that through our open and willing hearts, you would spread that love to those in need around us until at your Son’s coming, we may love and abide in love without end.  In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen. 

,

By Amber Balista

Psalm 40 1-3& 11-17 This is the Psalm for my devotional today. Its bit longer but worth taking some time with, so I am encouraging you to do that. Read it though twice, and highlight some things that stand out for you. Read it outload even to a loved one or pet.

 ¹ I waited patiently for the Lord;
    he inclined to me and heard my cry.
² He drew me up from the desolate pit,^[a]
    out of the miry bog,
and set my feet upon a rock,
    making my steps secure.
³ He put a new song in my mouth,
    a song of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear,
    and put their trust in the Lord.

¹¹ Do not, O Lord, withhold
    your mercy from me;
let your steadfast love and your faithfulness
    keep me safe forever.
¹² For evils have encompassed me
    without number;
my iniquities have overtaken me,
    until I cannot see;
they are more than the hairs of my head,
    and my heart fails me.

¹³ Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me;
    O Lord, make haste to help me.
¹⁴ Let all those be put to shame and confusion
    who seek to snatch away my life;
let those be turned back and brought to dishonor
    who desire my hurt.
¹⁵ Let those be appalled because of their shame
    who say to me, “Aha, Aha!”

¹⁶ But may all who seek you
    rejoice and be glad in you;
may those who love your salvation
    say continually, “Great is the Lord!”
¹⁷ As for me, I am poor and needy,
    but the Lord takes thought for me.
You are my help and my deliverer;
    do not delay, O my God.

I find this psalm to be a prayer for this time in the world when I cannot seem to know what to say. Maybe there are other times where it is fitting. Moments in the world or in our own lives. A few years ago, my husband and I moved out of Ohio. My martial artist husband wanted to train and open a school in Denver. That goal was disrupted with a back injury which decisively returned us to Ohio. Details aside, when we first moved everything was disorienting. We lived in a small room and shared a kitchen with 3 other housemates who were also there to train martial arts. I continued to work for Walgreens, but it was a new setting and I had very few hours those first couple months. Being there felt like I was walking around blind, unsure of what to do next for lack of seeing the path. I had more time than I once had and no family or friend near me. I was anxious about the living situation, the pressure on my husband and the thought that we had made the wrong decision to move there in the first place. I was grieving the life I once had and wondering what good God could possibly do with this situation that I found myself in. As a new pattern of life began to emerge I realized that God had never left, that God’s good plan would not be spoiled. As the psalmist says, “He inclined his ear to me and heard my cry.” God was and is present in the desolate pit and miry bog. God was there making my steps secure. Some of the pain of that adventure still stays with me and my husband, but I am confident to say that God hears me when I cry, and God hears you.

In my anxiety then, and in my unknowing now it is the steadfast love and faithfulness of God that I can trust. That we all can trust. God came all the way down into the muck of human life. Jesus Christ endured the very worst of humanities capacity for betrayal, fear and evil. There is no pain we can know that God doesn’t know. When we call for God’s help- God is not deft to our cry. God knows we are poor and needy. God knows our shame, our fear, our anxiety and all the evil that surround us. He is giving us a new song- a song of praise to our God, the Lord in who we put our trust.

In our trust let us call out O Lord, make haste to help us.

March 25, 2020

Philippians 3: 10-16

¹⁰ I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, ¹¹ if somehow, I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

¹² Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. ¹³ Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, ¹⁴ I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus. ¹⁵ Let those of us then who are mature be of the same mind; and if you think differently about anything, this too God will reveal to you. ¹⁶ Only let us hold fast to what we have attained.

In Junior High, I ran track for one very long season of meets and tournaments.  I think our coach knew that I played soccer and knew I could do a lot of running and so I was voluntold to run the mile, the half-mile and the 400m.  Running a mile is no big deal, I had to run miles a day in soccer practice.  However, running a mile contested with other runners, and all of those that ran cross-country, was a joke on my part.  But at the end of the race, which was always between our two best runners, the two of them would occasionally come to the finish line neck and neck and each would stretch out their heads, bending down at the waist, in the hopes of winning literally “by a nose.” 

This idea of stretching out and straining to win the race is the very image Paul uses in the letter to the Philippians.  Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead.  Paul himself does this very thing of stretching and straining to reach the finish line and he urges the church in Philippi to do likewise.  To forget the things that lie behind and to strain forward to what lies ahead.  While the image of that of the runner on the track, Paul is really dealing with something else by comparison.  The church in Philippi is a suffering church.  They were quite poor and under constant harassment from the community around them.  These are the things Paul asks them to leave behind and to strain forward for the heavenly call of God. 

We likewise are a suffering church.  Many of our churches are not poor, we are quite affluent.  Many of our churches are not persecuted, many have wonderful relationships with the communities around them.  Many of our churches are not in spiritual poverty, the Spirit of Jesus Christ has given many gifts to many people.  But nonetheless we are a suffering church, because we are assaulted by sickness and quarantine.  We cannot gather to worship and serve God; we must keep to ourselves and self-isolate.  We cannot encourage one another face to face, even those that are attempting to cope with grief.  We worry about our financial longevity, about how the bills are going to be paid.  We know people in hospitals, suffering and dying.  While the circumstances are quite different than the Philippians, we, like they, are a suffering church.

But just as we share in the sufferings of Christ, we will also share in the resurrection of Christ.  Since, the Spirit of Jesus Christ lives in us, we share through baptism, in the sufferings and death of Christ now, but we will also come to share in the full resurrection of Christ later.  Paul continues, I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow, I may attain the resurrection from the dead.  Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.  Not that I have already obtained the resurrection from the dead or have already reached the goal, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.  Paul wasn’t at the finish line yet, but he was still running, and not running half-hearted or lackadaisical, but pressing on, straining to reach the goal.

How are you running your race?  Have you run any steps stretching forward or are you on the verge of stopping all together?  I have no doubts, that each of us faces the daily and perhaps hourly temptation to forgo our discipleship of Jesus Christ.  Following Jesus was hard enough when we were not dealing with pandemics and quarantines, but now following Christ seems much harder.  But like the church in Philippi, we are to forget the things that lie behind and to press forward to the goal, the heavenly call of Jesus Christ.  To forget the difficulties of the past, to shrug off the present troubles, and to press forward, to strive forward, to bend at the waist and reach for the finish line.  This is not the attitude and behavior of someone looking for a participation award, this is the attitude and behavior of someone looking to win the race.  To invest in the struggle, to exhaust every source of strength to run, to train and to sweat, because the goal is worth the struggle.  How are you running your race?

My friends, our discipleship or following Jesus is never easy, and now our discipleship is harder being unable to gather face to face.  But we are not to become discouraged but to press on.  We are not to become worried about the present but strive for the future of God that lies before us.  We are not to concern ourselves with today’s trials because we are coming closer to our Goal.  My friends we are not there yet, but we are running the race, let us therefore do this one thing; forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead.  Amen.

Prayer

O Holy and Loving God, we thank you for your power and love that calls and equips us to run the race of our discipleship of Christ.  Give us everything necessary to finish our race, forgetting what lies behind and ignoring the things around us that we might reach our finish line and obtain our prize, the resurrection of our bodies.  In Jesus’ name we pray.  Amen.

March 24, 2020

2 Corinthians 4:7-18

⁷ But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us. ⁸ We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; ⁹ persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; ¹⁰ always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies. ¹¹ For while we live, we are always being given up to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may be made visible in our mortal flesh. ¹² So death is at work in us, but life in you.

¹³ But just as we have the same spirit of faith that is in accordance with scripture—“I believed, and so I spoke”—we also believe, and so we speak, ¹⁴ because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus, and will bring us with you into his presence. ¹⁵ Yes, everything is for your sake, so that grace, as it extends to more and more people, may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.

¹⁶ So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. ¹⁷ For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, ¹⁸ because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.

In ninth grade science, I had to study geology with my science teacher.  I was about that excited to study rocks, and someone else’s rocks at that.  In one class, we were studying sedimentary rocks, which are rocks formed by compressing silt and sand together to form a rock layer; and the teacher held up a large piece of sandstone, which can be found just about everywhere.  We were all completely bored at this point, not only as we were studying rocks, but rocks made from dirt.  Yay (with great sarcasm).  That is until he opened the rock and showed us the inside.  Inside this enormous rock, was a hollow cavern filled with large purple crystals.  It looked like this.

On the outside it looked like a plain, ordinary piece of hard dirt, but on the inside was this profound and quite beautiful treasure.  We learned that in geology this idea of a rock having a cavern on the inside where water evaporates and leaves behind mineral crystals is called a geode.  Rock on the outside, treasure on the inside.

So too is it with us, the church.  On the outside we are clay jars, on the inside we have this treasure of the Holy Spirit.  On the outside we look and act as fragile, temporary vessels that crack and break under the slightest stress or difficulty. But on the inside, we have this Might, eternal Power that no force can crack or break or destroy.  In every appearance we look weak, breakable and feeble but on the inside, we have Power and Glory in the Spirit of Jesus Christ.  As Paul writes in 2 Corinthians we have this treasure but we have this treasure in clay jars: needy, ineffectual, and brittle.

With so much sickness and death surrounding us on all sides, we need no prompting or reminders of our being clay jars.  We are certainly afflicted on all sides by the virus.  We are certainly perplexed by the uncertainties of the future in the economy, our jobs, or whether the store will have food.  We are certainly hunted by the invisible killer, that cares little for one’s life in so much as it cares only about the voracious drive to slay.  Lastly, as we are reminded every day at 2pm by President and Governor, we are certainly struck down in disdain and malice by an nonliving virus that seeks to take our lives from us.

While you and I need no invitation to see ourselves as fragile, brittle clay jars, perhaps we do need reminded about the treasure that lies within.  We are told in the scriptures, so we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day.  Even though the outer fragile, nature of ours breaks and dies, our inner nature is being renewed and strengthened daily.  We do not lose heart at the falling apart of the outer pieces of us, we are instead believing that we will be held and maintained from the inside.  Even when we do not have our lives together or have a grasp over the situation; we are kept and sustained by the Power and Ability of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. 

So, Paul writes that we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair;persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed.  We might break as clay vessels, but the treasure keeps us within.  Pushed down by the virus, but never crushed.  Perplexed by confusion and uncertainty, but never out of God’s control that we should despair.  Hunted by the insatiable virus, but never abandoned or forsaken by God.  Thrown down in struggle and death, but never thrown out into destruction.  For you see we are God’s geode, clay vessels, weak and brittle on the outside, but treasured, sustained and held by the Spirit of Jesus Christ on the inside.

So, my friends in this moment what are you looking at?  Are you looking at the things you can see and see in abundance; at the weakness of our flesh, at the brittleness of our society, at the confusion and foolish political games played by our elected officials, at the emptiness of checking accounts or grocery shelves?  Or are you looking at the things you can’t see but instead hear, the one who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and will bring us with you into his presence.  These things you see will pass away, because they are only temporary, but the things you can’t see but instead hear, will never pass away, because they rest in the permanent and eternal Word of God.

Therefore, instead of looking at the fragility of our human lives, as we all know we are clay jars, let us instead look at through the eyes of faith and see the treasure within.  For we are a kept people.  For we are a resurrection people.  For we are God’s people.  Even though we are afflicted, we will never be crushed.  Even though we are confused we will never despair.  Even though we are hunted we will never be abandoned.  Even though we are struck down, we will never be destroyed.  Because we are God’s geode, fragile dirt on the outside, God’s Power and Glory within.  Let us not lose heart, let us gain the Spirit of Jesus Christ and at long last, learn to live.  Amen. 

Prayer

O Loving and Powerful God, we thank you for your grace and love that lives within us and keeps us through every moment of every day.  As we are reminded daily of life’s fragility and temporariness, turn the eyes of our hearts to the treasure within, the Power and Love of Jesus’ Spirit that keeps us and will raise us to eternal life.  In Jesus’ name we pray.  Amen.

March 23, 2020

Romans 8:31-39

³¹ What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? ³² He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? ³³ Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. ³⁴ Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us. ³⁵ Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? ³⁶ As it is written,
      “For your sake we are being killed all day long;
            we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.”
³⁷ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, ³⁹ nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Back in the day, our house was heated by a wood burning stove.  For much of the summer, my brothers, my dad and myself would sweat in the sun while cutting, splitting and drying the wood for the coming winter.  We would have some logs where the cutting was quite easy and took no time or energy to split them.  But we would also have logs so filled with knots and bumps that splitting them became quite difficult.  When we came upon a log such as this, we would have to break out the sledgehammer and the metal wedges.  We would pound the metal wedge into the log and ultimately after a few good whacks we would up with two logs, even when the logs didn’t want to be split.

Just as it is with log splitting, so too is it with the church.  We used a sledgehammer to pound a wedge into the log splitting the log into two pieces.  The world uses difficult times to pound a wedge between us and God, splitting or separating us into two pieces.  Through the various struggles, difficult moments and trying times, the world tries to force something between us and God resulting in two separate people instead of one mystically united people, in Jesus Christ.  As I sit in my home office this afternoon, I can’t help but look around me, not just on the internet news feeds, but at the empty shelves at our Giant Eagle and Walmart.  I can see at the very least a difficult moment, or at the very greatest the greatest crisis we will ever see.  I look at our world and I see the sledgehammer and wedge looking all too capable and present to separate us into quarantine zones where we must “shelter-in-place” and “self-isolate.”  We certainly look like a separated and defeated people.

But Paul writes to the Romans, who shall separate us from the love of Christ?  Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?  In Paul’s mind, no thing or person or power can come in between the love of Christ and the objects of that love; us.  For that thing or person or power to be able to and to succeed in wedging themselves between Christ and us, that thing must be greater, more powerful and more sovereign than Christ.  That thing or person must be so strong they are able to overcome and break apart and undo the work that God is doing in the exact opposite.  Is there such a thing or person or power greater than or superior than or mightier than the Love of God poured out in Jesus Christ? 

What then shall we say in response to the fear and anxiety caused by the spread of the virus, the dwindling supply of resources, the encroachment into our city, and the separation and isolation into isolation zones?  If God is for us, who can be against us?  He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all – how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all thing?  Who can thwart God’s work?  Who can pull apart what God pulls together?  Who can kill permanently what God can give life without end to?  Who can slam a wedge between the love of God and us, the ones God loves?  Who can interpose an immovable object between God and us that God cannot or will not move?

Paul doesn’t stop there in some passive, “pie-in-the-sky” hope, or a “grin and bear it” moment.  Paul draws the conclusion to the maximum level.  Since no one or no thing is stronger than God, we are not talking just about enduring said struggle or difficulty, Paul says it in the most emphatic way possible, no in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.  We are not called to just endure and persevere; we are called through God who loves us to overcome those things.  Not with bombs, bullets or bank accounts. but with the Love which first loves us.  We are called and given Love in Christ, to overcome the world’s problems and struggles, with and through this Love.  We are called to not be passive and fearful disciples each hiding in our upper rooms, but we are called to be more than conquerors through him who loved us; nor with force or violence or the sword, but with the Love of Christ given to us.

Perhaps like Paul we need now, in this moment and in these circumstance be convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, [neither virus nor quarantine], nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.  If nothing can drive a wedge between us and God, then we should not worry nor fret over the difficult moments here and the difficult moments to come, but instead we must entrust our lives and our care into the hands of the God who loves us, even at great personal cost.  But, it also means that if God has graciously and out of God’s good pleasure chosen to love us, we must learn responsibility with that Love, by overcoming this virus and our quarantines with that Love.

My friends, I know we are bombarded daily and hourly with news and updates, but I wish only to bombard you with something else, something in my opinion which needs more of our attention and devotion.  Amid this moment of crisis, we need to tend to our faith just as much as our Facebook feeds, we need to nurture our hope just as much as nurture our pantries and we need to share the love given to us in Christ Jesus, not everyone has Jesus yet.  This is the destiny God has chosen for us, this is who we are called now to be, this is the new reality and the new narrative God is calling us into.  Let us step into that new reality, the Kingdom of God, and let us even now live as God’s Children.  Amen.

Prayer

O Loving and Mighty God, we thank you for the gracious choice to love us even in spite of us.  We ask now that as we surrender ourselves to your love, in this difficult and trying moment, you would not only help us to endure, but through your Love help us to overcome.  In Jesus’ name we pray.  Amen. 

March 21. 2020

Romans 8:18-27

¹⁸ I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. ¹⁹ For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; ²⁰ for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope ²¹ that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. ²² We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; ²³ and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. ²⁴ For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? ²⁵ But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

²⁶ Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. ²⁷ And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

As a high school student, I participated in the marching band for four years.  Every summer, we would invade the Slippery Rock University for a week.  We lived in the dorms, two to a room and spent most of the days in various kinds of practices, training ourselves to play and march together.  We learned drill every morning from 9-12.  We practiced by sections from 1-3.  We spent every evening continuing to learn and rehearse drill until it became second nature.  Once we returned home and school began, we continued to have rehearsals outside every day and we rehearsed every Thursday evening from 6-9, we had a football game every Friday and a band competition every Saturday.  We spent quite a bit of time practicing, getting into shape, being sunburned and training ourselves to play and march as one band.  We spent much time and energy training ourselves in long hours, sweltering in the sun, sweating over drill charts with sore muscles.  But the daily struggles paid off as we achieved excellence on the football field.  After receiving awards and achievements, the temporary headaches over learning drill paled in perspective when compared to the success we enjoyed.

So too is it with us the Church.  Paul writes, I consider our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.  If anyone knew about sufferings, Paul would: beatings, lynchings, starvations, shipwrecks.   But amid such terrible trials Paul was focused not on the temporary present but instead on the permanent future, held in Jesus Christ.  He was not worried about the crucifixions of today, he was considering the eternal resurrection which waits for him.  He may have even gone so far as to consider the day-to-day struggles of this life as training himself for that eternity.  In the mind of Paul, the struggles of today are the sunburns, drills, hours toiling, preparing us to carry the weight of forever glory. 

Well, I as sit in my home office quarantined from others, hearing reports that the virus has spread into the city, I know full well, groaning inwardly from today’s struggles.  I know full well the frustrations and helplessness which myself and many others feel, waiting expectantly.  We only seem to be in total bondage to decay, as the numbers climb, the supply of resources sink, and fear and panic envelop themselves around our hearts and souls, tightening and grasping us ever closer.

But, while my eyes see the difficulty of this moment and its overwhelming circumstances, my ears hear another matter entirely.  The very Word of God become flesh reminds us that we are waiting yes, groaning inwardly yes, but we are waiting for the liberation to decay and waiting to be brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.  The goal of our journey is not the temporary struggles and trials of this moment, but the permanent and eternal Glory of Jesus Christ.  While considering time without end in Jesus Christ, three weeks or six months pales in comparison.  While considering life swallowing death in Jesus Christ, death becomes not an insurmountable problem, but a temporary obstacle, which in truth is no obstacle at all.  While considering the Kingdom of God invading and overcoming the kingdom of sin and death in Jesus Christ, quarantines are minor inconveniences and annoyances, to be borne and carried and at the last discarded for the redemption of our bodies.  In Christ Jesus, temporary struggles are training for eternal Glory in Jesus Christ.

For in this hope we were saved.  This is God’s purpose for us: that being crucified with Christ, we might be raised with Christ.  Our temporary struggles and overwhelming circumstances are no obstacle to the might and love of God in Christ Jesus, but preparations for our entry into forever Glory.  So, we hope and expect God to deliver on God’s promises, because God is faithful, and God is mighty.  God wants to and God chooses to do this, why send Jesus unless this is the will of God?  Therefore, we hope for this salvation, and we wait for it patiently.

Perhaps that patience thing is the real problem.  In a world where we get things immediately, this one thing lies in God’s control and not ours.  God’s timing has always been the problem, we want it now and we don’t want to have to wait for it; and we don’t want to suffer while we are waiting.  God’s timing has always been the problem because it is God’s not ours.  But even now all things are not lost in the realm of our patience.  We are told that in our weakness the Spirit helps us.  Not only do we not know what we ought to pray for, but also we can never find the words.  But the Spirit knows the words and the content.  While we are groaning inwardly, the Spirit is groaning Godly, interceding for the saints in accordance with God’s will.  What greater comfort can the saints possess that the Spirit of Jesus Christ praying for and instead of us?  What obstacle can thwart such a prayer; what difficulty can overcome us that the Spirit’s prayer cannot overwhelm?  Forgiveness, done.  Peace, done.  Unity, done.  Health, done.  Life, done.  With the Spirit of Jesus Christ praying for us in our weaknesses, we can endure and overcome, because God is faithful and mighty.

My friends, I think we can all safely say, we know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.  But also, we can safely say that, our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.  Like a band enduring drills and training, knowing the struggle will be worth the rewards, let us become the Church of Jesus Christ enduring quarantines and pandemics, knowing the brief struggle is preparing us for eternal Glory.  Let us wait eagerly for our adoption as sons and daughters, the redemption of our bodies.  But most importantly, let us continue to hope in God knowing that hope is unseen, even daring to wait for it patiently.  Knowing and trusting that the Spirit will help in our weakness and intercede for us.  Amen.

Prayer

O Holy and Loving God, you alone are in control of our history and our circumstances.  We remember that the destiny you have planned for us is what has already transpired in your Son.  We ask therefore for the endurance and perseverance necessary in this hour to bear today’s circumstances knowing they are training us for your Kingdom.  In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.