SUFFERING BRINGS GIFTS

SUFFERING BRINGS GIFTS
OF ITS OWN – as we grow in our relationship with God. Suffering is never fun, but it is the fire that tempers us, making us stronger, as it teaches us how to live more purposefully for God, with a renewed strength we cannot achieve any other way. Seen in this way, we can recognize that suffering is a part of the grace and love from God, sharpening us for more focused lives. I can say this because I have experienced through suffering that God is with us, no matter how awful the circumstances are that we may suffer. God’s grace brings gifts that will help to sustain us as we go through the trials, and God’s love for us is with us, telling us that even though we suffer, we are still loved and valued by God. We are not singled out to suffer, but we are guided through the suffering when we maintain our relationship with God through the suffering. In the world, this seems counter-intuitive, but in God, we can understand this, perhaps not as logical, but certainly as truth. When we choose to be fed by God, we will have a different kind of experience, one that makes us stronger in the end. The beloved poem “Footsteps” is a reminder of this process.

We hear this expressed in scripture in Romans 5: “Now that we have been made right with God by putting our trust in God, we have peace with God. It is because of what our Lord Jesus Christ did for us. 2 By putting our trust in God, God has given us God’s loving favor and has received us. We are happy for the hope we have of sharing the shining greatness of God. 3 We are glad for our troubles also. We know that troubles help us learn not to give up. 4 When we have learned not to give up, it shows we have stood the test. When we have stood the test, it gives us hope. 5 Hope never makes us ashamed because the love of God has come into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.  … Christ’s one act of righteousness brings a right relationship with God and new life for everyone.  … now God’s wonderful grace rules instead, giving us right standing with God and resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”  Gracious God, we are thankful for your supporting love, that moves us through suffering, to a greater understanding of whose we are, and why we are needed to do your work in the world. Spur us to new acts of courage as we reach out with love, through the grace you give us.    Amen.        PEACE

GOD REACHES OUT IN SUPPORT

GOD REACHES OUT IN SUPPORT
GIVING US THE CHANCE TO RESPOND – and be an instrument for God. When we begin to find some understanding and maturity in our relationship with God, we also find what ways God needs us to work in the world. We become familiar with things we do that serve a loving purpose for God, and we realize what gifts we have that we are given for the express purpose of advancing God’s work. We may not fully comprehend how it all fits together, but we may be given a sense that we are needed to do certain things with an ability we have. Two years ago we had the opportunity of staying in a house that extends hospitality to those who have family in area health care facilities. We were sealed out of our house to get asbestos tile removed, as a follow up to water damage we had in the Spring. Our pastor recommended us, and it has been a blessing to live in a large house, instead of a small hotel room for a week.

In my family of origin, we have been gifted with what we call the baking gene. My sister and I both have it, our mother and one of her sisters had it, and their mother had it. My older son has it and my sister’s son too. I love to bake and I felt called to bake that week and share the cookies with everyone who passed through the doors. Entering the kitchen, after a long day at a hospital, to the smell of fresh baked cookies is a spirit-lifting experience. It may be a small thing, but it might just be the little lift someone needs, and one they might not be able to express. Serving God with our talents need not be a big display, as long as it expresses love. In 1 Peter 4, we hear it beautifully summed up:  “8 Above all, maintain constant love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sins. 9 Be hospitable to one another without complaining. 10 Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received. 11 Whoever speaks must do so as one speaking the very words of God; whoever serves must do so with the strength that God supplies, so that God may be glorified in all things through Jesus Christ. To him belong the glory and the power forever and ever.”   Amen.        PEACE

GOD IS BEGINNING

GOD IS BEGINNING
A RELATIONSHIP WITH US – but then how do we respond and build on it? There are many ways to increase our response to God. They will be unique for each of us. I found very early in my relationship with God, that just being open to what God had already done in my life seemed the right approach for me. I could not have explained it to anyone else at the time, but I instinctively knew how God had influenced and supported me through my sufferings as a child, and I looked for the same kind of loving support from God, as I grew and had new experiences in my life. Meanwhile I was attending worship every Sunday and hearing the word read, was remembering passages I heard, and was praying in a stream of consciousness. I could not have known at the time that others had done this very same type of praying, called mindfulness or practicing the presence of God. I also am thankful for marrying a wonderful scholar and preacher at a young age, who helped answer a lot of questions, and guided me through his preaching and teaching to develop a fuller understanding of what the faith is like when we truly live in it.

Another way of developing our relationship is to get some guidance from historical figures in the Bible. It helps to begin with the assurance that God wants only good for us, as we have heard from Jeremiah. If we add to that other experiences of the positive influences knowing God has had on people like Moses and Aaron, Ruth and Samuel, and Paul. Timothy was a third generation believer, after his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice. We then add to all this the nature of God’s love for us, as described in I John 4: “God loved us and sent God’s Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and God’s love is perfected in us.”  Anyone who has fallen in love with their newborn child has a small idea of how God loves us, for we are all God’s newborn children, and as the Holy Spirit pours that love on us each day, we are changed by it, and as we allow this to happen, we grow.  “13 By this we know that we abide in God and God in us, because God has given us this Spirit.”  Loving God, we are utterly thankful for your great love each day. Help us to grow into loving persons, nurtured and sustained by our relationship in you. Then help us bear fruit as we in turn share that love with all others we encounter.     Amen.        PEACE

FAITH COMES

FAITH COMES
AS A GIFT OF GOD, THROUGH GOD – and the hearing of God’s word. Faith must be rooted in God, or it is not faith, but as C. S. Lewis once said, ” a feat of mental gymnastics.” There are those of us who think they have faith, only to “lose it” when things get tough. By its very nature, faith requires us to have some openness to God, for faith to enter. For this, we must be willing to let God move us and openly look forward to what faith brings with it. Paul brings us this understanding in Ephesians 2:  “8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God 9 not the result of works, so that no one may boast.”  By this measure, since we can take no credit for achieving faith, we cannot be proud of having faith, and therefore look down on anyone who has not reached that point. This alone wipes out any reason for judgment of anyone else. If we accept this faith from God as a gift, along with it comes the acceptance of the nature of Christ as love.

In Galatians 5 Paul helps us understand this:   “5 We are waiting for the hope of being made right with God. This will come through the Holy Spirit and by faith. 6 If we belong to Jesus Christ, it means nothing to have or not to have gone through the religious act of becoming a Jew. But faith working through love is important.”      I love science, but even science fiction lovers will understand the idea of a matrix. I find it a help to think of faith as a part of the matrix of all God has done and is doing in this world to bring about the kingdom. There are other elements involved with faith, and our life in it. In Hebrews 11 we find this reassurance:  “11 Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.”  “3 By faith we understand that the entire universe was formed at God’s command, that what we now see did not come from anything that can be seen.”   These verses help us grasp that faith goes beyond what we can accomplish in our minds and with our senses. But by using our senses, we will be blessed with the good news of the love of Christ, as we hear in Romans 10,    “17 So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ.”    Steadfast God, we hear your word and it stirs a longing in us that, by your love, becomes faith. Increase our faith and guide us in spreading this love.    Amen.        PEACE

TRUST IS ANOTHER STEP

TRUST IS ANOTHER STEP
IN OUR TRANSFORMATION – a step we take with God. We put our trust in a lot of things. Some are worthy of that trust and some are not. If we are wise, we will do some thinking and research, before putting our trust in either a person or group of people or a system. In our world, as it is right now, we can often put our trust in one of these and then be disappointed because our expectations were not met, and we feel let down. There could be a problem with our expectations. We are not always realistic about what we are expecting. All people and systems will eventually let us down, because they are imperfect, and can never fulfill the expectations of everyone. Trusting God is not like putting our trust in worldly systems or people, because God has a different end in mind than what we or groups with their own goals focus on. Of their very nature, they limit their goals to certain groups of people or endeavors. God does not. Since God loves all people under the new covenant, what God does comes from love.

Early in the history of the Israelites, God spoke to Joshua after Moses died, and we hear in chapter 1 how he charged him,   9″This is my command – be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” God was asking Joshua for his trust, and in exchange God would be with Joshua and the people wherever they went. Even though God commanded him, Joshua could have exercised his free will. Like all people before us, we have the choice of whether we choose to put our trust in God. God has expectations of us, and needs us to help fulfill God’s plan, but there are great benefits we call blessings, when we choose to trust God. In Romans 15, Paul spells these out,  13 “I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in God. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.”  These are unique blessings to a relationship with God. We could not get them anywhere else. Then Paul takes it to a higher level saying,  ” I bring you the Good News so that I might present you as an acceptable offering to God, made holy by the Holy Spirit.”   It is in trusting God, that we will begin to learn what it is all about, and who we are as a part of God’s creation. We are more than what we imagine, in God’s eyes. At the end of the chapter Paul sends us to the source.  “33 And now may God, who gives us peace, be with you all.  Amen.”  PEACE

BELIEF IS A STEP

BELIEF IS A STEP
ON THE WAY TO TRANSFORMATION – and is not just an intellectual exercise. Or as my husband often says, this is not a head trip. Belief is hard to pin down, but it is more than what our minds think. It draws in our emotions, and engages our very soul. In the early verses of John, chapter 6, Jesus tests Philip, as they look out over the multitude who have come to hear Jesus, “Where can we buy bread to feed all these people?” Philip is feeling overwhelmed and replies, “Even if we worked for months, we wouldn’t have enough money to feed them!” He is reacting with fear, [see yesterday’s blog] and not believing that through the power of God, there can be different outcomes than the ones we can think of, that involve the limitations of the world. If God wills it, it will come to pass. God will not resolve every situation with a miracle, though.

We know the multitude was fed, and no matter the explanation of this situation, Jesus has power from God, and used it in some way here, to make a point, and demonstrate what belief is like. The next day, he said to the disciples,  26 “I tell you the truth, you want to be with me because I fed you, not because you understood the miraculous signs.  27 But don’t be so concerned about perishable things like food. Spend your energy seeking the eternal life that the Son of Man can give you. For God the Father has given me the seal of his approval.”  28 They replied, “We want to perform God’s works, too. What should we do?”  29 Jesus told them, “This is the only work God wants from you: Believe in the one he has sent.” We are called to believe in the God who created us; in Jesus who was sent to show us the way to live, and who died for us, so that sin may not keep us from the love of God; and accept the Holy Spirit, who is the connection to all God offers us. We will not have all our questions answered before we believe, and it will never be logical to understand what we are not meant to understand. We have to take the step of faith, in order to believe all that is unknown and unseen. 32 Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, Moses didn’t give you bread from heaven. My Father did. And now he offers you the true bread from heaven. 33 The true bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”   Thank you God, for this gift beyond understanding. May we accept it, and begin to believe, as illogical as all this is. Support our leap of faith.  Amen.      PEACE

OUR FIRST REACTION

OUR FIRST REACTION
DOESN’T HAVE TO BE FEAR – when we know God. There are many situations that can produce fear in us. But we always have a choice, whether to let that be our response, or to reject the fear, and let our trust in God help us react in a different way. As a very new pastor’s wife, at the age of twenty, I knew very little of what I needed, to deal with the expectations of church members. I expected kindness and understanding from them, and some of them treated me that way. The rest taught me a lesson I needed as a reminder: to put my trust in God, or I wasn’t going to make it. I love the gospel of John, and once again, it has words of wisdom for what happens when we do put our trust in God.  14: Jesus said, “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust in me.  2 There are many rooms in my Father’s house; I would not tell you this if it were not true. I am going there to prepare a place for you.  3 After I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me so that you may be where I am.  4 You know the way to the place where I am going.” 5 Thomas said to Jesus, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going. So how can we know the way?” 6 Jesus answered, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. The only way to the Father is through me.  7 If you really knew me, you would know my Father, too. But now you do know him, and you have seen him.”

I started out teaching in Church School with 5th and 6th graders, a wonderful age. My favorite part of their curriculum was the story of Thomas. We may remember how he doubted, but I love Thomas’s courage in questioning Jesus. I think he helped Jesus make his point. From this and other passages, we learn that Jesus is the way to true life, when we follow the way he showed us to live. It is with this promise, that Jesus revealed the Father as not some distant God, but connected to him, and available to us, in this life here and afterwards. Whatever that life will be like, we can have an everlasting relationship with God. I pray this gives us the hope for the future that Jesus promises. It makes me feel the powerful presence within, and reminds me that we have other choices than to react with fear when we trust God.  Powerful God, we thank you for the choice to live life as Jesus showed us. Help us feel the power it adds to our decisions, and show us how we can be a beacon of hope for others to live their lives with your word as the framework for their lives, too.    Amen.        PEACE

GOD’S PEACE

GOD’S PEACE
INCLUDES US IN SOMETHING BIGGER THAN OURSELVES – and helps us know the transformation peace can bring. Age gives us a perspective I had longed for when I was young. One important insight we get with age is the ability to see a longer view, and a pattern of events that can be reassuring. If we are part of the community of God, this gift of connectedness is even more apparent. Recently we looked at the end of John 16, where Jesus tells the disciples: “33 I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world, you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” Later Paul, having heard the oral tradition of Jesus sayings, went on to spell this out for the Ephesians in chapter 2:  17 “So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; 18 for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father. 19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, 20 built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. 21 In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; 22 in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God.”

This promise of the peace of Christ being the gateway to the household of God extends beyond the disciples who first heard it from Jesus, past the early Christians in Ephesus who heard it from Paul, to us and all those who hear it now, and into the future. We can seek this peace Jesus offers through prayer and being open to it, and having received it, then pass it on to others, in love and in God’s grace working in us.  O God of peace, we thank you for this gift. Teach us how to live in your household of love and peace, and help us extend it to all those around us, that we may be channels of your peace, and its transforming power in the world.    Amen.        PEACE

BEING HEIRS TO THE SACRIFICE

BEING HEIRS TO THE SACRIFICE
OF CHRIST IS A GIFT FROM GOD THROUGH GRACE – and is the greatest gift there is. Most of my life, I have known those who took credit for things they had no part in achieving. We see lots of folks who are proud beyond reason, of having grown up in a particular place, and look down on others who didn’t. They may boast of various things, and use them to hold over the heads of others. The world rewards those that come from privilege, and are born into wealth, even if they are failures in their own right, or perhaps just average in their abilities. Some may be skillful at diverting attention from their mediocrity, and trade on where they came from or who their family was. They may talk a good game, but it only covers their great fear of being found to be less than they pretend to be. These folks may seem to prosper for a time, but God does not look kindly on this kind of behavior, especially when others are treated as lesser human beings. We cannot take credit for being born with a particular skin color, or hair or eye color. If for any reason, we think we are above any other person, then we are committing sin, and forgetting that just as God made us, every other person is also a child of God as well. We are loved by our creator, but so is every other person. No matter who we are, we are all heirs to the great sacrifice of Christ, made for our salvation.

We are reminded of how we fit into God’s plan, in Ephesians 2,  “8 God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. 9 Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. 10 For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.”  There are times in all of our lives when we need to be reminded of God’s perspective, and why we are given the gifts we are given. Walking in the presence of the Holy Spirit will help us gain strength to turn away from the worldly behavior described above, and focus on why we were created. We are born from an atmosphere of love and a climate of grace. Our response can only be gratitude and humility, for the unspeakable gifts we are given.  Transforming God, we are utterly unworthy of your grace, and yet you bestow it on us. We are utterly unworthy of the salvation we are offered, paid for by your dear son. Help us to appreciate these gifts, and respond to them with devotion, and willingness to serve you with our very lives.    Amen.     PEACE

WE ARE CALLED

WE ARE CALLED
TO SHOW JOY, AS AN EXAMPLE – of the effects of our relationship with God. In John 17, Jesus begins his high priestly prayer to God with – “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you.”   It has never made any sense to me that we should have disciplines in our faith that make us miserable. I ask you – how does that glorify God? How does that spread the love that we receive from God? It does not compute for me. Brother Lawrence felt essentially the same way. He saw his life as a calling to walk and talk with God each day, and all day. He reasoned that if we were doing what God wanted of us, we should be in harmony with God. This should be a joyful experience, and if it isn’t, then there is a problem.

At the very end of chapter 16, Jesus had just said to his beloved disciples,   “33 I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world, you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”  This statement is great news for us, because Jesus says, he has defeated the world. If we live our lives in Jesus, being led to walk and talk with Jesus all day, every day, we can do what he needs us to do, despite the world trying to make things harder for us. Brother Lawrence was dismayed by faith practices that made it harder and frustrating to live a life of faith. He knew people who thought they were being pious by making it hard to be faithful, and he knew they would not be able to keep it up for very long, because they were doing these practices on their own. God, the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit want to spend all our days in relationship with us. It doesn’t matter which person of the Trinity we choose to focus on or on God as a whole, it just matters that we do it.  Steadfast God, lead us to find ways of spending our days in conversation and prayer with you, however we may accomplish this. In Jesus name, who shows us the peace and joy of this way of living.   Amen.       PEACE