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christ died for nothing this means that if i can achieve salvation through my obedience to law what god requires according to the old testament law then god s grace is ultimately unnecessary for my salvation there s a lot more that can be said about this and other people have said it much better than i can so i ll move on but there is more to life faith the world than justification life continues beyond the moment of justification in wesleyan methodist terms that continuing life is referred to as sanctifying grace this is the grace of god at work in us through the holy spirit perfecting us in love and yes participating in sanctifying grace requires something of us there s stuff for us to do but it s not perfect obedience to the law which is one of the things that is required in the response to the question of deuteronomy 10 12 it s not even the oft quoted list in micah 6 8 which i love do justice love kindness walk humbly with god it s not perfect church attendance or saying the right words when praying or going to the right church or any other human attempt at earning god s grace most of what many of us christians call biblical standards or traditional values are just different manifestations of pharisaical self righteousness they are convenient ways to tear other people down while trying to feel better about ourselves they far too often are more about our judgmental narrow tribal assumptions masquerading as our witness or our walk by the way jesus sees right through our various masks we ain t fooling god with our desperate play acting to soften the harsh tone just a little bit our hypocrisy is at root motivated primarily by fear we are afraid of being rejected abandoned neglected forgotten judged and found wanting we are afraid that others will see the real person the broken imperfect incompetent incapable real self that most of us feel the need to project an image of strength and confidence even superiority and self righteousness to the world if people knew the real me what i think things i ve done or left undone what i ve said then they would reject me hate me if god knew the things so yeah god knows and god still loves us amazing grace indeed ok then what can we do i ll let john give us the answer little children let us love not in word or speech but in truth and action and this is his commandment that we should believe in the name of his son jesus christ and love one another just as he has commanded us love god love your neighbor love the stranger love your enemies love one another i m noticing a theme posted by unknown at 2 30 pm 1 comment wednesday march 22 2017 lent reflection 10 don t worry tonight s bible study is really simple one of my favorite parts of worship is the children s time or sermon whatever you want to call it i love seeing and hearing all of those children i love seeing their faces with looks of expectation and happiness and i love the unscripted things they say it occasionally gives worship an element of impulsiveness and danger and at times a deeper sense of the holy at our staff meeting today i shared my love of the children s time and then i read deuteronomy 4 9 which reads but take care and watch yourselves closely so as neither to forget the things your eyes have seen nor to let them slip from your mind all the days of your life make them known to your children and your children s children i then had everyone close their eyes and picture the kids of harrisburg umc during the children s time i asked them to imagine their smiles their looks of expectation their energy and then imagine that they could say only one thing about god or church or faith what would it be we shared our thoughts and most of us immediately thought jesus loves you with another staff member saying god is always faithful simple direct clear and that simplicity and clarity came so easily and quickly to all of us around the table yet we often make the message of our faith so very difficult especially us preacher types i ll confess to being the chief of sinners in this regard i m an expert in making matters way too complicated when it comes to faith part of my struggle is that i always have yes but questions bouncing around in my head the other part of my struggle is that i m too often too focused on my head and not on my heart while there are many opportunities for intellectual exploration when it comes to the christian faith it is not primarily about intellectual exploration following jesus and all that goes with it repentance justification reconciliation worship forgiveness hope etc is about the transformation and renewal of our whole selves by god intellect emotions priorities actions all of it and at the core of it all of this is the love and faithfulness of god simple truths that might lead us to profound experiences of grace mercy and love i pray that all the love and mercy and grace that i ve seen and experienced in my journey of faith will not slip from my mind and i m grateful that i have so many opportunities to share that with my children and the children of humc posted by unknown at 4 10 pm no comments tuesday march 21 2017 lent reflection 9 today s reading from luke coincided with a passage that the humc theology small group was discussing last night we are currently working our way very slowly through the politics of jesus by john howard yoder yoder is using the gospel of luke as his primary scriptural source and last night we were discussing jesus temptation in the wilderness found in luke 4 yoder argues that the second temptation and the devil said to him to you i will give their glory and all this authority for it has been given over to me and i give it to anyone i please if you then will worship me it will all be yours is not actually about jesus worshiping satan but rather the temptation of seizing and exercising power on the world s terms the temptation for jesus is to take the easy way of using his power as god s king the tempter s statement could be read if you are god s king in ways that are acknowledged and understood by human authorities accepting this easy way which was readily available to jesus would have meant rejecting the cross and all of its suffering and pain we actually see jesus struggling with in the garden of gethsemane in luke 22 43 44 in several places jesus teaches that the way of discipleship is marked by difficulty self denial pain and suffering it is the way of the cross at times i wonder why it has to be this way couldn t god snap his fingers and make it all easy i find it interesting that my first impulse is that god is somehow responsible for how difficult discipleship can often be as i reflect on this i m thinking that god is not who makes the path of discipleship difficult it s how the world responds to people whose lives are ultimately governed by love and service forgiveness and mercy followers of jesus who take seriously his call to serve and to love even enemies are often decried as idealistic naïve foolish in some places in our world it s much worse than this following jesus can result in real persecution and even death i ve wondered before if i would be willing to pay that kind of price for my faith in jesus i d love to be able to say that i d willingly give my life for my faith and before i had a wife and kids i may very well have been willing to do that i m not so quick to say that at this point in my life i m grateful that i don t live in a place where my faith puts my life at risk but there are many christians in our world today who are in that exact position they choose a difficult and dangerous path resisting the temptation of the easy way i don t have any eloquent or grand conclusions to draw about that it s simply what i m thinking about this afternoon i do know that the way of discipleship is not the american way or the canadian way or the norwegian way or the kenyan way it is a way that is available no matter which empire state government you re under but it s not an easy way or a way that is easily understood by those exercising earthly power certainly christianity has been coopted and corrupted in any number of ways throughout history but the countercultural counterintuitive call of jesus still challenges and invites us and it s still difficult one foot in front of the other eyes fixed on the pioneer of our faith as opposed to fake self pitying persecution that is focused on the color of starbucks cups and whether or not retailers wish people a merry christmas if someone s faith in jesus needs to be validated by a coffee cup or a certain holiday greeting at target then one has to wonder about the strength or validity about said person s faith posted by unknown at 2 22 pm no comments monday march 20 2017 lent reflection 8 striking a balance one of the misconceptions common to childhood is the idea that adults or at least the ones who are in some position of authority know what they re doing at all times i shared in this delusion when i was younger and didn t really understand how wrong i was until i had children of my own at which point i totally understood how many things i did not know and how many answers i did not have i have been reminded of this in a few church meetings in which an important decision needs to be made or a direction needs to be discerned it can be slightly disconcerting for a young pastor early in their ministry when a question comes up in a church council meeting and everyone s eyes turn towards you when that happened to me i wanted to deflect the responsibility i was waiting for somebody else to step up and take the lead i assumed that there was a grownup in the room that would have the answer and i was pretty sure that it wasn t me a while back i was in a meeting with some of our leaders at humc and we were discussing the church s future someone asked the question how do we figure out when it s time to stop reflecting and start acting there were a number of wise people in this group people with decades of experience in leadership in their careers and in the life of the church and we didn t have a clear answer on that evening i was thinking about all of this reading luke 2 this morning two times we are told that mary pondered what was happening in her heart given the momentous events that she was a part of i m thinking that silent reflection was a necessity but mary was not passive bystander mary i think struck a much needed balance when god called her to act she did so acting on faith in god mary was not a silent bystander in the events of jesus birth all you need to do is read luke 1 46 55 to see how engaged she was with what was going on but her active participation was balanced with deep reflection mary acted and she pondered what was happening in her heart that s a balance that a lot of folks struggle to find sometimes we reflect and ponder and discern ourselves into total inaction we look up from gazing at our bellybuttons long enough find the moment or the opportunity long since passed and then we begin to ponder why we missed that opportunity or we don t ponder anything or engage in any reflection and act on impulse and instinct and when we slow down we might begin to notice the wreckage in our wake if we tried to be more like mary in this regard i m thinking that our decision making would be a lot healthier mary shows us that pondering and acting are not mutually exclusive we ve got to ponder in our hearts to be aware of where the spirit of god is leading us and we ve also got to be ready to move when and where the spirit moves even if we ve got questions even if there s fear and anxiety even if we re not able to guarantee complete success our pondering and our moving are both acts of faith in god and in what god is doing in our lives in the church and in the world part of what it means to be a mature adult and a mature christian is knowing that you don t have all the answers and being willing to take risks not based on foolish bravado or recklessness but on a deep trust in the god that holds our lives in his hands part of being a mature adult is being willing to be patient like mary was patient pondering what is happening in our hearts and then being ready to move when god says move when will that be i like what god tells habakkuk there is still a vision for the appointed time if it seems to tarry wait for it may god help us wait patiently and act faithfully posted by unknown at 11 11 am no comments thursday march 16 2017 lent reflection 7 i was in high school when i first started trying to read the bible seriously even at that young age i was fascinated by paul s letters in my early attempts to understand paul i did not see his letters as cohesive arguments but basically as a collection of inspirational verses some of them are still stuck in my memory and most of those verses are the memorable ones i m not ashamed of the gospel there is no jew nor greek do not be conformed to this world i can do all things through christ i had several of these on posters or t shirts some of these verses strengthened my faith in difficult times there s a reason that they have staying power in my life and the lives of many others there s one verse that has stuck with since my younger days that is not one of those famous t shirt worthy verses colossians 4 18 says i paul am writing this with my own hand remember my chains grace be with you remember my chains that little statement has long left a mark on my spirit one reason is that it reminds me of the cost that paul was willing to pay for the sake of his faith in christ he was not alone in his willingness of course but in several places he spoke eloquently and powerfully about his willing to pay the price this expression at the end of colossians is blunt and to the point and powerful like the colossians we need reminders too while the chains that many of us struggle with are not made of metal literally shackling our hands and feet they are just as strong and just as constricting more people than we know or want to know deal with the chains of addiction or mental illness or grief or regret or shame there are people who sit in church pews every sunday morning who might be free to move physically but they don t feel free to love or to grow or to trust some are chained to their past some are chained to a struggle in the present and some are chained by hopelessness about the future how do we as christians respond paul s instruction to the colossians about remembering his chains was an invitation to prayer paul was asking the colossians to remember his imprisonment not to inspire pity nor was he trying to impress them with the depth of his commitment he was asking for their prayers and not simply general vague prayers but deep prayer for strength and perseverance paul is extending that invitation to us as well not for his chains of course paul has long since entered the church triumphant and the heavenly freedom that is our eternal hope paul is inviting us to remember each other s chains wh...