About Me

My photo
My heart beats for love. I want to be different. I want to be who I am called to be. WORTHY and LOVED!

Sunday, February 24, 2013

"Today you will be with me in Paradise"


Justice. When I say this word, what is the first thing that comes to your mind? For me, it’s Judge Judy. A beacon of the court system, who has no time for those who don’t follow the rules or those who try to exploit the system, she is tough, but fair. But God is not Judge Judy.
God’s sense of justice extends well beyond our limited view of justice through the human court system. Our sense of justice is in order to do what is best for us – justice may involve separating some people from others, or enforcing fines in an attempt to get people to follow the rules.  But our sense of justice is also tainted – sometimes the justice system is actually unjust. But God’s sense of justice is not about what is good for God; it is about what is good for those whom God loves. And this is the type of justice Jesus demonstrated when he said, “today you will be with me in paradise.”
In today’s scripture passage Jesus, the Son of God, gives up his life for us. He is crucified by an unjust justice system  - he is killed on the accusations of someone else, for something that he did not do. And yet, as he hung up on the cross, he asked God, his Father, to forgive the crowds who were sacrificing him, because they did not know what they were doing. Yet, even after hearing this prayer, one of the thieves, literally translated “those who do evil works”, who hung naked and dying with Jesus chose to mock him, as if trying to build himself up, even in his final moments. Not realizing who he was speaking to – telling him to save himself and them if he really was the Messiah.
In the midst of this scene of heckling, from the crowds, and soldiers, and even another thief, only one person got it right, asking, Don’t you fear God? Especially since you are under the same sentence of death. We were punished justly, for we did what we were accused of doing, but this man, this man did nothing wrong. He then turned to Jesus and said, Remember me when you come into your kingdom. This man had faith. 
Only one man, and a criminal at that, may have understood who Jesus was that day. Only one person may have stood by his side instead of fleeing. Only a few truly believed and claimed that he did not do the things that he was accused of. And yet, Jesus’ blood, the death that he suffered was for all. Jesus didn’t make things fair – he made things clean. We aren’t going to get the punishment we deserve for our sins in eternity. What awesome love! 
To this one man Jesus made a statement that echoed how he lived his life of ministry, “Today you will be with me in paradise”. During Jesus’ time on earth he ministered with unexpected people - thieves, prostitutes, bandits. He spent time with them, making the Kingdom of God assessable to them. He shared his heart with them. Some, like the first thief hanging on the cross, rejected him. Others came to love him, even as the second thief did at his final moments on the cross. But he invested time in each of them, because he had a heart for the lost children of God. Do we have that same heart in this church? Take a moment and think - are most of your friends Christians or non-Christians? Do you have a heart to invest time and love in those who do not yet know Christ or does that make you uncomfortable? Now I am not saying to go out and spend time with people who aren’t Christians in order to convert them - for that would be inauthentic. But I am asking you if your interactions look like those of Christ, with a wide variety of people, offering hope and wholeness.
This passage also invites us to ask, what exactly did Christ mean with his statement, “Today you will be with me in paradise.” He was expressing so much, once again, in a brief statement. He was saying that this man, despite all he had done of earth, would find freedom in Heaven. In fact, he would experience that freedom today, immediately being raised to life following his death. Jesus was also saying that this man would be offered salvation because of his faith. He didn’t have to know all the right things before he could be saved, he simply had to believe that Christ was Lord. 
God’s sense of justice does not  come from making sure that everything is fair or right, but out of God’s deep sense of love for us. Its not a justice that we can predict or manage, just as we cannot predict or contain love. Jesus cried out in our defense, and God forgave us! When we recognize our sin and confess it, Jesus again cries out to God to forgive us, for we cannot comprehend what we are doing. Cannot fully imagine that we are hurting God, ourselves, and others. He continually asks God to forgive us, if only we would ask Christ to forgive us our sins. 
As Christ has sought justice on our behalf, we are seek justice for others. We may not be able to have the same kind of justice that doesn’t make everything fair or even (for if God’s justice was based on fairness we would all lose), but we can at least strive to love people in this world. Strive to offer them the message of hope and wholeness that is found in Christ.  While we may not be able to eliminate the wrongs in this world, we can try to correct them and see those often mistreated in society with the eyes of Christ. For Christ seeking and saving the lost was his mission of justice. Alas, sometimes we spend more time judging people and categorizing people into who will be in Heaven and who will not be, instead of living a life like Christ’s that seeks to offer salvation.
A few years ago I had the opportunity to get to see the movie, the Jammed, about underground prostitution in Melbourne. I wouldn’t recommend this movie to everyone, but is has a powerful message, and especially touched me as a Christian. The movie tells the story of three women who were pulled into prostitution under false contexts and one woman who got pulled into helping the girls by no choice of her own. I was quit convicted by the end of the movie by a phrase that kept playing in my head from my favorite book, the Irresistible Revolution, by Shane Claiborne. Shane is having a conversation with a friend who just claimed that Jesus never talked to a prostitute and Shane is trying to defend the fact that of course Jesus talked to prostitutes, all the time. But then Shane’s friend replied, “Listen, Jesus never talked to a prostitute because he didn’t see a prostitute. He saw a child of God he was madly in love with.” Brothers and sisters, I firmly believe that this is how Christ saw all that he ministered to, not by their sins or titles given to them by other people, but as children of God. How are we seeing the people around us? And how are we reaching out with a message of love and hope?
In today’s passage of scripture we are reminded that we are all sinners who deserve God’s punishment, but we are also all children of God. We have the responsibility as one who has received God’s gifts of justice and mercy to extend them to others and let them know that they are loved. Let them know that their is a paradise that Christ offers to all. For “what would happen if every one of us who professes to be Christian would reach out to those who are lost and show them compassion in Jesus’ name? How would the world change?”
So may we claim God’s justice in our lives. May we see it as a wonderful gift, and also as something that we can live into being. May we seek justice on the behalf of the forgotten, ignored, and oppressed. And may we love all, remembering that God’s love covers all, for even to those with the smallest grain of belief Christ offers the promise, “Today you will be with me in paradise”. Amen.

Sunday, February 17, 2013

Final Words from the Cross: “Father Forgive Them...” Luke 23: 26, 33-34


Final words are meaningful. When you sit with someone who is dying or recall someone who has passed, we often hold on to the final words they shared with us. As Christians we place the same value and meaning on the final words of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, that he uttered before his death on the cross. Sometimes around Good Friday, when the final seven statements of Jesus are recounted, someone will ask me why there are so many final words of Jesus. We need to remember that it took six hours for Jesus to perish on the cross. During that time he would have experienced extructating pain as he suffocated, making each statement he uttered of upmost importance. We also value these statements because they have something to teach us about how we live our lives today as followers of Christ. With that mindset, we are going to spend this Lenten season looking more deeply into these final statements.
Imagine for a moment that you are Simon of Cyrene. You have traveled a great distance to celebrate the passover with your family in Jerusalem. Then one day, perhaps on your way to visit more relatives, you are stopped by a Roman solider and commanded to carry the beam of the cross for a prisoner. Would you have known about Jesus or would you wonder who this man you were carrying the weight of death for was? Would you have helped him, pitied him, or been ashamed that you were now in a procession of criminals? 
When Simon and Jesus arrived with the other criminals at the Skull, Jesus was nailed to the cross and lifted up. And as he hung there he prayed, “Father forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” A simple prayer from a dying man that modeled how we are to live as Christians. A prayer that was prayed for so many different people even in its brevity. For who was Jesus asking God to forgive? Who is “them”? He was praying for the guards surrounding him, mocking him. For those in the crowd who gawked at him and made a spectacle of his death. For those religious leaders who had conspired in secret to kill him and used the justice system for their own wicked means. 
But Jesus was also praying for those not gathered physically around the cross. Those not yet born. You and I. He prayed that God forgive us for our sinful nature that leads us to commit sins without thinking of the consequences. Jesus prayed for us. Its a bit of an uncomfortable thought isn’t it? For it requires us to first and foremost admit that we are sinners. Something that many of us would rather not do. We don’t want to think about how we have hurt God and others. We would rather gloss over our indiscretions. Yet here, Jesus very publicly prayers that God extend mercy and forgiveness - and we are all in need of that forgiveness for we have all sinned. 
Yes, sometimes we would rather look at someone else’s sin and point out that ours isn’t that bad. We look at this narrative of Jesus at the cross and think of all of those who harmed him - the guards, the religious leaders, the crowds - and think that we aren’t that bad, but really, we have all descended from Adam, we are all sinners. And God does not see one sin as being worse then another. Yes, we are all in need of forgiveness.
But with Jesus prayer that asks us to uncomfortably examine ourselves and see what we need to be forgiven for, there is also a resounding message of hope - that God does offer us forgiveness and mercy. That God does redeem us even for the things that we do not understand we are doing. God extends us forgiveness for our personal and corporate sins, because of the blood of the cross. 
This week I’ve spent time doing research for my project presentation for ordination. I’ve spent a lot of time reading about why young people leave the church after high school, and one answer that keeps coming up again and again is that what is being taught doesn’t have relevance for their life, doesn’t offer them hope. Friends, if the message that Jesus forgives our sin and the blood of the cross reconciles us to God isn’t life transforming then we aren’t preaching the right thing. Yes, we need to talk about sin so we realize how broken we are, but if our message stops there instead of talking about grace then Father, forgive us. If we don’t talk about how Christ has forgiven us and teaches us how to forgive us, then Father, forgive us. We have missed the mark. For even in the most brutal moment of Christ’s life, he prayed that we be forgiven. And that is what this particular season of Lent is all about, remember that we are sinners, but that we are forgiven. 
Through Christ praying this powerful prayer we are also taught how to forgiven others. Take a moment and think about the worst thing that someone has ever done to you. Think about those transgressions you just can’t forgive someone for. Was it worse then what Jesus experienced that day on Calvary? For even as those around him mocked him, struck him, spit on him, falsely accused him, and then killed him, Jesus prayed that they should be forgiven. Can you imagine how those hearing this prayer were later effected by it? Can you imagine how Simon the Cyrene’s life was changed by Jesus’ words? 
This wasn’t the first time that Jesus taught about forgiveness during his ministry, but this was a moment when the rubber hit the road and he modeled it. When he did the hard work of praying for his enemies, prayed that God’s grace enter their lives. Friends, do we pray like that for those who harm us? Do we ask God to forgive others and to teach us how to forgive as well? Because as Jesus hung from the cross it was as if he was saying to those of us who call ourselves his disciples, this, this is what forgiveness looks like. It isn’t easy. It requires hard work. And forgiving over and over. But this is what my ministry is about. Reconciling people to each other and reconciling humanity to God. Can you pray the prayer the Jesus prayed that day?
This Wednesday the season of Lent began and Christians around the world attended Ash Wednesday services to remember the frailty of their own existence as they were marked by ash and had the words, “You are dust and to dust you shall return spoken over them. But Ash Wednesday also marks the day that we enter into this intentional season of renewal, an intentional season of reconciliation with God and others. During the Ash Wednesday service at Mansfield University, as part of the prayer of confession, we prayed for the Lord to have mercy on us for the times we have not forgiven others as he has forgiven us. During this season who do you need to forgive as Jesus forgave us? What sins do you need to confess before God? Who do you need to tell about the message of hope that is found in this season - as Jesus prayed that we would be forgiven? 
These powerful words of forgiveness were given as a gift to us to build up the body of Christ. To teach us how to forgive. And to lead us to reconciliation with God. May we remember that these final words of Christ are a gift to us, as we grow in faith and practice this Lenten season. “Father, forgive them.” Amen. 

Sunday, February 3, 2013

Plans for You - Jer 1: 4-10


There are two verses of scripture from the prophet Jeremiah that are often quoted. One I have etched into a picture frame holding my college graduation picture. “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” From Jeremiah 29. The other is found in today’s scripture passage, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I concentrated you.” 
But what exactly was Jeremiah consecrated to do? Be a prophet with a very difficult message in a very trying time. He was sent to the people of Jerusalem who have now been in captivity a few months with the message that they should settle in, because their captivity is going to last a lot longer. Not necessarily the most popular or well received message. Further he was to speak out against the sin of the entire nation. You can understand why Jeremiah was resistant.
However, that may be the most relatable part of Jeremiah’s story. Not the magnitude of his call, for we are not all called to be prophets, rather his resistance to the call of God on his life. As a pastor I have had the privilege of hearing many different people’s call stories, and I can tell you that every single one, including my own, involved resistance. The first time I remember feeling as if I was to serve the church was in high school, but I ignored it because it wasn’t my plan. Then I attended an event, still intending to have a non-church vocation, but conceded to considering to be a certified lay minister. I felt pullings towards the church, even as I worked on my degrees to go another direction, but when it came time to finally apply for grad school, I couldn’t do it. I knew that I had been running away. Did this make saying yes to God any easier? No. I went to seminary, still intending to not be a pastor, but to teach at a seminary. Now here I am. Later I received a call within a call to work with others as a spiritual director, and I made up excuses about why I was too you. Yet I am standing here today as a testament to the fact that the call of God is relentless and will always win in the end. 
People are wrought with excuses about why they cannot follow the path God has laid before them. They are too you. Too old. Not educated enough. They have other things going on right now. But underneath all of the excuses is the same emotion - fear. We are fearful to follow God’s call because it is going to be hard. Just look at what Jeremiah was appointed to do: pluck up and pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant. Verbs requiring difficult actions and hard work. 
This year at the Bishop’s Retreat, a former bishop came and spoke to pastors and their spouses about where our hope is founded. He made a very interesting appeal to the fact that our hope is found in our call. Not necessarily the call to be a pastor, but rather the act of God calling people for such a time as this to step out beyond ourselves and follow God. There is hope in that because God sees us as agents of change in this world and God chooses to use us despite all of our excuses and brokeness. We serve a God who does not give up on us, but rather calls us to take a risk for the Kingdom. 
When God calls for such a time as this, it should be noted that God’s call is not in our timing. God’s call involves interrupting us during what we are doing and asking us to go a new direction. Asking us to face the unknown. Of course our response is going to be fear! For the call of God is never fully explained nor convient. It often asks us to give up more then we are willing to let go of. For Jeremiah it asked him to risk his very life to bring the people the Word of God. But the thing about the call of God is that it is relentless. You can try to ignore it all you want, but when God gives orders about what we are supposed to be doing, you can only run away from it for so long. You can only make so many excuses. Just look at the Biblical examples. Jonah was swallowed by a whale when he ran the opposite direction from God’s commands for him. Moses tried every excuse in the book, but God kept saying that he was the one who was called, not anyone else. The call of God we receive is specific to us - no one else can do it - and will not let us go. God insists that we follow.
Often we are called to do things that we do not feel equipped to do. Like David facing Goliath we feel that we are called to do the impossible, but God empowers us, giving us the gifts we need to face any situation when the time comes. Sometimes we are called to do something that lines up with our abilities, and other times to that which we have no natural ability or talent in. But like the calling, the capacity to live into the call comes from God alone. We did not choose God, God chose us. Are you feeling called to help with the youth group, but don’t know how to interact with youth? God will empower you. Are you feeling called to lead a Bible study, but don’t feel that you know enough? God will provide. Do you feel God leading you to visit the sick, but don’t have enough time? God will clear your schedule. 
The calls that God places on each of our lives may not be as dramatic as Jeremiah, Moses, Jonah, or David’s. And perhaps thats why we miss them or ignore them so easily. We expect to be called to something monuments in a very clear way, when God is calling us to be faithful to things different from the prophets daily. Are you being sent out to speak to the nation? Or are you being called to take a lay preaching course or deliver meals on wheels? To God they are all calls that require our faithful responses. All tasks that we cannot do on our own, but only through the grace and strength of God. 
Sometimes we error by thinking that only the great Biblical figures are called - prophets, preachers, missionaries. But God clearly tells Jeremiah that there was a plan for his life, even before he was born. Friends, there is a plan for our lives too. There is a call issued to us by virtue of our baptisms that we are to respond to. These calls come at different times in our lives and in different ways. We do not choose our callings, God chooses us and we are to faithfully respond. 
God does not tell Jeremiah that living into his call would be easy. In fact, God tells him to fear not - which in most Biblical examples means that fear in the natural response. God goes on to say that Jeremiah would be delivered and upheld by the hand of God. See that’s the thing about our calls, God never sends us into them alone. Our marching orders are from God and we are upheld by God. God tells us to fear not, as well. Tells us that we will be protected and led. 
This past week in the introduction session to confirmation, one of the local pastors asked the students what it means to be confirmed. One teen responded that it means to be said you to. The pastor went on to ask who says yes to us when we are confirmed and a list emerged: the church, our families, God, ourselves. Friends, the same thing happens when we say yes to our call. Often those who know you well will respond, what took you so long, as they affirm God working through our lives in unexpected and wonderful ways.
Brothers and sisters, what is God calling you to do? What is the tug on your heart that won’t let go? What keeps coming up even though you try to ignore it? What do you make excuses about not doing? What did you feel called to when you were younger, that you’ve given up on? What is God requiring of you? For some people it may be a call within a call or a call that only lasts for a short period of time. For others God may be calling you to change your vocation or reprioritize your life. Whatever God is calling you to, what will your response be? Amen.