Tag Archives: Christ Jesus

Devotional

15 Ailments of the Church #2: Working Too Hard

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Read Exodus 20:8-11

ALSO IN SCRIPTURE
“So then, a sabbath rest still remains for the people of God; for those who enter God’s rest also cease from their labors as God did from his.” (Hebrews 4:9-10 NRSV)

Shabbat ShalomWell, Christmas has come and gone and now we are fastly approaching the New Year. A couple of days ago Pope Francis I gave his “Festive” Christmas speech to the cardinals that serve as the administrators of the Holy See. I put festive in quotes because that is typically what these speeches are during the Christmas season. They are reiterations of the meaning of Christmas, the coming of the Christ-child, as well as exhortations of how the Church is to continue to represent the Christ-child in the world. By that understanding of the word “festive”, the speech the Pope gave was anything but festive. It was a scathing assessment of his Cardinals who he said lusted after power, among fourteen other hard line critiques of the “ailments” plaguing the church. I think it to be an important exercise for the universal Church, and us as individuals, to follow suit and examine ourselves as we, no doubt, have fallen ill with some (if not all) of these ailments.

Ailment # 2: Working too hard. How many of us truly take the time to rest from our labors and obligations? We are living in a world that demands every last bit of time we have. There is just so many things going on and not enough time to do it all. There’s work, work and more work. There’s family obligations, societal obligations, church obligations, and many other things that we find ourselves caught up in. That the Pope is addressing this issue with other clergy is no big surprise. Clergy are notorious for spending every last minutes working at the neglect of family time, neglect and self-care. In seminary, one of the classes I was required to take was a class called “Pastoral Formation.” One of the central points of that course was to encourage the seminarian to begin to lay down the foundation for self-awareness and self-care. This is not SELFISH…but a part of well-being. If you can’t take care of yourself, how can you possibly take care of others.

The church talks the talk about observing the Sabbath and keeping it holy; however, when it comes to the walk, the church trips all over itself. In ancient Judaism, Sabbath was one of the key things that made the Jews different from outside cultures. Whereas the Gentile world did not reserve a day of rest and considered all days as fair game for work, Jews were extremely intentional about the importance of Sabbath. While Jesus resisted any sort of senseless rigidity to the law that prevented people from serving God and doing what’s right on the Sabbath, Jesus never, ever rejected the Sabbath but was a Sabbath observing Jew himself!

The challenge for the church is this, are encouraging people to rest, to take a break, to observe Sabbath? Or are we driving people to work, work, work and work until they burn out and are no longer capable of serving? Are we laying the burden on a few to do the work of the many, or are we raising up disciples to help spread the work out, make the load lighter and to give everyone an opportunity to rest? The challenge for individuals is this: Are you alotting for an appropriate amount of rest in your schedule? Or are you working tirelessly with little to no time to rest and celebrate life. Conversely, are you getting too much rest and allowing others to burn out as a result of your not being willing to help lighten the load?

Regardless of what side of this you come down on, regardless of how you answer, know that observing the Sabbath is crucial to your physical, emotional, psychological and spiritual well being. And know that just as it is a sin to not observe the Sabbath, it is also a sin to hoarde the Sabbath to yourself at the detriment of others. Working too hard is a sin, as is allowing others to work too hard. Pray for balance in your life, the lives of others and in the life of the church so that we may begin to heal from the ailment of working too hard.

THOUGHT OF THE DAY
“If you don’t take a Sabbath, something is wrong. You’re doing too much, you’re being too much in charge. You’ve got to quit, one day a week, and just watch what God is doing when you’re not doing anything.” – Eugene Peterson

PRAYER
Lord, continually remind me of the importance of Sabbath rest so that I may become more attentive to it. Amen.

Devotional

Why Advent?

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Read Isaiah 11:1-9

ALSO IN SCRIPTURE
“I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among His people! He will live with them, and they will be His people. God Himself will be with them.” (Revelation 21:3 NLT)

Advent2Advent is one of my favorite times of year. It is true that I am not a big fan of winter or its weather, I really love the season of Advent and of the great hope that it stands for. Throughout the majority of Christian history, the church has in one way or another celebrated the coming Christ. With that said, Christmas (aka the coming of the Christ-child) was not always celebrated by the church. In fact, it was quite a controversy early on and, in some Christian circles, it is still a controversy.

The  church didn’t officially recognize the “feast day” of Christ’s birth (what became known as Christ’s Mass or Christmas) until the fourth century, and when we look at the Gospels themselves, only two of the four canonical Gospels (Matthew and Luke) actually account for the birth of the Christ-child. The other two canonical Gospels (Mark and John) do not mention the birth of Christ at all. Mark starts off with Jesus’ baptism and John merely makes mention that the WORD of God manifested itself in the flesh as Jesus (John 1:14). They clearly did not feel that there was any significant reason to include the story of the Nativity in their Gospels.

So, then, why Advent? Regardless of the fact that only two of the four Gospels include the Nativity story, each of the four Gospels have the Advent story! In fact, the entire Bible is an Advent story. Advent, of course, means “the arrival of a notable person, thing, or event”. All of Scripture is pointing to Advent, when you really think about it. All of Scripture is pointing to the advent or arrival of Immanuel, of “God with us.” From the first humans through the Exodus, from the age of the kings through the prophets, from the exile through Roman occupation, from the birth of Jesus through his resurrection, from the apostles through our the age in which we find ourselves, this world is SCREAMING for the advent of God’s Kingdom, the advent of hope, healing, wholeness, justice, mercy, compassion and grace!

Why Advent? Because we live in a broken world filled with broken people such as ourselves. Why Advent? Because we live in a world filled with social injustice. Why Advent? Because we live in a world where people pour lighter fluid down the throats of teenagers and light them on fire. Why Advent? Because we live in a world where a few have everything, and a majority people have nothing. Why Advent? Because we all play our part in the reality of sin. Why Advent? Because we desire justice, we long for mercy, strive to live humbly.

Unfortunately, in the longing for Advent, we often miss a hugely important point. Immanuel has already come. GOD IS WITH US! GOD IS WITHIN US! While we certainly await the coming of God’s Kingdom in all of its fullness, and while the Bible is all about advent, it also points us to the reality of God’s presence with us, God’s love for us, and God’s holy spirit within us. The question really isn’t why Advent? Rather, the question should be why wait?

What are we waiting for? God desires that we see God’s presence with us now. We no longer have to lie in wait. We no longer have to sit and hope for some savior to come and rescue us. That savior has already come, that savior has never left, and that savior has no intention of leaving. So long as there are people who open themselves up to God, the Savior will always be present in the world. Jesus didn’t call us to wait, but to BE AWAKE. Jesus didn’t call us into waiting…but he sent his disciples and he sends us into action. Instead of waiting, actively take part in showing the world that GOD is already here…that GOD IS ALREADY WITH US…THAT LOVE WINS.

THOUGHT OF THE DAY
How are you bringing the reality of Immanuel into the world around you?

PRAYER
Lord, I am your vessel of hope, healing and wholeness. Use me as a witness to your presence among all people. Amen.

Devotional, Previous Post

A LOOK BACK: Woken Up in a Dream

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181817372While it is important to keep moving forward, sometimes it is also important to pause and look back at what we’ve learned from the past. With that in mind, let’s take a look at this post from December 2012. It is just as relevant now as it was then.

Click here to view today’s devotion.

Many blessings,

Pastor Todd

Devotional

What Really Matters

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Read Amos 5:21-24

ALSO IN SCRIPTURE

“God blesses those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they will be satisfied. God blesses those who are merciful, for they will be shown mercy.” (Matthew 5:6-7, NLT)

Like a RiverToday is Black Friday, a day when much of America is seemingly out shopping in preparation for the largest gift-giving season in the world. The day became known as “Black Friday” because businesses were said to go from being in the “red”, meaning they owed more than they brought in, to being in the “black”, which means that their revenue exceeded what they owed. It is no wonder then that Black Friday has become Big Business’s happy holiday as billions of shoppers spend their money on Christmas gifts.

In the wake of the violent riots that broke out this week in Ferguson, Missouri, however, there is no doubt that this year black Friday may be seeming a little more trivial than it normally does. Of course, it really always seems trivial to many people, and rightfully so; however, as smoldering smoke rises from chain stores and “mom and pop” shops alike in Ferguson, it is perhaps time for us to pause and reflect on the things that actually matter. No matter where we fall in our understanding surrounding the death of Michael Brown this past summer, the fact remains that this country is still suffering under the injustices of the past that keep resurfacing to haunt us.

It’s unfortunate that it takes the death of an eighteen year old, the ruination of the lives of a police officer and his family, and the destruction of an entire community for people to see that we aren’t out of the water yet when it comes to the racial tensions that divide us as a nation. We so often try to bury the past and busy ourselves with trivialities in order to go about our lives “unaware” of the injustice that surrounds us. Again, I say that without making a judgment call about the particular case in Ferguson.

As I sit here and write this, I am shedding tears and praying prayers for Michael Brown’s family who are so torn with grief over the loss of a son, a brother, a nephew, a cousin, and a grandchild. I am also shedding tears and praying prayersfor Darren Wilson and his family as they, too, are caught in all of this. I am shedding tears for the black communities, and minority communities, who have endured a system that is skewed against them because of their race. I am shedding tears and praying prayers for police officers and first responders who go to work, and put their lives on the line everyday, only to be put in situations where they have their decisions scrutinized by people who are not in harm’s way or forced to make those decisions. There are a lot of tears to go around.

As we reflect on Ferguson and the larger issues that are facing our country, let us see where we all fit into the picture. Let us realize that we too have a part to play in all of this. Will we be a part of the effort to sweep our past under the carpet, or will we be a part of the long, and often painful, process to work toward HOPE, HEALING, and WHOLENESS. God has called us to be a people who seek to live justly, who love mercy, and who walk humbly with God. The question is, for each of us, are we willing to answer God’s call?

My ultimate prayer is that justice and mercy will simultaneously flow like a river. That people will take the hard steps to work together in order that we may truly, one day, call each other brothers and sisters. I pray that God will use each of us as vessels that not only bear witness to the presence of God in our communities, but also that bring God’s hope, healing, and wholeness to them as well! The time has come for us to drop the trivial pursuits and start working toward what really matters: justice and mercy!

THOUGHT OF THE DAY

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” – Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

PRAYER

Lord, allow both justice and mercy to flow like a river through us and into our communities. Amen.

Devotional

Thanksgiving Day

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Read Psalm 100

ALSO IN SCRIPTURE
“Let your roots grow down into Him, and let your lives be built on Him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.” (Colossians 2:7 NLT)

FirstThanksgivingBigWell, it is getting to be that time isn’t it. Tomorrow is the holiday that we in America call Turkey day…I mean Thanksgiving Day. After all, not all of us eat Turkey, and all of the turkeys that survive T-Day are ever thankful for that! All jokes aside, this is the holiday that begs Americans to remember the story of the Pilgrims. When the Pilgrims landed in Massachusetts in 1620, they were not prepared for life in the wilderness and they did not really know what to grow or when to grow it. Enter in the Native Americans, namely the Wampanoag tribe, who taught the settlers how to survive (including how to grow and harvest their food) in exchange for protection against tribal enemies.

By the time of the first Thanksgiving meal, there were only 50 out of 100 Pilgrims alive to share in the meal. Half of them had died during the first winter in the New World. Those remaining Pilgrims invited 90 Wompanoag to share with them in a feast, as a way of giving thanks to them and to God for their alliance and survival. Of course there is a ton more to the history than what I have recounted here; however, this is the gist of the story that the Thanksgiving Day observance in the U.S. is centered on.

Of course, it wasn’t long before more settlers showed up in Massachusetts and it is quite unfortunate that the original thankfulness that the Pilgrims had shown toward their Native American neighbors had all but been forgotten. The rest is sadly history. The European settlers flourished and grew in numbers, while the Wampanoag suffered major losses in their population. The European settlers, unbeknownst to them, brought bacteria and illnesses which killed many within the Wampanoag tribe. On top of that, with the European settlers came Western Civilization and it’s wars. One such war was King Phillip’s war, where the English colonists and their Native American allies fought against other Native American tribes. During that war, the Wampanog lost over 40 percent of its population and many of the surviving males in their tribe were sold into slavery in the West Indies. On top of that, many of the women and children were enslaved in New England. So much for the spirit of thankfulness, huh?

While this may seem like ancient history, the fact remains that the very feast we partake in year after year is rooted in that ancient history. What’s more, like the original Thanksgiving between the Settlers and Wampanoag tribe, our Thanksgiving is so short-lived that we often forget what we were even thankful for before the turkey, or Tofurky, coma settles in. In fact, it seems like our thankfulness is, by and large, nothing more than a trivial tradition that bears little resemblance to true thankfulness.

The challenge for us is become a truly thankful people who do not trivialize such an important part of what we were created to be. Let us begin to truly be thankful for everything we have been given. Too often we express our thankfulness through words, but words are so often very cheap! The first Pilgrims did not express their thankfulness merely with words, but through their actions in protecting their Native American allies and through inviting them to share in their harvest feast! Let us, too, be a people who show God that we are truly thankful by sharing what we have with others, no matter how unlikely it may seem for us to have a relationship with them. God has created us all and has provided all of us with all that we need. If we are truly thankful for those things, and if we truly recognize that everything we have are gifts from God, then we will not hesitate in being generous in our giving and THANKFUL in our living! This Thanksgiving, make thankfulness the meat that you feast on!

THOUGHT OF THE DAY
“Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.” – Melodie Beattie

PRAYER
Gracious God, I thank you for all that I have including my life. Give me the strength take what I have and share it with those in need, so that my thankfulness can move from words into action. Amen.

Devotional

To Wrestle and Prevail

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Read Genesis 32:22-32

ALSO IN SCRIPTURE
“For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.” (Jeremiah 29:11 NRSV)

jacob13Questioning is a huge part of what it means to be human. We as human beings have been given the ability to think for ourselves, to know good from evil, to create, to name, and to care for other things. We have been given the vision of what paradise is, of what it means to live in harmony with all of creation, and we have also been forced to recognize that reality is often times much different than our vision of utopia. It is in those moments that we find ourselves questioning ourselves, questioning humanity, questioning the created order and, most importantly, questioning our Creator.

This is especially true when we are going through our own trials. When we find that we are losing control over different aspects of our lives, or when we come to the realization that we were never in control to begin with, we find that we start to question God. When we lose our wealth, when we our loved ones, when we lose our health, when we lose our independence, when we suffer loss in any sense, we can’t help but cry out to God and question why these things are happening. What’s more, we often get angry at God and, in the process, begin to feel guilt over our anger, over our doubt, over our questioning.

In the Hebrew Scriptures, we read of a man named Jacob who had stolen his brother’s birthright many years earlier and he was on his way back home to try and make amends with his brother who wanted to kill him…literally. One night, while on his way back to his homeland to meet his angry brother, a man suddenly wrestles with Jacob. We aren’t told who this man was and one can assume that Jacob had no clue who he was either. The two wrestle each other all night long and, in the end, Jacob wins the wrestling match. Realizing that Jacob had won the other man strikes him on his hip, which leaves Jacob permanently injured. Still, Jacob did not let go of the man and refused to do so until the man blessed him.

Perhaps Jacob thought the man was his brother Esau, after all, it was dark and the man happened upon him suddenly.  Regardless, the man ends up relenting and giving Jacob his blessing. After that, Jacob lets the man go and he names the place Peniel, which means, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved.” For whatever reason, Jacob came to the realization that the man was God, and that he had wrestled with God. Upon this revelation, God renames Jacob Israel because he had wrestled with God and prevailed.

I tell this story for all who feel guilty for wrestling with God. For all who have questioned and for all who have found themselves angry with God, take heart! You are not alone. God has big shoulders and can take our questions. God knows our hearts and understands our anger. God blesses us when we wrestle with God, because that means we are in relationship with God. We weren’t created to be mindless drones; rather, we were created to be a relationally engaged people. Who doesn’t struggle in relationships? That’s the very nature of them.

Take heart, be confident, and know that God does love you and that God does give you the space to wrestle! God has blessed you with the ability to question, to think freely, and to wrestle with God when we don’t understand why things are as they are. In fact, it is in that relational wrestling match that we will find that God has richly blessed us with a renewed assurance of our identity in our Creator, and of our Creator’s identity in us. For all who have indeed wrestled with God, stand up tall and thank God for such an awesome opportunity.

THOUGHT OF THE DAY
“The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing.” – Marcus Aurelius

PRAYER
Lord, you know my heart and you know that I have struggled and even wrestled with you. I thank you for having broad shoulders and for giving me the opportunity to wrestle and, more importantly, to be in relationship with you. Amen.

Devotional, Previous Post

A LOOK BACK: Breath of God

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181817372While it is important to keep moving forward, sometimes it is also important to pause and look back at what we’ve learned from the past. With that in mind, let’s take a look at this post from November 2013. It is just as relevant now as it was then.

Click here to view today’s devotion.

Many blessings,

Pastor Todd

Devotional

Anointed

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Read Isaiah 45:1-8

ALSO IN SCRIPTURE
“No, O people, the LORD has told you what is good, and this is what He requires of you: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:8 NLT)

anointing_of_fresh_oilWhen you hear the word Messiah, who do you think of? When you hear the word Christ, what do you think of? Some of you may know that the words Christ and Messiah mean the same thing, that “messiah” is the English equivalent of a the Hebrew word “mâshı̂yach” (מָשִׁיחַ) and “christ” is the English equivalent of the Greek word “christos” (Χριστός). My guess is that when most people hear the phrase “messiah” or “christ”, whether they or Christian or not, they immediately think of the man who ended up becoming the figure head of the Christian religion, Jesus of Nazareth. Some may even mistakenly think that “Christ” is Jesus’ last name!

I am very certain that when most people hear the words “messiah” or “christ”, they do not think of Cyrus. In fact, if I were a betting person, I would bet that most people would not even know who Cyrus actually is. As it happens, Cyrus was the king of Persia. He ended up being the ruler who took over the kingdom of Babylon after it fell to the forces and the might of Persia. Within Babylon were the people of Judah who had been exiled there because of their trying to ally with Egypt against Babylon. When that happened, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon beseiged Jerusalem and, upon overtaking it, forced all of the leaders, the Temple priests, the scribes and people of import were exiled from Jerusalem and relocated in Babylon.

Once Babylon fell to Persia, King Cyrus (who was not a Jew and had no in depth knowledge of the Jewish religion) let the Jewish people return back to Jerusalem. What is even more striking than that, is that Cyrus seemingly had no agenda other than to just let them go home. He didn’t require them to send any money back to him, or pledge their loyalty to him in any way; rather, he simply let them go home to rebuild the city of Jerusalem and its Temple. In response to that, the Jewish priests and scribes wrote of Cyrus that he was the LORD GOD’s “anointed one”, or Messiah (which is “Christ” in Greek). Let me reiterate that. Cyrus, the non-Jewish, polytheistic, war mongering Persian King was the Messiah…the Christ…the LORD’s anointed one.

I bet you didn’t see that one coming. The Hebrew Scriptures are filled with such richness that really help point us to the nature of God. If we read Scripture carefully, there were many messiahs. Saul, David, Solomon, and every other King of Israel were all the LORD’s anointed ones. That’s different than being “the Messiah”, the one that some of the first century Jews were looking to come and rid them of their oppressors and reestablish the line of King David forever; however, there were many messiahs and each one of them were anointed by the LORD’s prophets. There really is nothing unusual about a king, or others, being called messiah. What is unusual is that this particular king does not even know, let alone worship, the God of Israel.

What does that say for us? It says that God constantly exceeds our expectations. It says that God will anoint anyone who is willing to have compassion, who seeks justice, who loves mercy, and who walks in the path of humility. Whether that person is a Jew or a Gentile, whether that person is a Christian or a Muslim, whether that person is a monotheist or a polytheist, whether that person is a male or a female, God will work in and through anyone who is willing to humble themselves and let LOVE rule the day. The fact is that God was calling Israel to live in that love, to be God’s chosen, and God worked through Cyrus to remind them of that. The fact is that God is calling us to live in that LOVE, to be God’s chosen, and once again is using Cyrus to remind us of that. Be reminded and live a life of LOVE that witnesses to the LOVE of God.

THOUGHT OF THE DAY
“This is not the time to shrink back in fear. This is the time to move forward in Faith. Get up every morning knowing you are anointed. You are equipped. You are empowered. You have everything you need to fulfill your destiny.” – Elton Sibiya

PRAYER
Lord, allow me to step out in faith, to see that you have anointed me to fulfill the work of love, compassionate justice, and mercy that you began at the outset of the world. Allow me to act upon that knowledge in service of others. Amen.