God's Future... Our Future

Jeremiah 29:1-14

For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.  --Jeremiah 29:11

Earlier this week, we had our annual Fall Theological Conference for Rostered Ministers in the Arkansas-Oklahoma Synod.   This year, instead of inviting an outside speaker to “leaven the conversation” among us, we invited five of our colleagues to reflect on the future of God’s church from the perspective of their ministry contexts and experiences.  We heard five excellent and very different presentations that challenged us to think more deeply about what it means to be the Community of Christ today and tomorrow.  Because the text above was our theme text for the Conference I have been reflecting on it this week instead of the usual appointed Gospel lesson for Sunday.

In Jeremiah 29, the prophet writes to the anxious and uncertain Judean exiles in Babylon because false prophets have been predicting a short end to their exile.  Instead, Jeremiah tells them to settle into the strange land where they find themselves.  But, he also assures them that they are not without hope and that God has not abandoned them.  The future, he tells them, is in God’s hands.

That’s good news in anxious and uncertain times.  And we certainly are living in anxious and uncertain times, aren’t we?  

It sure feels that way!  The world around us seems to be in daily upheaval.  It’s like trying to dance on marbles.   Storms rage and the earth quakes and violence and terror and hatred shatter city and countryside.  Wars and rumors of war cry out at us from the media every day.  People wander as homeless immigrants and refugees with few to welcome them. 

But, here’s the Good News:  the future is not uncertain.  As people of faith, we believe and trust that the future is secure.

As the Psalmist writes:

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.  Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, though the mountains shake the heart of the sea; though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble with its tumult. (Psalm 46:1-3)

Or as Paul writes to the Romans:

For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth nor anything else in all creation, (not even hurricanes or earthquakes or rumors of war) will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.  (8:38-39)

Or as Jesus says,  And remember, I will be with you always, to the end of the age.  (Matthew 28:20)

That’s the hope we live in as we move into the future that God is, even now, preparing for us.  The signs of that hope are all around us as people of faith and all those of good will respond with compassion and care and generosity for the victims of disasters -- both natural and unnatural -- just as we always have.

Peace,

Bishop Mike

Please pray for peace, and for all those suffering to recover from the storms of water, wind and fire, the shaking earth and the trauma of terror, war and violence that shatters lives all around the world.

Seventy times Seven

Matthew 18:21-35

“…how often should I forgive?”  --Matthew 18:21

Reconciliation is hard work.

Last week, I wrote about the reconciliation process Jesus lays out in Matthew 18:15-20.  This week, we get the punchline.  Peter asks, “So, how often should we forgive?”   Peter wants a number.  “Seven times?”  And Jesus gives him a number.  “Seventy-seven times.”  He says.  But, his meaning is clear: “as many times as it takes.” Reconciliation is not about accounting formulas or balancing scales.  Reconciliation is about the often hard work of rebuilding broken relationships.  It doesn’t happen in the head…  it happens in the heart.

Forgiveness is the first, though often the hardest, step on the path toward reconciliation.  Someone (I don’t remember who) once said that forgiveness is about letting go of the pain, the hurt, the anger, the bitterness and the disappointment that we feel when someone wrongs us.  I have always found that helpful.  Forgiveness is not about letting the other person off the hook so much as it is freeing ourselves from the burden of carrying all that stuff (I could use stronger language) around inside us.  It is about freeing our hearts to love again.  If the pain is deep and the wounds are profound this can feel impossible.   But the alternative is letting the pain slowly kill us.

But, here’s the Good News:  we don’t have to do any of this alone (nor should we attempt it).  Our ability to forgive begins with the One who has done the impossible and forgiven us.  There is life in that.  There is power in that.  But this promise can feel pretty abstract when we are in the depths of the pain of a broken relationship.  That’s why God always embodies God’s promises in flesh and blood.  Christ died a human death on a cross and rose again on the third day so that we might see clearly the depth of God’s forgiving love for us.  When it is at its best the community of faith, the “Body of Christ,” our brothers and sisters in Christ, embody that love today.  God gives us one another to strengthen us and encourage us on our journeys of reconciliation.  That’s what Jesus was trying to get across to us in Matthew 18:15-20!

When reconciliation feels beyond your grasp, if forgiveness feels impossible, find someone to walk with you:  a wise friend, a pastor, a counselor, someone you can trust to be lovingly honest with you.   Find someone who can be Christ’s forgiveness and grace for you.  That person can encourage you to keep working at it even if it takes seven tries, or seventy-seven tries or seventy-times seven tries to find that place of peace and wholeness and reconciliation again.

Peace,

Bishop Mike

Thanks for reading.

Please continue to pray for all those impacted by Irma and Harvey, and all the other natural and unnatural disasters that shatter human lives all around the globe.  

Arguments

Matthew 18:15-20

For where two or three are gathered in my name, there will be disagreements. 

This is not a quote from scripture.  We’ll get to the actual quote at the end of this reflection.  But, at least in my experience, it is true.  Christians, no, human beings in general, tend to rub up against one another from time to time.  Conflict is a part of the human experience.  It is a product of the wonderful diversity and differences God built into the system.  Conflict can be, and often is, destructive, but it can also be creative.  When my unique perspectives and experiences bump up against your unique perspectives and experiences working through the differences can result in both of us learning and growing.  Really.  Often, that’s not easy work, especially if the conflicts are deep and enduring, but it can be holy work.

Jesus understood only too well that when two or three are gathered in his name, conflict would result.  Even a cursory reading of the Gospels, Acts and the other New Testament writings confirms that it did.  The disciples could bicker with one another.  It wasn’t long after Pentecost that the early church started to disagree with one another about how best to carry out the mission Christ gave them.  Paul and Barnabas eventually parted ways over their difference of opinions.  Knowing that disagreements would inevitably emerge, Jesus taught his disciples a way to work through them.  Matthew 18 lays out a process for dealing with conflict that is based on the principal that we need to deal with conflict together and we need to support one another in doing so within the community of faith.  It is about dealing with each other one on one when we hurt each other, if that is possible, and getting help when we can’t.  It is built upon the principal of forgiveness;  the same forgiveness that God in Christ extends to us. (More on that next week).  It is NOT about choosing up sides, personally attacking each other, talking about each other behind their backs, shunning, or shaming one another.  It is about loving one another enough to do the hard work of working through our problems and searching for creative solutions together.

The quote in Matthew 18:20 is often used to find comfort when only a few people show up for a bible study.  But it is actually much more than that.  It is a promise that whenever two or three (or more) of us get together to work things out…  Christ will be there among us, his Spirit guiding us, his presence strengthening us, as we journey together toward creative solutions to those things that divide us. 

“For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.” –Matthew 18:20

Peace,

Bishop Mike

Thank-you for reading! 

Please continue to pray for all those being effected by hurricanes, floods, fires and earthquakes; and for those who suffer from the many, many violent conflicts that shatter lives all around our world.

Profit Margins

Matthew 16:21-28

For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life?  --Matthew 16:26

A church is not a business. 

In the last week or so, I have spent more time than I would have liked dealing with businesses.  Big businesses.  Corporations.  It hasn’t been pretty.  These are organizations that claim to care for people.  But, in truth, the bottom line for them is not people, but profits.   They are cold, calculating profit machines.  Their job is to make money for their stockholders and those at the top of their management hierarchies.   Nothing more.  

A church is not a business.

And I, for one, am glad for that.

The church is not profit driven.  Though, I have seen too many churches that seem to think they are.  They seem to worry most about their offerings (revenues), and about how many members (customers?) they have (or don’t have).   This bottom line drives decisions about what they do or don’t do as a congregation.  A lot of church conflicts emerge from this view of church life and the anxiety it produces.  And why wouldn’t it, when so much of the world around us lives in the anxious, profit driven grind of the business world?

But the church is not a business. 

It is driven by something quite different than profit.  Or should be.

It is driven by the cross.

Like Peter before us, we can and often do, let the expectations of  the world around us define our understanding of Jesus and Jesus’ mission in the world.  Like Peter before us, we can say the right words but then balk at the implications of those words when Jesus spells them out.   The point of the church is not profit, but loss.  Extravagant, sacrificial, loss.   The point of the church is not to build up reserves but to give it all away in acts of love, compassion, caring,  service, and mercy.  Just like Jesus did.   The point of the church is to open our hearts to the world, not to sit in our buildings wondering why the customers are not coming.

The truth is, if the church were a business, and were judged on strict business principals, it would have closed down a long time ago! 

But it hasn’t.  And it won’t.   

Why?

Because, the funny thing about following the Way of Jesus is that when you give your life away you find it.  Resurrection follows the cross.  Life springs from death.  Joy from sorrow.  The jar of meal is not emptied, neither does the jug of oil fail. (1 Kings 17:14)  Five loaves and two fish feed a multitude.  (Matthew 14:13-21).  Lazarus emerges from the tomb.  (John 11:44).  The murderous Saul becomes Paul.  (Acts 9:1-19).  You and I experience the fruits of Christ’s abundant and eternal life.

At its best, the Church is a community of the cross.

It gives life away without counting the cost, or worrying about the profit.

And that’s a way of life worth taking up and following.

In Jesus’ Name,

Bishop Mike

Join me in praying for our brothers and sisters in need along the Gulf Coast.  Share what you can to help them out.  Donating to Lutheran Disaster Response is just one way.  Check with your local church for others!  Thanks.

Thank-you for reading.

The Keys to the Car

Matthew 16:13-20

Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say that the Son of Man is?’ And they said, ‘Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.’ He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’Simon Peter answered, ‘You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.’And Jesus answered him, ‘Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.’ Then he sternly ordered the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.

Like many kids, when I was sixteen years old, I got my driver’s license.  Shortly after passing my driving test, my mom handed me the keys to the car.  There was power in those keys!  Freedom.  Independence.  Status.  Adventure.  Then, my mom said something like, “If you’re old enough to drive, you’re old enough to get a job.  Why don’t you drive yourself into town and fill out some applications?”  Deflation.  But, she taught me a valuable lesson that day:  with freedom, comes responsibility.  She managed to let me loose and bind me all in one motion!  It was a masterful act of parenting wisdom.

Jesus took his disciples to a place called Caesarea Philippi and asked them a seemingly simple question, “Who do people say that I am?”  Peter gets it right.  “You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.”   He blurts out.  Through Peter and his confession Jesus promises to build his church and gives Peter, and by extension, the whole church, the “keys of the kingdom of heaven” to do it.   There is power in those keys.  Keys to loose and to bind.  Keys that give freedom from sin, death and evil.  Keys that open the way to heaven and the way of life that Jesus invites his disciples to follow.  

But, with those keys also came responsibility.   Peter didn’t fully understand it right there in Caesarea (he proves that in the following passage), but, eventually, he does.  Paul tells us we are set free to be ambassadors of Christ and ministers of reconciliation, (2 Corinthians 5:20).  We are released from the power of sin and death so that we might proclaim the Good News of the Messiah, the Son of the Living God and God’s Reign in the world.  In other words, we are set loose because we have a job to do. 

I took the keys from my mother, drove into town and eventually got a job cleaning tables and washing dishes at a local restaurant.  It was hard, dirty work.  But, happily, I got to drive the car and make a little money too.  Holding the keys to the Kingdom is not always easy work.  In fact, it demands our whole lives.  The ministry of reconciliation, and living out the Good News of God’s love, grace and forgiveness in Christ can be very challenging.  The power of sin, death and evil are usually close at hand.  But, we can rejoice in the fact that Christ is always closer.  Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the Living God, is the Key.  The cross and the resurrection assure us of that. 

Peace,

Bishop Mike

Thanks for reading.