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The Word Became Flesh

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“The Word Became Flesh”

John 1:1-14 – December 25, 2025

            Words, words, words, words!! Words of every kind, of every description. Words that tell, words that show, words that praise, words that criticize. Words separate and draw together. Words fill people with joy and peace as well as with suspicion and animosity. Words have power. Whether insightful words or divisive words, encouraging words or capitulating words, words have the ability to shake emotions and to inflame passions for good or for evil.

            How do people use words and language, anyway? People speaking a common language need to agree upon the sense of what they say. It helps to be bound together by social convention as well as language rules of practice and use. In fact, language provides the structure of our common experience, understanding and perspectives. But I don’t want to get all high-falutin’ and theoretical. I want to bring this home to where we live.

            We all use language. Every day. In conversation at home, or on the telephone, or at work. Reading a newspaper or writing e-mail. All of these uses of language use words. Words communicate meaning, ideas, stories. Each one of us has a personal story, of what it was like, what happened, and what it’s like now. Our stories are communicated using words and language, and each individual has a creative, unique way to tell his or her story.

            The story of an individual’s own personal life makes sense because it is part of a larger story, the Story that has the story of Jesus Christ at its center. It is a story of God’s initiative which calls for my gratitude and response, a Story some theologians have called ‘the history of salvation.’ It is the Story of Jesus, the Story set forth in the Word of God that attracts, crossing boundaries and transcending lines of race, class, culture and age.

            Our gospel text for today, the first 14 verses of the Gospel of John, is a restatement of an old theme. Remember Genesis 1:1? “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” Most scholars today believe the apostle John was thinking of that introduction to the Greatest Story ever told when he wrote his own portion of it. John 1:1: “In the beginning was the Word.” John reframed that Story, and gave it a new look from a different perspective.

            In John, Chapter 1, we have God, the creative God who made heaven and earth. The almighty God wanted to communicate with us puny, limited human beings. But how was God supposed to communicate His Story?

            I can remember when my children were younger, in first and second grades. Sometimes they would need help with their homework at night. Years before, I had taken several courses of math in college . . . college algebra, trigonometry, analytical geometry. But, after considering more advanced mathematical ideas, how was I supposed to explain simple addition and subtraction to my young children in language they would understand?

            That’s the way I look at God’s problem sometimes. It’s sort of like God, able to do the most advanced mathematics possible–in God’s head!!–and God needed to be able to explain the simplest addition and subtraction problems to us ordinary, simple-minded human beings.

            There was another problem, as if the simple-mindedness of humanity wasn’t enough. That problem was (and is!!)  sin. Funny thing, how sin keeps cropping up in our lives and getting in the way. Sin divides people from one another as well as from God. Sin isolates and forces apart. Sin happens on a horizontal plane with other people as well as on a vertical plane with God. And sin causes humanity to walk in darkness and to run from God’s presence.

            So here we have a loving God, a God of light, a God who wants so much to communicate with us fallen, sinful human beings. But how was God supposed to communicate God’s Story?

            The Gospel of John tells us how. In the beginning was the Word. The Word was God. The Word is God. Jesus is the Word. John 1:14 says that the Word, Jesus, became flesh,  and . . . the Word dwelt among us.

            Think about it: the whole idea of God becoming a helpless baby, a human being, able to feel cold and heat, able to be hungry and thirsty, with blood and bones and a nervous system and a digestive system. So staggering was this idea that some of the people in John’s day could not believe it. God? the creative God who made heaven and earth? Coming to earth as a helpless, human baby? No way!!

            And, that’s not all!! Not only did this Creator God appear in creation so that our eyes could see Him, this almighty God, after making Himself flesh and blood, has the crazy idea of dwelling among people. Becoming one of us limited human beings, sharing our food and living in our midst. Jesus became fully man. He didn’t just seem to be a man, and pretend to be human. He really and truly became human, living with us as one of us.

            What a way for the almighty, eternal, creative God to communicate to us in a way that we limited human beings might possibly understand. God wanted humanity to understand His Story of good news, the Bible, but God also wanted humanity to understand God’s Word made flesh, the one called Jesus of Nazareth.

            Jesus (the Word incarnate) is the central principle of Scripture as well as the central character of the Greatest Story ever told. Reformed believers have throughout the centuries been finding new ways to confess their faith, using the fallible, limited resources of language that have been handed down to humanity throughout the generations. God helps us understand His Story, and there is nothing God wants more than for us to want to understand God’s Story better and better.

            A good many years ago, a bible translator went to a remote, mountainous region in the interior of Africa. He worked hard at turning an obscure oral language into a written language, which involved decoding the language, writing a grammar, learning extensive vocabulary, and finally translating a portion of the Bible into the heart language of that particular people-group.

            After several years of intense work and language preparation, when he felt he was ready, the missionary made his first presentation of the Story of Jesus to a group of headmen from the tribe. He was surprised at their response, which was unlike any he had ever had before in all his years of being a missionary and telling people the Story of Jesus. The group of men just sat there in silence, and then the chief came forward.

            The chief grasped the missionary’s hands and, with tears in his eyes, thanked him for coming to tell them the Story of Jesus. “This Story of good news is the one my people have waited for, all their lives long!!” And then came the clincher: the chief asked, “Your tribe has had this Story for many, many years. What took you so long to tell us?”

            Communicating the Story of Jesus has power! Awesome power! This is a Story that can change people’s lives for eternity. Telling the Story in someone’s heart language is one of the best ways to communicate how much God loves us.

            When Jesus came to this earth, He spoke the language of the people of His region, and He communicated ideas in ways people could understand. Yes, He was the Word become flesh, and yes, He showed us how to live this life that we have to live. Jesus, ‘the one Word of God which we have to hear and which we have to trust and obey in life and in death.’

            Praise God that God sent the Son Jesus into this world, the Word incarnate, the Word that became a helpless baby in Bethlehem. Praise God that God has given us the right to repair that broken relationship with us, and to be called the children of God. And praise God that God loved us so much that He gave His only begotten Son on our behalf, to reconcile us to God for eternity.

            Gloria in excelsis Deo.

@chaplaineliza

(Suggestion: visit me at my other blogs: matterofprayer: A Year of Everyday Prayers. #PursuePEACE – and  A Year of Being Kind . Thanks!

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Continue – Persist – Be Faithful!

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“Continue – Persist – Be Faithful”  

2 Timothy 3:14-4:5 (4:1-3) – October 19, 2025

Have you seen the comics lately? I’m sure everyone here is familiar with the comics section of the newspapers–the daily comics in black and white, and the Sunday comics in full color–even if you don’t read them regularly. Can you picture this scene from the comics? A single panel, showing two business men by an office water cooler. One looks like a boss, and he says to the other, “If there’s one thing I hate, it’s a yes-man. Isn’t that right, Baxter?”

We chuckle, because we all are familiar with that kind of attitude. I’m sure we can recognize that tendency in other guises, other forms. In some other places, not only a place of employment but also clubs, associations, even places of worship. Getting some yes-man to tell us what we want to hear . . . not what’s good for us to hear, not what we need to hear, but instead what we want to hear. This kind of black-and-white attitude is going way overboard!  

            As we consider this Bible reading from 2 Timothy chapter 3 today, let us reflect again on these words from the older man Paul to his young friend Timothy: “But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, 15 and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.”

            I suspect that Paul – and his friends, the other disciples, and other, older believers – could easily relate dozens of times that they had experiences in the faith communities they called home. Experiences where “yes-men” (or, “yes-people”) put in their definite opinions, where one group of people held up “tradition” as the gold medal standard, and everything had to bow before “tradition.” This “traditional” group of believers sound as intolerant as the “black-and-white” people I mentioned just before. A pendulum swinging way to one side or the other.

            Our commentator Dr. Dirk Lange says, “We have always done it this way” can mean anything from the worship of the early church to what a congregation has done for just the past twenty years. The writer to this particular church community, and especially to this follower named Timothy calls upon tradition. It is not to be ignored! “Continue in what you have learned” and not just recently but since your childhood.” [1]  You and I need to sit up straight and find out exactly what the older man Paul had to say about tradition! Or, is it about the Word of God, instead?

            The Hebrew Scripture reading for this Sunday comes from Jeremiah 31, and tells us that “The day will come when God’s word will not be on stone tablets or in books, but written into our very hearts.” This reading from 2 Timothy and the reading from Jeremiah are all about the Word of God! Except, how does that square with a concentration on tradition?

            When a pendulum swings, especially if it swings widely, we can watch the wide swing get more and more extreme. This is so similar to observing people with firm, set-in-their-ways opinions and manner of thinking and behavior.    

            Our writer Paul tells Timothy he could be sure of one thing: his firm foundation of the Word of God, taught to him by reliable elders in the faith. Not twisting this way and that, not susceptible to following “tradition” blindly, like so many sheep.

             But, Paul does not stop there. This is a letter to Timothy, after all. Timothy is a church leader, a pastor of a congregation, and Paul uses this letter to not only give advice to his younger friend, but to advise and instruct. “Timothy is instructed to be a faithful student and teacher of the Word.  Under that is the belief that to be a strong, true church a congregation must be made up of people who know their Bible well.” [2]  Not in the sense of bashing others over the head with their superior biblical knowledge, no! No, we are to use the Bible as a standard, as a measuring tape or yard stick to guide others along the road of journeying with Jesus.

            We have the assurance, from our scripture passage today, that Timothy had the opportunity to know God. He had the opportunity to read some of the same texts we have to read today! Timothy was instructed, from the time he was very young, in the way of salvation through Jesus Christ. His mother and grandmother were both women of faith, and Timothy grew up in a believing household, a household that put God first.

            The descriptive words to Timothy that Paul uses here are important: teaching, correcting, training. “The Scripture invites us into a pattern of gospel living. It does not provide “yes” and “no” answers to every situation, every question, every dilemma. Those who have “confessed” the faith in life-threatening situations understand that there are many gray areas, hard to resolve through Scripture alone (take the example of Dietrich Bonhoeffer or Martin Luther King, Jr.).”  [3]

I consider the commands in this passage to be good advice to anyone wanting to follow Christ more nearly, even in gray areas, even through difficult times. We are to proclaim the message. Communicate the Good News! In whatever way we can. How do we put it into practice? How do we live the Christian life? Now what, in other words?

            This command may give some people pause. How can I preach the Good News? Another way of thinking about it is . . . telling what God has done in your life. What has God done for you? How has God made a difference in your life? How has God made a difference in mine? What new things have you and I learned from the Lord lately? What an opportunity it is to share these things with others, with our friends, with those who might not know God.

            Thank God we have been given this Good News! I can tell about God’s faithfulness in my busy, hectic life. I can praise God for helping me to walk the Christian walk, one day at a time, and so can you. That’s truly something to celebrate. That’s truly Good News to share. Alleluia, amen.

@chaplaineliza

(Suggestion: visit me at my other blogs: matterofprayer: A Year of Everyday Prayers. #PursuePEACE – and  A Year of Being Kind . Thanks!

[1]  https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-29-3/commentary-on-2-timothy-314-45

[2] https://worshipingwithchildren.blogspot.com/2013/09/year-c-proper-24-29th-sunday-in.html

[3] https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-29-3/commentary-on-2-timothy-314-45

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In These Last Days

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“In These Last Days”

Hebrews 1:1-4 (1:2) – October 5, 2025

            Can you think of an excellent host or hostess you know? Perhaps one or your friends or family? Celebrating or hosting is a big part of coming together as friends, as family, for all kinds of festive occasions. Some people are especially blessed with the skills, gifts and graces that are part and parcel of being a wonderful host or hostess. Today is World Communion Sunday, and our Lord Jesus is our heavenly Host today at this service.

But first, we need to take a closer look at our Scripture reading for today. The letter to the scattered Hebrews (Jews who believe in Jesus as their Messiah) was a circulating letter, traveling from place to place, copied and sent from one small group of believers, one congregation to the next. In order to understand this letter more deeply, we need to look at it as directed to people with a Jewish understanding, and a Jewish viewpoint.

“God spoke to our ancestors in many times/ways through the prophets, but now God speaks through the Son” – in the same way, we can view the older Hebrew Scriptures as God speaking through the prophets (and writers of narrative and poetry), but now (as in the New Testament), God speaks through the Son, our Lord Jesus Christ – especially in the Gospels.

Jesus – before He came to the earth and emptied Himself of all God-hood to become a little baby born in Bethlehem – created the universe at the beginning of time, and Jesus is the one who will possess all things at the end of time. So, before the beginning and after the end – there was the Son long before His incarnation, the second person of the Trinity. Before the universe, before the Big Bang and all things were created, there was the pre-incarnate Son.

 Plus – Jesus sustains/continues/upholds the universe with His powerful Word. The Word that had the creative force in the beginning of time!

Let’s think about that creative force for a moment. In chapters 8 and 9 in The Magician’s Nephew, one of the Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis has the Great Lion Aslan walking around on a brand new world. The Lion is singing, and the sheer creative force is magnificent, as shown by the reaction of all creation, land, water and sky to the sounds and the notes of Aslan’s powerful, creative voice. [1]

Yet, that is not all! We can see the writer of the letter to the Hebrews goes on to tell us more about what Jesus did. After Jesus finished His work on earth and achieved forgiveness for all sins for all human beings (for all time), the resurrected, ascended Jesus SAT DOWN in heaven. This goes along with what Paul says in the first chapter of the letter to the Ephesians, 1:20-22, which sounds quite a lot like Hebrews 1:3 from our reading today.

In the worship in the Temple before the first century CE, even at the time that the Rabbi Jesus was walking around Palestine for three years before His death, resurrection and ascension into heaven, Jewish priests continually stood up when they did their work in the Temple. That was the way of it. That was how priests went about their priestly duties, continually standing before the Lord, continuing to offer sacrifices for sins, making atonement for the sins of everyone who came to them.

Except – our Lord Jesus was not like the earthly priests. The apostle Paul said Jesus sat down in heaven, and no longer had to continually stand and continue to offer sacrifices to the Lord. Here in our reading today, the writer of the letter to the scattered Hebrews (or, Jews) tells them that Jesus “sat down in heaven at the right side/hand of God, the Supreme Power.”

As our commentator Carolyn Brown retells these three verses from Hebrews chapter 1, she says “Jesus was one with God at the beginning of everything and will be one with God after everything ends. Jesus worked with God on creating the whole world and keeps taking care of it. In Jesus of Nazareth God lived among us as a person and allowed himself to be crucified. Jesus is God in human skin.  Everything we know about Jesus tells us what God is like.  Jesus Christ forgives us.” [2]

Do you understand how powerful that declaration is? As one of what I consider one of the most meaningful gospel songs says, “Jesus paid it all! All to Him I owe, Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow.” This is one of the reasons we celebrate Communion, or the Lord’s Supper, because we are so grateful to Jesus for being the Lamb of God, who as our reading today tells us, “achieved the forgiveness of sins for all human beings.”

The first Sunday of October is World Communion Sunday in most congregations.  Not only set apart for children and young people, but for everyone. “That means raising awareness that Christians all around the world are one big family.  We may have skin of different colors, wear different clothes, speak different languages, and do all sorts of different things, but we are all baptized and we all share communion.” [3] 

Do you hear? All believers, worldwide, are all one big family. That means that we all come together around the communion table, from north and south, from east and west, from every tribe and people-group and nationality. Across national borders, regardless of languages spoken, paying no attention to differences of politics, or of allegiances, of national dress, or of regional separations.

All of these earthly differences do not matter to eternity. Jesus tells us so. All are welcome at the Lord’s table. And, it is His table. As I have said many times before, on many Communion Sundays in the past 11 and a half years, this is not St. Luke’s table. It is not the United Church of Christ’s table. It is not the Protestant Church’s table. Instead, this is the Lord’s table, and our Lord Jesus says all are welcome.

We can see how great God’s love is for humanity through the incarnation. Yes, God sent God’s son to earth to become human, live among us, and die for us. And, on this World Communion Sunday, we remember how our Lord Jesus provided communion for us, as a sacrament, a means of grace, and to remember Him.

Through the centuries, all believing Christians have celebrated this meal, this Lord’s Supper, in remembrance of Him. “Today, through World Communion, we also celebrate that though each church does things differently, we each and all of us need God and God’s grace. By participating together around the world in Holy Communion, we celebrate our common need for God, and together we celebrate receiving His love and grace.” [4]

This weekend is a jam-packed weekend, indeed. Not only is today World Communion Sunday, but yesterday was the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi. Many faith traditions celebrate with a Blessing of the Animals this weekend. St. Francis is not only a patron saint of animals, he is also the patron of all creation, or the natural world.

As we reflect on our Lord Jesus, God’s Son before the beginning of time and after the end of time, I want to end our sermon today with a benediction; the final verse from the hymn that is attributed to Francis, “All Creatures of Our God and King.”

Let all things their Creator bless, and worship Him in humbleness,
O praise Him! Alleluia! Praise, praise the Father, praise the Son, and praise the Spirit, Three in One! O, let us praise God, indeed! Alleluia, amen.

@chaplaineliza

(Suggestion: visit me at my other blogs: matterofprayer: A Year of Everyday Prayers. #PursuePEACE – and  A Year of Being Kind . Thanks!

[1] Lewis, C.S., The Magician’s Nephew (Macmillan Publishing Co., New York NY, Collier Books edition: 1970), 101, 104-07.

[2] https://worshipingwithchildren.blogspot.com/2012/09/year-b-proper-22-27th-sunday-in.html

[3] Ibid.

[4] https://onthechancelsteps.wordpress.com/2013/09/22/same/

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God Knows Us Full Well

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“God Knows Us Full Well”

Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18 (139:14) – September 7, 2025

If you look at the news online, or on television, or listen to the radio or podcasts, many people often look for knowledgeable experts. Experts in their field or craft. People who know things. Think about it: cooking shows have culinary experts, home repair shows have building experts, news reports have experts in various fields, talk shows have behavioral experts to help solve the relationship problems of society, even newspapers have horoscopes written by psychics who are supposedly experts in astrology. Expert opinions!

            This craving for information, for people who know about things … I am afraid that I get sucked right into it. I go to people who are experts in their fields, and try to pick their brains and get what information I can, so I can masquerade as a sort of an expert, too. I like to think I know about things. And, I do. I know lots of things. I know lots about how to be a chaplain, and about music, and about the Bible, but that doesn’t hold a candle to the amount God knows! 

            God knows—now there is an expert opinion. Let’s look at the scripture reading for today. “O LORD, You have searched me and known me, You know when I sit down and when I rise up, You discern my thought from far away.” That truly is knowing. God knows every part of me. King David wrote this psalm many centuries ago, and its message still strikes home and hits my heart with penetrating directness.

            These verses from this psalm are among the most direct and poetic description of God’s omniscience in the whole Bible. Omniscience. Knowing absolutely everything. That’s a pretty scary thought, if we sit down and think about it.  It’s a good thing that God is loving, caring and merciful. We just have a shadow of understanding about how God knows us, yet it’s a loving, caring and intimate knowing. The omniscience of our knowing by our heavenly Father.

            When a word is repeated in a passage in the Bible, that is a way of underlining that word, indicating that word is particularly important. The Hebrew word “yada,” or “to know,” appears in today’s reading four times. The emphasis of this rich biblical word, this “concept of ‘knowledge’ is a critical element of meaningful relationship. We are to know God, just as God knows us.” [1]

            When you and I contemplate God, the totality, the tremendous experience of God’s knowledge is just “too wonderful” for us! That is us, as limited humans, trying to understand and contemplate the Lord. That is the eternal God who created the heavens and the earth! We read here in Psalm 139 that God’s capacity for knowing is utterly beyond comprehension, so far beyond us limited humans that we feel like we are reaching up to touch the moon, much less the stars in the sky. King David said, “so high that I cannot attain it,” in verse 6. And yet – God wants to be known! Known by us.

            This Sunday is when the church in Scotland celebrates the beginning of the season of Creation, when we celebrate God creating the world, the galaxy, the whole universe. As we contemplate God’s vast creative power, let us consider the creation of a single human life. Our psalmist considers it, too! Verse 13 says, “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.” This is a glimpse of the psalmist’s understanding of the nature of God, of knowing God!

“This points to a God whose love for God’s own creation extends to concern, since this human creation is finite and therefore not perfect. Yet, it does not lessen but instead heightens the amazing and magnificent artistry of God’s creation. Indeed, this recognition becomes reason for praising God and affirming the self’s ultimate worth in the sight of God (v. 14).” [2]

God knows. God knows my circumstances, knows whether I’m sitting or getting up or lying down. God even knows what I’m thinking, before I can say a word. Talk about being an expert! The Lord knows my psychological makeup, my emotions and my heart, so much better than I do myself.

            It’s a good thing to get to know ourselves. It’s a worthy study, and one that would be useful in helping us to understand others. I like to tell myself that I know myself pretty well. I’ve seen a therapist for a number of years who has helped me come to understand my own thoughts and emotions better. He’s helped me to understand how I relate to others and why I act and react in certain ways. At times, after years of therapy, I may fancy myself somewhat of an expert on myself. But in reality, I am not. Sometimes I may think I am, but I’m just fooling myself.

            God knows everything about me, too. Everything. God knows all the flaws, all the rough spots, every praiseworthy feature as well as everything that isn’t. And–here’s the amazing part–God loves me anyway! Even with all that intimate knowledge about every single aspect of our character as well as our character flaws, God loves us anyway!

And, it isn’t just all about me. God knows each of us in the same way. He knows each one of you, intimately, too. The Lord has searched you and known you, and is acquainted with all your ways. And, God loves each of us, even more intensely than we can possibly imagine.

            Sometimes, certain authors have a way of capturing an idea in a special way. It’s that way with Max Lucado, a recent Christian author for both children and adults. I know I have referenced this before, and it’s just so good that I have to quote it again! This is a quote from Prayer: A Heavenly Invitation, which describes just the idea I’ve been trying to communicate.

            ”If God had a refrigerator, your picture would be on it. If He had a wallet, your photo would be in it. He sends you flowers every spring and a sunrise every morning. Whenever you want to talk, He’ll listen. He can live anywhere in the universe, and He chose your heart. And the Christmas gift He sent you in Bethlehem? Face it, friend. He’s crazy about you.” [3]

            Friends, God knows all about us, and He loves us anyway. What else can we do but fall on our knees before God in praise, thanksgiving and adoration? Thank God for His boundless love towards you and towards me.

            Alleluia, amen.

@chaplaineliza

(Suggestion: visit me at my other blogs: matterofprayer: A Year of Everyday Prayers. #PursuePEACE – and  A Year of Being Kind . Thanks!

[1] https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/second-sunday-after-epiphany-2/commentary-on-psalm-1391-6-13-18-2

[2] http://www.theafricanamericanlectionary.org/PopupLectionaryReading.asp?LRID=27

[3] Prayer: A Heavenly Invitation – Max Lucado

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Hosanna to the Messiah!

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“Hosanna to the Messiah!”

Luke 19:28-40 (19:37) – April 13, 2025

            Have you ever been at a really big celebration? I mean a public celebration—like a ticker-tape parade, a celebration of a world championship, or the visit of an A-list celebrity? Something really, really big?

            From all the descriptions of the Palm Sunday Triumphant Entry in all four Gospels, that’s kind of what we are looking at today in our scripture passage. The celebration is really big, the Rabbi Jesus was a big-name celebrity, and this entry into Jerusalem was a first-century type of a ticker-tape parade. Except with palms!

            Let’s take a closer look. Here’s the situation: It’s almost Passover, the most important religious observance of the year. A great number of faithful Jews from near and far come to Jerusalem, in pilgrimage, in commemoration of the Exodus event. 

Jesus comes, too. He publicly, intentionally enters Jerusalem, even though the religious leaders are not very pleased with Him or what He has been doing for the past few years. Even though Dr. Luke does not mention the prophecy in the book of Zechariah (which the other Gospels do), Jesus’s disciples must have known about the prophecy of an entry into Jerusalem riding on a donkey. This was clearly a scene with “Messiah” written all over it.   

And Jesus does not sneak into the city, all hush-hush. No! He comes in with a parade! With crowds of people waving palms and shouting “Hosanna!” and “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!”

            What is the meaning of those cries of “Hosanna” and “Blessed is the King?” If we look at Psalm 118, we’ll find these words written by the psalmist. This was the usual Passover greeting one person would give another, except with the addition of the word “King.”  Just to let you all know, many of the crowd in Jerusalem on that Palm Sunday morning understood what they were quoting—they were intentionally welcoming someone they hoped would be their Messiah, their King! Someone who would save them from the awful situation they were in.

            There was a disconnect between the people and their limited understanding, and what Jesus actually was going to do. But I’m getting ahead of myself by rushing on to later in Holy Week. We are still here on Palm Sunday. And everyone is still excited to welcome the Rabbi Jesus—their hoped-for Messiah—into the city. They are hoping He will save them from the Romans and maybe, possibly, become their King. Except they had an earthly King in mind.

            But let’s read on in our scripture passage for today. Luke makes another striking statement. He starts to mention “peace.” “Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest!” What on earth is Luke mentioning “peace” for?

This sentence is an echo of the Gloria in excelsis Deo that the angels—the heavenly host—sang at the birth of the baby Jesus, several decades before. I know the heavenly host gave the shepherds good news of great joy, but wouldn’t that be good news for anybody? I know that was good news at the time Jesus was born, but isn’t that good news for today, as well? Peace? Glory in the highest? The difference is that at Jesus’s birth, it was peace on earth. Now, the crowd is saying “Peace in heaven.”

            So when Jesus enters Jerusalem, the crowd prays for peace in heaven. But the coming of Jesus causes a division. It causes anything but peace on earth.

            The theologian Tom Mullen makes this statement about his denomination (Society of Friends or Quakers): “They work for peace—and if you really want to cause conflict, you work for peace.” [1]  So it was for the Rabbi Jesus—the Messiah Jesus riding into Jerusalem. For all that Jesus wanted to bring peace, He and His message created division, tension, and crisis—as seen by the violent reaction of the religious leaders.

            I wonder about this tension, this violent reaction, this great desire for peace, yet a creation of division, tension and crisis. I know I have mentioned the Rev. Janet Hunt many time before in my sermons. She likewise ponders as we begin Holy Week, “If Jesus were to ride into my town today, what would be His means of transportation? What signs and symbols would speak today?” [2] The donkey was not the choice for a conquering King entering His capital city! The donkey was definitely a subversive choice for the Messiah, the Rabbi Jesus.

            I am not even going to explore what signs and symbols would display a Kingly entrance into a city today, except to say a royal entry usually entails a large police presence, a security detail, and lots of SUVs and a limousine for the royalty to ride in. Not so for the Rabbi Jesus!

Thank God, Jesus does not do that! He is more powerful than any division, any tension, any crisis. He entered the city not as an earthly King, not as a conqueror, not to set up a nationalistic empire, but as the True Redeemer of Israel. And not of just Israel, but also of the whole world. This Holy Week is where all of the prophecies focus to a fine point, and reveal the Rabbi Jesus as not only the Messiah and King, but also as the Suffering Servant. The Lamb of God, sent to take away the sins of the world.

            As we remember this Passover time, this Holy Week, we can thank God that our Lord Jesus did enter Jerusalem. As a King, as a Messiah, yes! But also as our Redeemer and Savior. Praise God, Jesus is our Redeemer and Savior, just as much as He was Redeemer and Savior for that crowd in Jerusalem on that Palm Sunday. In the first century, Jesus came to save His people from their sins. Praise God, He came to save us, too! Amen! And amen!

@chaplaineliza

(Suggestion: visit me at my other blogs: matterofprayer: A Year of Everyday Prayers. #PursuePEACE – and  A Year of Being Kind . Thanks!

[1] Mullen, Tom, Laughing Out Loud and Other Religious Experiences, (Friends United Press, Richmond IN: 1989) 50.

[2] http://words.dancingwiththeword.com/2016/03/the-donkey-subversive-choice.html

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Diverse Gifts and Abilities!

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“Diverse Gifts and Abilities!”

1 Corinthians 12:1-11 (12:10) – January 19, 2025

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” God created everything on the face of the earth. Just think of the myriads of different kinds of plants, animals, climates, languages, cultures. God made it all, and God rejoices in the countless variations and differences. What a diversity in creation! We can be amazed over and over, at the ever-renewable wonders of God’s creation, whether we look at a flower in a vase, through a microscope at a microbe, or at the photographs sent from the landing craft now exploring on the planet Mars.

When we consider our reading for today, we can also see that God made different kinds of spiritual gifts, as well. God’s plan is for human beings to live together, with one another, in community. The main purpose for these diverse gifts is for the common good. God wants us to use our gifts for one another. What an awesome opportunity! Here, God freely and openly gives us gifts—spiritual gifts—to serve one another.

Now, let’s back up. The Apostle Paul cites Jesus Christ as a starting point at the beginning of Chapter 12. He states the authority of Jesus, and even makes the statement “Jesus is Lord” a sort of litmus test for being a follower of Jesus Christ. After all, no one who is a pagan can say “Jesus is Lord” and really mean it (at least in Paul’s day, that was true). But there is a problem. The problem is us human beings.

We are fallen people. We sin. In and of ourselves, we have no standing, and are not righteous before God. As Romans 3:23 reminds us, “There is none righteous, no, not one.” But the Holy Spirit gives us a big assist here! The Holy Spirit helps us to say the words “Jesus is Lord!” It is through the power of the Holy Spirit that we exercise these gifts that God so graciously gives to us!

Let’s look at what Paul says about these spiritual gifts. There are many kinds of gifts! Yet, there is one Lord. There are diverse abilities! Yet, one Spirit. I see a definite connection here. It’s all about God, and God’s immense creativity. Just as God created the world in all of its glory, beauty and diversity, so too the Lord created people in all their wonderful diversity, with diverse gifts and abilities for us to share with one another.

I started out quoting Genesis 1:1–”in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” Looking back at Genesis, we can see that diversity is definitely in God’s plan for humanity from the very beginning. The sheer creativity of God in creation is so big and so varied. Musically speaking, there are countless variations on a countless number of themes. The only way I can figure this out is that God is pleased when we use our God-given creativity in any one of a myriad of ways—inventing, designing, doing, helping, making, thinking, crafting, composing, giving. And when we use our God-given gifts and abilities, it plain feels good inside.

When we look at this chapter in 1 Corinthians, Paul stresses that the church—the group of believers in Christ he was writing to–in all of its diversity, is a community. A great, big extended family, if that helps you think about it. I know that can remind us of the whole topic of the families each of us were born into–and some people don’t want to go there–with in-laws, out-laws, black sheep, and all the rest. But biblically speaking, this is God’s family.

This reminds me of my birth family, my family of origin. I am one of six sisters and brothers. The six of us are about as diverse as anyone would want to see. Across the political spectrum, in terms of talents, abilities, interests and activities, the six of us are so different from each other. Yet, we came from the same parents, and grew up in the same household. Even within my own family, there is such a rich diversity.

With God as our Heavenly Parent, we as believers in Jesus Christ are all sisters and brothers of one another. Why? Because God’s Word says so. Paul says, several verses down in this same chapter, “For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greek, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.”

There are different services, and different activities, yet there is one Holy Spirit over all, energizing all. And this is a corollary benefit: whatever happens, whenever people use their God-given gifts and abilities, God receives praise and honor!

Tomorrow, we observe a federal holiday, where we remember and give thanks for Martin Luther King Jr. His stirring words helped to move this nation toward justice, empathy and equity. His witness called forth the best of all of us.

Sadly, in recent years, we have seen the increasing rise of hatred, separation one from another, and white supremacy. We need to go forward towards those loving, caring and equitable ideas that Martin spoke of. We have been given these gifts to show the whole world that God means for all of us to serve one another, no matter who they are, no matter where they may be.

God can break through insular, tribal loyalties! God can and does knit all of us together as one humanity, one great big extended family. Plus, tomorrow as a Day of Service is not simply a day on the calendar, but it is a day on which all of us can serve and work, pray and hope, struggle and strive to – as Martin said – bend the arc of history closer to justice, and be shaped into the people of God that God’s prophets call all of us to be. Each day. Every day.

So, we can praise God that we have been graciously given these gifts and abilities to use, for each person we meet.  What an awesome opportunity! Here, God freely and openly gives us gifts—spiritual gifts—to serve one another, for the common good. How can you take that opportunity, and use these gifts for one another’s benefit, and continue to build the Beloved Community we are told of repeatedly in the Bible? Not just tomorrow, on the MLK Day of Service, but every day? How can you best serve God’s worldwide family? How can I?

God willing, we can and we will. Alleluia, amen.

@chaplaineliza

(Suggestion: visit me at my other blogs: matterofprayer: A Year of Everyday Prayers. #PursuePEACE – and  A Year of Being Kind . Thanks!

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Open Hearts to Joy!

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“Open Hearts to Joy!”

Luke 2:8-20 (2:15) – December 15, 2024

So many houses and apartments are decorated for the season at this time of year. Colorful lights and holiday decorations indoors and out, shining Christmas trees, special dishes and fancy tablecloths. Plus, some families have a Nativity scene in a special place, whether under the Christmas tree or placed in an extra special location, even outside, all lit up at night.

As we consider our Scripture reading for this morning, we think about the familiar words from Luke chapter 2. We think of the very pregnant Mary and her husband Joseph, coming into the town of Bethlehem late one day, but they could not find any place to stay. So familiar it is today, but I suspect you all can think of the Nativity scene figures: a kneeling Mary, Joseph hovering over his wife, and the baby Jesus lying in a manger.

Where did this tradition of decorating with a Nativity scene come from? Yes, the Nativity scene is a familiar way of retelling this story of the birth of Jesus. But—how did Nativity scenes begin? It was in 1223. “According to St. Bonaventure’s biography, St. Francis of Assisi got permission from Pope Honorious III to set up a manger with hay and two live animals—an ox and an ass—in a cave in the Italian village of Greccio. He then invited the villagers to come gaze upon the scene while he preached about ‘the babe of Bethlehem.’ (Francis was supposedly so overcome by emotion that he couldn’t say ‘Jesus.’)” [1]

            That first Nativity was located in Italy, during the 1200’s. The practice of Nativity scenes, pictures and photos has certainly spread from there, all over the world. Do you remember acting in Christmas Nativity scenes, or perhaps Christmas pageants with a Nativity scene in them? You, or your children? Or grandchildren?

            The Nativity scenes I remember always had at least one shepherd visiting the baby Jesus, along with a sheep or two. Perhaps you remember when you or your children or grandchildren were in a Christmas pageant. Were there shepherds abiding in the fields, keeping watch over their flocks by night? And, sheep! I remember several Nativity scenes in Christmas pageants years ago, where the small children were dressed up as sheep.

            Let’s hear again from Dr. Luke the words the angel said to the shepherds, that Christmas night: “the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people.” Not just the people in Italy, where St. Francis was. Not just the people in Europe, or North America. Good news of great joy for all the people, all over the world.

This week in Advent, here at this church we are concentrating on the shepherds. As we read this familiar Christmas story, was there much in the shepherds’ daily life and experience to fill them with joy? I do not think they were particularly joy-filled, with their ordinary, workaday life and their low, social status. I wonder whether the shepherds felt like that, right before the angel chorus broke into this hum-drum, workaday world and appeared to them?

Remember the difficult situation the shepherds were in. The shepherds’ position on the social ladder in Palestine was pretty much the bottom rung. The Jewish religious leaders even considered shepherds ritually unclean, since their duties and their work of looking after sheep made it impossible for them to observe the Sabbath. Working as a shepherd was something that vagrants might pick up, or a job for ne’er-do-wells, or others who were very much down on their luck. Their society stereotyped shepherds as liars, degenerates, and thieves.

 Just imagine the reaction of these lowly shepherds as they heard this news from the angels! Good news of great joy, especially, particularly for them! And centuries later, imagine the reaction of these same shepherds to think that they are now an integral part of a Nativity scene, a central part of the Christmas story played out time and time again, year after year.  

When my children were small, one of the first Christmas decorations I’d take out of the box would be our little Nativity scene. The little figures were all children, and it was intended specifically for the young. I would tell and re-tell the Christmas story again and again. When they were small, all four of my children would love to play with the figures, spending a good long time with those inexpensive yet meaningful little figures.  

Different churches do different things to communicate this narrative of the birth of Jesus. I read that the Rev. Janet Hunt has a yearly practice she does in her Lutheran church in De Kalb. But, I will let her tell you herself. “It has been my practice for many years to ‘build the creche’ with the children during the children’s sermon during Advent.  One week we add the animals. The next week the angels join them. Pretty soon Mary and Joseph arrive and not long after the baby Jesus and shepherds and the three sages from the East arrive last of all. The order is not perfect, of course, but it is one way of bringing the story home.” [2]

My personal Nativity scene, the one my children played with, has white children, every one. I had not thought about this when I bought the set of figures, more than thirty years ago. Even though my children were part of a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural school system, we still had an all-white Nativity set. Were the people in that first Nativity people of color? Yes, they were.

            Let us return to these shepherds of the first century, on the hills surrounding Bethlehem. They were downhearted outsiders, all right! People of color, non-white, on the bottom rung of their society, for sure. “But God does not give up on us. God sends angels to people who have given up on God. How would you respond to God sending angels to you when you’d given up on God? Like the shepherds, I’d be terrified.” [3]     

Remember the words of the angel of the Lord: “Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people.” We can praise God! God did not send good news of great joy to just a few people in the world, or even some of the world’s people. Or, only people of a certain position in society. No, our God sent good news of great joy to all the people of the world.

The angel has come to all cultures, all ethnicities, all people, wherever their position on the social ladder. All people, everywhere. Even us. You and I can truly come to the manger in Bethlehem side by side with the lowly shepherds.

            That is not only GOOD news, that is GREAT news. Good news of great joy, for all the people of the world! Alleluia, amen.

@chaplaineliza

(Suggestion: visit me at my other blogs: matterofprayer: A Year of Everyday Prayers. #PursuePEACE – and  A Year of Being Kind . Thanks!

[1] http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/the-first-nativity-scene-was-created-in-1223-161485505/ 

[2] https://dancingwiththeword.com/re-telling-the-story/

[3] http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=1522

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Today!

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(I attended a denominational national assembly this weekend, and was not leading worship. Here is a sermon from my archives! I hope it touches your heart and spirit.)

“Today” – 2 Corinthians 5:20-6:2

June 28, 2006

            Once upon a time, there was a loving Father with abundant wealth, property and resources. He loved His many children dearly and did everything in His power to provide abundantly for them.

            Does this story line sound familiar? It should. That loving Father is God, our Heavenly Father. He created the world in the beginning, including humanity. Our loving God gave humans abundant resources, and provided many good and gracious gifts for them, doing everything possible to provide a rich and rewarding life for them.

I’d especially like to focus on the love. God’s love for humanity, for the world, for us. I dare say that many of us here today could quote John 3:16—“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

From this verse, can we tell how much God loves the world? How much does God love us? This much?     (spread arms and pause)  

There was a problem, way back when, when God lavished such good and loving care on humans, on His children. That problem was and is SIN.

Face it, humanity—and that includes you and me—is fallen. I usually hesitate when I make sweeping statements, but not in this area. We are sinful. As Romans 3:23 says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” That is ALL. Not a few, not even most, but ALL. Everyone. All humanity. We don’t sin all the time, or in every situation. There are plenty of times when members of the human race act in kind ways, and think loving thoughts, but that troublesome sin nature is alive and kicking in each one of us.

Can you see a toddler or preschooler, stamping her feet, crossing her arms across her chest, and shouting, “No!!” Can you see a teenager, disrespectful and angry, slouching away from the dinner table without a word? Can you see the prodigal mentioned in the Gospel of Luke, wishing that his father would kick the bucket already, so he could get his inheritance? Do these selfish, proud, disrespectful, ungrateful actions (and thoughts, I might add) have anything in common? I would say, yes, they do. The sin nature that is part and parcel of all humanity is readily evident, in all of these situations. We are human, therefore we sin—by thought, word, or deed—by omission or by commission.

It would be really bad news if the story ended there, wouldn’t it? Humanity would be both hopeless and helpless, stuck in the miry clay of our own sinfulness. BUT, that is not the end of the story. God still loves us. Remember John 3:16? “For God so loved the world?” That love still comes to us, regardless of our sinfulness, regardless of our selfishness, regardless of how much we have disregarded the abundant love and the lavish care that God showers upon us each and every day.

As our passage from 2 Corinthians says, we humans trespass. We sin. We mess up. We make mistakes. But God loves us anyhow! God doesn’t keep a tally sheet, a ledger of all our good deeds and bad deeds. God does not count these mistakes against us. In fact, God goes above and beyond our mistakes, reconciling the world to Himself.

It’s not that God is estranged from the world, from humanity. It’s the other way round. It is humanity—it is you and me—that is estranged from God. God created humans, and He loves humans. He created each of us with our foibles and quirks and personality flaws as well as our individual strengths. He created each one of us as individuals to give glory to His name in our own individual ways. God knows us so much better than we know ourselves, and He still loves us just the same! God reconciled the world—that’s you and me—to Himself, out of love.

Like I said, that is wonderful news! Amen! Praise God! Thank You, Jesus!

Jesus was sinless, but He was made to be sin for us. Jesus took all of our collective sin upon Himself on the cross so that in Him we might become righteous before God. Can we tell how much God loves the world? How much does God love us? Is it this much?     (spread arms and pause)  

So, now that we know about God’s abundant love that He lavishes upon each of us, what are we going to do about it? Listen to the words of our passage again. “’At an acceptable time I have listened to you, and on a day of salvation I have helped you.’ See, now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation!”

D.L. Moody, noted evangelist during the 1800’s and founder of Moody Bible Institute, did much of his evangelistic work around Chicago. One Sunday evening in September 1871, Mr. Moody closed his sermon with the injunction for the congregation to evaluate their relationship with God over the next week and to return the following Sunday. When Mr. Moody was on his way home after the evening service, he heard the fire alarms all over and saw the flames against the sky, turning the night sky red and orange. That meeting hall where the service was held burnt to the ground, along with most of the city of Chicago. The Great Chicago Fire happened that night.

Mr. Moody was horrified, knowing that he had not told his listeners the full message of the love of God, for each one of them. He vowed from that day on to tell the whole story, to always let people know the good news of salvation in every sermon he preached.

What about you? Are you still thinking about God’s offer of salvation? You may have been a church member all your life, faithful and hard at work for many years. But you may have never realized that God’s joyful message of reconciliation was especially for you. You may have been born into a loving Christian family, maybe even a pastor’s kid or missionary’s kid, and been surrounded by God’s abundant love all your life. But just because I may be born in the room behind a bakery doesn’t make me a biscuit . . . and just because I may be born into a Christian family doesn’t make me a Christian by birthright or by osmosis. God has no grandchildren. There are only children of God.

God has been loving us—you and me—all of our lives, even when we turned our backs on Him. If this is that day for you, that acceptable time, that day of salvation, praise God! Enter into the joy of a loving relationship with God, a close friendship with God.

If God had a refrigerator, your picture would be on it. If God had a wallet, your photo would be in it. God can live anywhere in the universe, and He wants to live in your heart. If you have never, truly experienced God’s love for you, individually, there is no time like the present. We can indeed enter into the joy of our Father’s loving embrace and experience His abundant love for each one of us. Today is the day of salvation! God is ready. Are you?
@chaplaineliza

(Suggestion: visit me at my other blogs: matterofprayer: A Year of Everyday Prayers. and  A Year of Being Kind . Thanks!

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Dance Before the Lord!

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“Dance Before the Lord!”

King David

2 Samuel 6:1-5, 13-19 (6:14) – July 14, 2024

            The wise theologian (and humorist) Erma Bombeck described an experience she had years ago in church. “A row or two in front of her sat a mother with a normal five-year-old boy, which means, he couldn’t sit still. As he squirmed and looked over the pew at those behind him, he was smiling. Then Erma heard the mother sternly whisper, “Stop smiling! Don’t you know that we’re in church?” [1]

            Our Bible reading this morning talks about how a large crowd behaved when they were at worship, including their leader, their King David. How different would this reading be if God’s people decided to be all stern, and stiff, and poker-faced when they came to worship? Can you imagine a stern, stiff, solemn service at this time? Or, is this joyful, musical, dance-filled procession from 2 Samuel pleasing to the Lord? Which service could you see yourself in?

            Let us listen again to a part of this reading: “David and all the Israelites were dancing and singing with all their might to honor the Lord. They were playing harps, lyres, drums, rattles, and cymbals. 15 And so [David] and all the Israelites took the Covenant Box up to Jerusalem with shouts of joy and the sound of trumpets.”

            I cannot even begin to imagine the joy and exuberance of this procession! But, why so much excitement? For that, we will need to go back several chapters. Some while before, the enemy Philistines captured the Ark of the Covenant, God’s Covenant Box, and brought it back to their territory. Except, things did not go well for them. Their priests told the Philistine king that they needed to send the Covenant Box back to Israel! So, they did, and through some adventures King David and the people of Israel finally brought the Covenant Box back into Jerusalem.

            This was a rocky number of months, for the people of Israel! Losing the Covenant Box, the Ark of the Covenant, was devastating for Israel. “This was the most holy object God’s people had. The [people of Israel] had carried it as they walked through the wilderness and kept it in a special tent in the center of their town. Image how they felt when the Philistines captured it and carried it off to their country AND how they felt when they felt when they got it back.” [2]

This priceless Box was not only a beautiful, holy and precious artifact, this Covenant Box signified the very presence of God. Just imagine the rejoicing as King David and tens of thousands of Israelites danced, sang and played music as they brought the Ark into Jerusalem!

To the people of Israel, the Covenant Box was an important object, telling a story. The Ark of the Covenant “points to the larger narrative of God’s delivering the people from slavery and divine guidance into the promised land. It reminds the people of this salvation history and of the nearness of God’s Presence with them always. It provided continuity from the time of Moses to the present moment described in 2 Samuel 6.” [3]

In this chapter from 2 Samuel, God’s Covenant Box signaled God’s Presence among the people – all the people. What is more, this signified God’s promise to them! As you and I come together in our worship service today, what symbols, objects or stories help us to worship? Which of these help us to have “eyes to see and ears to hear” God’s Presence among us today? Which help us to praise and worship God, even to sing and dance before the Lord in thanksgiving?  

I know I preached on this reading three years ago, and I asked then, have you ever been to a worship service where people praised the Lord in all kinds of ways? More than singing hymns and worship songs. I mean, playing all kinds of instruments, dancing before God, and other kinds of artistic expressions.

Perhaps you have just been to worship services where there were piano and organ – and nothing else. Do you know that in a great many worship services across the world today drums are the chief instrument of praise? Drums and the human voice, the beat of human feet and clapping of hands make a joyful noise to the Lord across many cultures and in many countries today. Christians from those worship services might feel really strange if they came to a solemn service like ours where no one was actively praising God and dancing in the aisles!

We are left with a question: how do you and I respond to God’s holy Presence? We can see that King David and thousands of his people danced before the Lord “with all their might!” Pianos and organs are wonderful musical expressions, and so are praise bands and bluegrass bands and full orchestras and all kinds of percussion! Exuberant joy and dancing in the aisles is certainly a wonderful response to God! [4]

But, that is only one way. God may instead call us to quiet contemplation, or sometimes bold action. We are not required to only worship God in church buildings! No, God can be worshiped in the mountains, on the beach, or in a park. And, sometimes things can be new and different for each of us, to allow our hearts to worship in new and different ways.  

Today we can connect to God’s Presence in ways that are significant and touch the heart and soul, that are meaningful to each of us – and celebrate others for connecting in ways that are meaningful and soulful to each of them! Whether dancing and leaping, praising in loud voices, praying quietly, singing hymns and songs, drawing and painting, making banners or wall hangings. We humans have a multitude of ways to come before our God!

How does God respond to all these different types of worship, whether quiet and solemn, or joy-filled and exuberant? I go back to Carolyn Brown’s excellent commentary where she mentions the children’s tune “Hokey Pokey” “to explore the truth that we have to put more than just our left hand or our right foot in [to worship]. We must put our whole selves into worship, life, prayer, everything.” [5]

 Sometimes these simple, straight-forward ways are the best ways. Put our whole selves into worship, life, prayer, everything. That’s how to honor, praise and enjoy God the best.

And, the Lord is so pleased when God’s people come together to worship! Praise the Lord!

@chaplaineliza

(Suggestion: visit me at my other blogs: matterofprayer: A Year of Everyday Prayers. and  A Year of Being Kind . Thanks!

[1] https://bible.org/seriespage/lesson-7-worship-joyful-celebration-2-samuel-6

[2] http://worshipingwithchildren.blogspot.com/2015/06/year-b-proper-10-15th-sunday-in.html

[3] https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-15-2/commentary-on-2-samuel-61-5-12b-19

[4] https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-15-2/commentary-on-2-samuel-61-5-12b-19

[5] http://worshipingwithchildren.blogspot.com/2015/06/year-b-proper-10-15th-sunday-in.html

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Unfailing Love and Faithfulness!

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“Unfailing Love and Faithfulness!”

Psalm 138:1-8 (138:2) – June 9, 2024 

Individualism certainly is the end-all and be-all of the modern mindset. The rugged individual is presented to us in television commercials as a rugged adventurer, or someone hiking or skiing or sailing on their own. Whatever they’re involved in, they are grabbing all the gusto they can! Some people do indeed reject the offer of any help, for any number of reasons. “I can do it, myself!” Is that statement something that sounds familiar to you? And, perhaps to me, too?

Our psalmist is certainly not an individualist. This modern mindset is just not applicable here in the Biblical mindset. In Psalm 138, our psalmist (most probably King David) is clearly thankful and grateful that he has such support from a mighty, caring God! Just from looking at one verse from this psalm, we can see David’s loving gratitude! “7 Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve my life. You stretch out your hand against the anger of my foes; with your right hand you save me.”

When individuals or loners are out there, all by themselves, they can run into some trouble. Our psalmist calls it “a day of trouble,” in fact! Really tough times. Have we ever kit times of trouble, when things just did not go the right way? I am not sure what kind of “day of trouble” you may have had, or even still be going through a “day of trouble” right now. All kinds of things could be going on. Physical illness, spiritual struggle, financial peril, military threat. All of these times are legitimate times of crisis! [1]

King David had some real times of struggle, and more than a few times of crisis, too! We get a very personal viewpoint on his struggles, from his intensely personal psalms, too. He does not pull any punches here, either. Except – Psalm 138 is a retrospective psalm. He states that he has indeed been through a “day of trouble,” but that day is past. David is not specific here about whatever crisis he was thinking of.

And, that is the point of this psalm. Our singer says, “On the day I called, you answered me.” What a wonderful statement! We can see from these very personal psalms, that when David came up against a time of crisis or despair, time after time he came before the Lord in prayer. Because – times of crisis are also times of concerted prayer!

Is that how things are for you, and for me? Do we come before God in prayer when we are in deep distress? Or, do we try to “tough” it through, all by ourselves?

Let’s think a bit more deeply about today’s situation. Or perhaps, it wasn’t today. But, recently. You were in a tight spot. Something awful had happened, and you just didn’t know how you were going to pull through. It may have been a health crisis, or a financial situation, or even a natural disaster. Maybe even a flood in your basement! (That counts, too!)

I don’t know about you, but when things like that happen, I can feel all alone. All by myself. Even if I have others in my family nearby, sometimes they are just not available to help out, either. Let me tell you – Psalm 138 is a wonderful reminder that God will be there for us, when we are in distress! Verse 3 tells us, “When I called, You answered me!”  

Some people have lots of friends! Fair-weather friends, that is. They are friendly enough when the sun is shining and the road ahead is straight with no curves or bumps. But, good friends? True-blue friends? Those kinds of friends are hard to find. “A good friend is a treasure, for he or she will stand by you through the tough times, even from a long distance. This is the kind of person that will support you and help you throughout life.” [2]

Yes, it’s a blessing to have true-blue friends like this, sitting by our sides, journeying with us, running to the grocery store or throwing in a load of laundry for us when we need it. We all need a good friend with work boots on, sometimes! Commentator Larry Broding says, “God is this kind of friend. Our Creator not only made us and sustains us, he actively works in our lives for our ultimate good. God is present through times of blessing and tragedy. God deserves our thanks and praise for his constant care.” [3]

In Psalm 135, the psalm writer says, “great is the LORD, our God, our Lord, more than all the gods.” I do not know if you caught this expression, but in this particular psalm, he says, “1 I will praise you, Lord, with all my heart; before the “gods” I will sing your praise.” In both instances, our psalmist mentions other gods. Because, at the time these psalms or songs were written, there were lots of gods! Local gods, tribal gods, gods of the harvest, gods of war, gods of hearth and home. Lots of gods! But, right here, King David praises the LORD above every other god – with a small “g!” Our God, the LORD who made heaven and earth, is far, far greater than any other god who comes up against our God, the LORD!

Finally, King David punctuates this psalm with “unfailing love and faithfulness!” I would be grateful to any friend who not only comes alongside of me when I need a hand, but God is stated to be a good-hearted, loving and faithful friend by none other than King David!

 “The two terms — steadfast love (Hebrew, hesed) and faithfulness (Hebrew, ’emet) — describe God’s character. It is a character that is trustworthy, which means that the promises God makes can be trusted.” [4] This is what David says in this psalm. This is his heartfelt affirmation of his God. If we looked at all the psalms, and boiled down the witness of this marvelous book to one phrase, it would be this: The Lord is faithful.  

I started out today by talking about individualism, being captain of her own soul, or master of his own fate. “Biblical faith starts with admitting our own weakness — and of accepting the gracious mercy and fidelity of the Savior who comes among us to serve rather than to be served. The psalm ends with a request for continued help: ‘Do not forsake the work of your hands.’ Each of us is the work of God’s hands. And to be a follower of the Lord means to know that we cannot and need not do it all on our own.” [5]

Thank God for that! We are never alone, and that’s a promise. A promise from King David, and a promise from our loving God. Alleluia, amen!

@chaplaineliza

(Suggestion: visit me at my other blogs: matterofprayer: A Year of Everyday Prayers. and  A Year of Being Kind . Thanks!

[1] https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-21/commentary-on-psalm-1381-8-2

[2] http://www.word-sunday.com/Files/Psalms/138.html

Thank You, God, For Standing By Me,” Larry Broding’s Word-Sunday.Com

[3] Ibid.

[4] https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-21/commentary-on-psalm-1381-8-2

[5] Ibid.