Friday, April 29, 2011


Choices
“Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve.”
Joshua 24:15

          Every time we drive through a fast food restaurant, or stroll down a grocery store aisle, or wander through a used car lot we face choices, decisions that have to be made.  When we choose one thing it often means we’ve decided against something else.  Our new car will either be a convertible or it won’t.

          Choices can be hard because instead of either/or we often want both/and.  We want to have our cake and eat it too.  The folks to whom Joshua spoke were both/and kind of people.  They wanted to worship the God who had brought them out of the land of bondage, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but they also wanted to hedge their bets.  Their Amorite neighbors worshipped a god called Baal who guaranteed good crops and healthy babies.

          So, they tried to have it both ways.  On the Sabbath they worshipped the God who created heaven and earth, and then during the rest of the week they worshipped at the altar of an idol one who promised wealth and prosperity.  It seemed to them to be the best of both worlds.

          But, Joshua stood up at Shechem and declared a choice must be made.  God who laid the foundation of the world would not play second fiddle to a golden idol.  Both/and cannot work in matters of the spirit because such things reach deep into the heart and a divided heart can never find peace.  So, “choose this day whom you will serve”, and let that decision become the rock upon which you stand.

Grant us wisdom to choose rightly, O Lord.  Lead us down that narrow path that leads to salvation we pray.  Amen

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Resurrection Day
 “Peace be with you.
When he said this, he showed them his hands and side.”
John 20:20

When our resurrected Lord first appeared, even his closest friends could not believe their eyes.  They had seen him dead and buried in a tomb sealed with a great stone and guarded by soldiers. They expected him to stay there. Everyone did.  So, on Easter evening when he “appeared in a room, the doors being shut”; the disciples didn’t know what to make of it.  Was he a ghost?  Were they hallucinating?  Was it just wishful thinking?

Then Jesus showed them his hands and side.  That is, he showed them his wounds.  Later he even invited Thomas to touch them.  That was the proof that convinced him and prompted his confession of faith, “My Lord and my God.”

The Bible says that when we are raised to eternal life we shall be given a new body “glorious and incorruptible”.  Disabilities and incapacities will not follow us for eternity.  The blind shall see and the lame shall walk.

But, Jesus kept his wounds.  Why?  His wounds remained so that we might be reminded of the price he paid for our salvation.  Grace is not cheap.  Every time we consider the cross the depth of Christ’s love is revealed.

Easter means little to those who gloss over Good Friday.  The resurrection holds little meaning for those who deny the power of death.  But, for those who have experienced the grief that comes from loss; for those who’ve experienced the regret that comes from guilt; the power of the cross and the hope of Easter morning offer new possibilities and a new promise.


Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Palm Sunday
 “What are you doing untying the colt?”
Mark 11:5

          What would you do if a total stranger came up to you at the mall and asked to borrow your car and promised that it would be returned?  What would you do if Jesus told you to go up to a total stranger at the mall and ask to borrow her car assuring her that it would be returned?  Chances are you’d not be too pleased to be asked or to do the asking.  Yet, that is how the events of Palm Sunday began.  You’ll not find a clearer definition of faith in all of scripture.

          When those disciples showed up in Bethany and untied the donkey, the owner quite naturally asked them what they thought they were doing?  Scripture does not describe his tone, but I imagine his question carried some force.  When they responded, as Jesus told them, by saying, “The Lord has need of it, and will send it back soon”; this man had a faith decision to make.  Do I believe them?  Do I believe Jesus?

          His answer to that question is not recorded with words, but with action.  He let them have the donkey, believing that the Lord would use it for a good purpose and that it would be returned.  Perhaps he had heard Jesus’ promise, “Give and it will be given to you, good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over.  For the measure you given will be the measure you get back.” (Luke 6:38) 

          Although scripture doesn’t say, I imagine that donkey held a special place among that man’s possessions.  People may have asked, “Is this the one?”  Whenever he answered, “Yes”, he was reminded that when he acted in faith, he was not disappointed.   

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Sanctuary 
 “My house shall be called a house of prayer,
but you have made it a den of thieves.
Matthew 21:13

          Jesus had a high view of worship.  He believed that people need a place for sanctuary, a place that is set apart from the hustle and bustle of worldly affairs, a place for worship and prayer.  This did not mean that people cannot worship and pray in other places, for he often withdrew to “the lonely place” or to a garden.  But, he recognized that too many distractions often divert us from these spiritual disciplines.  We need a set-apart place to sharpen our focus.

          When Jesus discovered that the one place people ought to be able to worship and pray – the Temple – was filled with turbulence of a carnival; he let loose with the greatest display of anger you find from him in all of scripture.  The moneychangers brought the practice of the everyday world to the one place people should be able to find refuge. That, Jesus could not abide. He turned their tables upside down.

          Modern day worship faces similar struggles.  Ringing cell phones and pre-worship chatter divert us from the main task at hand and that is to come before the Lord bringing the best and worst of ourselves. People sometimes enter a sanctuary with no sense at all that they are standing on “holy ground”.  This derives perhaps from low expectations.  Some may not really believe that God can be found in this place and so do not receive the spiritual direction and encouragement that follows true worship.  That kind of worship, Jesus said, is always characterized by “spirit and truth”.

          So, the next time you go to church take a few moments to settle in and settle down.  Release the tensions of the week.  Breathe in and breathe out and open yourself up to the possibility that God is really there and that God does care.

Bring us back to the heart of worship, we pray O Lord. Remind us that it is indeed all about you.  Create in us a sanctuary where we might catch of glimpse of your holiness and experience the touch of your love.  Amen.