gently pushing ahead

Remind them to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show every courtesy to everyone.

Titus 3:1-2; NRSVue

At the beginning of a new week, as the song goes, “rainy days and Mondays always get me down.” I know a guy who loved Mondays, though I’m sure when Fridays got around, he was happy. But as we enter another week, it might be good to ease into it with the realization that in Christ we’re called to simply gently push ahead.

Paul’s words above, or likely written in Paul’s name from someone who followed, have to be seen in their own context before we can bring them over to today, though most of it seems pretty straightforward. The word to be subject to rulers and authorities, probably obedience referring to that, is simply pointing out how Christ-followers are to live in relationship to government. We might very well and should offer conscientious objection against a number of things that the state might prescribe for us to do, like serving in the military, paying taxes for the military, policies which bring harm to the poor and marginalized, along with advocating for what is just and good. But whatever we do with reference to the state, we do as those in subjection. That doesn’t mean what they say goes, or that we have to obey their every decree. But that would be an exception to the rule. We try to live as good earthly citizens, even while our true citizenship is in heaven.

The rest of this again seems pretty straightforward from one generation to the next. To be ready for every good work means just that, and good works are meant to be done out of love for others. To speak evil of no one seems to be one that even the best of us too easily fail to follow today. I think this is meant to underscore the due respect we pay to everyone, but doesn’t mean that we can’t speak the truth. It’s more than easy to transgress that distinction and boundary, falling into words and thoughts that should be left to God’s judgment. But again, I don’t think at all that this means we can’t call out people for what they’re actually doing and saying. Probably most of us will do well to remain silent and pray. A few might be called to speak out.

To avoid quarreling is another one which we easily get, given all the controversy today. Respectful conversation is one thing, quarreling quite another. Arguing or worse. Of course quarreling can be over any disagreement among family, friends, neighbors, even strangers. That is not something we’re to engage in. Gentleness should characterize us, our lives, all we say and do. And right in the fire of life, where it might be easy to become brusque and combative. No, we must remain gentle come what may in every encounter in life. Showing every courtesy to everyone means that we should go out of our way not only not to offend, but to edify. People should know that being well mannered and kindly thoughtful with others is always our goal, what marks us.

All of this can help us to ease into another week, gently pushing ahead into the work and what falls out before us. Knowing that Christ is with us to help us through every aspect of life and challenge that comes our way.

the “rest” of faith

Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest is still open, let us take care that none of you should seem to have failed to reach it. For indeed the good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them because they were not united by faith with those who listened. For we who have believed are entering that rest, just as God has said,

“As in my anger I swore,
‘They shall not enter my rest,’ ”

though his works were finished since the foundation of the world. For somewhere it speaks about the seventh day as follows, “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.” And again in this place it says, “They shall not enter my rest.” Since therefore it remains open for some to enter it and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, again he sets a certain day—“today”—saying through David much later, in the words already quoted,

“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts.”

For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not speak later about another day. So then, a Sabbath rest still remains for the people of God, for those who enter God’s rest also rest from their labors as God did from his. Let us therefore make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one may fall through such disobedience as theirs.

Indeed, the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And before him no creature is hidden, but all are naked and laid bare to the eyes of the one to whom we must render an account.

Hebrews 4:1-13

Yesterday I talked about how faith that is alive is active. Today, I want to speak to the importance of what is called the “rest” of faith.

A faith that is alive and well can only be a faith that at the same time, rests. Only when we’re resting from our own works will God give us the work God has for us to do (cf.: Ephesians 2:8-10).

The “rest” here refers to believing in God and God’s word to us from scripture, and specifically concerning the good news of Christ for us and for the world. While it is more than that, it is personal. We have to believe and accept this for ourselves.

There will always be off and on temptations to resist this “rest” just as there was with the Israelites of old. They saw this and that, getting their eyes off of God and God’s promises to them. And then they felt that they had to take matters into their own hands. Not good. God corrected them, but not without great consequence.

But when we do rest in faith, then God enables us to do what we could never do ourselves. The “rest” has to be absolute. Never dependent on us, but only on God. We must make sure though that we’re entirely given over to finding this rest, to get out of our own ceaseless resistance to that. If we make a sustained effort, God will indeed help us. We’ll then find our way into all that God has for us. But never apart from that rest. In and through Jesus.

what does it look like when you (or some entity) have lost your soul?

He called the crowd with his disciples and said to them, “If any wish to come after me, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

Mark 8:34-38

Jesus’s words here are words not only of promise but of warning as well. And they are not only applicable to individuals, but to entities, even to churches along with groups of society. What motivates us? What is our goal, and what are our goals? What ends do we have, and what means to those ends? Those along with other matters are what we should consider when we ask this question.

We might have won some culture war, but what have we lost in the process? Do we have what we want at the expense of others? Are we rich and everything set up well for us, but others poor and everything set up badly for them? Are we following the way of Christ, his example and teaching? Or are we following what other religious, even “Christian” leaders teach contrary to what Christ taught?

And what are the results, what is the fruit? Is it having our way as we look forward to “going to heaven” someday, and try to get others on board to that and to our way of life? Do we have as the priority of our lives to care for the orphan, the widow, the oppressed, the stranger/alien, the marginalized and outcast? Do we consider getting rich or becoming a millionaire not only alright, but good? Do we think that making more money is the point, or do we want to enrich others and the earth by what we do? Are we in this by ourselves free of anyone else, or do we consider that we’re all in this together? Do we believe that God’s kingdom present and to come in Jesus is just for ourselves, or does it include all others, even enemies?

These, and more like them are all questions we should ask ourselves as we consider what it’s like in the words of Jesus to lose our souls, our very life. We either follow Christ in the life of denying ourselves and laying down our lives as a living sacrifice to God of love for others, or we live it for ourselves. With religion often still very much in the mix, but for ourselves. And in the process, we indeed lose our souls. Unless Jesus’s words aren’t really true, or we’ve somehow decided that they don’t really apply to us. Something many did in Jesus’s day and are doing to the present moment.

you can’t separate Christ from his teachings and commands

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; go away from me, you who behave lawlessly.’

“Everyone, then, who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall because it had been founded on rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—and great was its fall!”

Matthew 7:21-27

If you consider what is actually taught and practiced, there seems to be centuries and centuries of mainstream Christian teaching focusing on Christ and Christ’s self-sacrificial death on the cross as being the basis for salvation and what it means to be a Christian and in the faith. Many will go to the book of Hebrews to underscore that. What Christ did accomplish on the cross is unique, redemptive, and universal as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. No one or nothing else can replicate that. It’s done, completely accomplished.

But what follows from that is a faith which receives and gives. If we are not active in our faith, as James tells us, whatever faith we think we have in Christ and Christ’s death for sins is null and void for us. It is dead. Faith that doesn’t make a difference in our lives is not the faith Jesus talks about in Scripture. Even though there’s truth in it, it’s not good enough to say, “I’m not perfect, just forgiven” (bumper sticker). There has to be cleansing of sin in a regenerative process symbolized as a marker and witness in water baptism with the baptism of the Spirit which effects the change.

What that brings is nothing less than a following of Christ which takes seriously all of Christ’s teachings and commands. Unless Jesus in “the great commission” at the end of Matthew’s gospel is mistaken when he told his disciples to teach new disciples of every nation to obey all he had commanded them, and that he would be with them in this, to the very end of the age, meaning up to the time of his return.

A good place to start in this is Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). This will become a life-long project for us, and we’ll never get it perfectly. But unless we’re dead set and fully committed to both listen, listen and listen some more and keep listening, as well as put into practice everything, every day, then we’re not really followers of Christ. And we’re not really “in Christ.” No matter what we say about resting in Christ’s once for all sacrifice on the cross. Unless Jesus didn’t really mean what he said at the end of the Sermon on the Mount, as quoted above.

making disciples

Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshiped him, but they doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Matthew 28:16-20

It is true that many hold onto a faith which does involve working at change of life, but seems mostly about the hope of eternal life, sins forgiven, and an emphasis on how undeserving we are. Of course, we’re unworthy in and of ourselves, but there are passages that indicate that somehow God’s grace is at work to make us worthy, to help us live lives worthy of the calling we’ve received.

Why it is that so many are vibrant in an evangelical faith, maybe even a gospel faith, but back to more of the common evangelical faith of today. Evangelical is from the Greek word from the New Testament meaning gospel. But in present evangelical understanding there’s a marked emphasis on assurance of eternal life. Yesterday in a sermon at First Mennonite Church in Bluffton, Ohio, Lynn Miller said this:

Nothing is more disturbing to the secular culture around us than the gospel of Jesus Christ. I’m convinced that the evidence of your salvation in Christ is not your belief that you will go to heaven when you die, but the evidence that you are living according to his teachings while you are still alive. And living according to the teachings of Jesus is disturbing. Jesus says he loves the stranger, the widow and the orphan. In this self-centered culture that surrounds us, that is disturbing.

The problem is that the church is not really fully committed if committed at all to the work of making disciples. A disciple is a follower of Christ, committed to following him come what may. Today that is done through faith and baptism through which there is a commitment together as church to hold each other accountable as all together seek to follow Christ in all of life.

Sadly, even in many of the best of churches, there’s mostly an emphasis on the blessed assurance that is ours in Christ which is good, along with practical application of Scripture to help us in our lives. And some are much better in holding people to what Scripture is saying, the challenge there. But it needs to be made clear, no bones about it that if we’re not in to follow Christ, and such following has to be total, complete, than we’re not in the faith taught by Christ and found in the New Testament. Period.

This will be messy and not easy, and we can well understand that if we look at our own lives. But there has to be both the individual committed to Christ within the church, and the church committed to the individual. All of us committed to each other since we are after all a part of each other as one body in Christ. We seek to follow Christ in everything and to do so together. I need other’s help and in God’s economy and will, they need mine as well. In love and prayers, in listening and helping. Through everything. Finding God’s good will for us which includes mission to the world since by our lives we’re light in the Lord. In the way of Jesus, in and through him.

confirm your faith by following through with action

You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was brought to completion by the works.

James 2:22

James is referring to Abraham’s faith confirmed as it were in his obedience to God’s command to sacrifice his son, Isaac. That is an impossible one to wrap one’s head around. Key is to understand that this kind of faith does not depend on our own understanding. God helps our understanding, so it’s not like understanding is left behind. But again, it’s not our own understanding, not from our own reasoning.

When we have clarity, and a sense of what we need to do by faith, then we need to follow through in that, even if “a thousand screaming monkeys” might be yelling at us otherwise. In doing so, in the words of James, our faith is not passive, but active along with our works, indeed brought to completion by the works. Our faith might be good insofar as it goes, but may not be complete until we follow through with the action which corresponds to it.

As followers of Christ, we certainly want to live by faith. And that faith involves our entire lives, and every part of them. God will help us to have the understanding needed at each point and juncture of our lives. In and through Jesus.

dreams and thoughts of what could have been

Remember your creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come, and the years draw near when you will say, “I have no pleasure in them”; before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened and the clouds return with the rain; in the day when the guards of the house tremble, and the strong men are bent, and the women who grind cease working because they are few, and those who look through the windows see dimly; when the doors on the street are shut, and the sound of the grinding is low, and one rises up at the sound of a bird, and all the daughters of song are brought low; when one is afraid of heights, and terrors are in the road; the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper drags itself along and desire fails; because all must go to their eternal home, and the mourners will go about the streets; before the silver cord is snapped, and the golden bowl is broken, and the pitcher is broken at the fountain, and the wheel broken at the cistern, and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the breath returns to God who gave it. Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher; all is vanity.

Besides being wise, the Teacher also taught the people knowledge, weighing and studying and arranging many proverbs. The Teacher sought to find pleasing words, and he wrote words of truth plainly.

The sayings of the wise are like goads, and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings that are given by one shepherd. Of anything beyond these, my child, beware. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh.

The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God, and keep his commandments; for that is the whole duty of everyone. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil.

Ecclesiastes 12:1-14

“Fatigue makes cowards of us all.” Life makes philosophers of us all? Well, at least for those who take it seriously, though actually everyone has some philosophy meaning outlook on life. We can look back and see better, but mainly how God saw us through in spite of ourselves. And how hopefully we’ve come to see that what really matters is simple faith in and obedience to God. And to understand that our faith rests in the faithfulness of Christ, so that we follow together because of that. That can surely make all the difference in the long run.

If in your stronger more youthful decades you can put your all into following Christ in a community of followers of Christ, and seek to simply live in and from that reality, you will be truly blessed. Toward the end, the strength just isn’t the same, and the heart is often burdened down with the weight of other’s struggles, not to mention the inevitable troubles of life. And for most of us there’s regret and a wish that we could undo something or some things, and do other things all over again.

Lean on community in Jesus, and seek to be a follower of Jesus along with other followers of Jesus. Seek humility, above all just seek God’s love and will in Jesus by the Spirit, and with the desire to love God supremely and our neighbor as ourselves. We’re in this primarily not for ourselves, but for others. Together, Christ’s body for each other and to be light in the world. God will take care of things. And in the end will bring a good end, weaving everything somehow in that for good. Far beyond us, and I doubt we’ll ever fully understand it, but all will end well.

In and through Jesus.

“a long obedience in the same direction”

From Eugene Peterson’s book of the same title taken from a quote yes by Friedrich Nietzsche, this phrase evokes something vital for Christ-followers. We must follow on no matter what, yes in obedience.

It is great to have breakthroughs along the way, to have answers to prayer over what troubles us. And we need to continue to ask God for such. Many of us are going to have plenty of days when fear rears its ugly head and fills our hearts and minds with troubling or at least distracting thoughts. Which in part is why we have to just learn to plod along, no matter what we’re experiencing with “a long obedience in the same direction.”

This isn’t going to be easy. We do need to hold on even at times to just the memory of the light we had when it seems like there’s little or no light left for us. We wish it was always light, but no, it just isn’t so. That’s the reality of the experience in which we live. We have to accept that, and settle into the commitment to follow on come what may.

Part of our problem is that we want life to work on our terms. But God knows what we need, and is working on us to complete that. Even when it’s our own weakness that makes it more difficult, we just have to keep going. That may not seem helpful, but it’s necessary and part of the grace given to us by God to see us through to the very end. In and through Jesus.

access closed to grumblers

Then they despised the pleasant land;
they did not believe his promise.
They grumbled in their tents
and did not obey the Lord.
So he swore to them with uplifted hand
that he would make them fall in the wilderness,
make their descendants fall among the nations
and scatter them throughout the lands.

Psalm 106:24-27

It’s easy to grumble about this and that. So and so is not doing this right, or someone has a lousy rotten attitude, or whatever negative it might be on our mind. Then we flare up, maybe curse under our breath or out loud. And often we can decry what we ourselves are up against, the tough responsibilities we have, the at times nearly unmanageable things we have to do. And we can descend into something we would rather not be. Groveling and grumbling. A grumbler, down in the mouth, on edge, doing what we do because we have to do it. I’ve been there.

This psalm awakens us to the fact that grumbling is not pleasing to the Lord. It amounts to lack of faith and is plain downright disobedient. We need to tell God our troubles and what is happening, what we’re up against. But we also need to believe his promises to us, that he is present with us, and will help us through whatever we face. Not just to get through it and get it over with. But to actually both do well and prosper in it.

It’s up to us, the outcome here actually hinges on us, our decision, what we choose to do. Are we going to be true followers of Christ or not? We need to acknowledge to Christ our shortcomings, our propensity to respond to unkindness with unkindness ourselves. Just our poor attitude. To follow Christ in this life won’t be easy, but that’s our calling. And that includes trusting in God, believing God’s promises, checking ourselves when we want to grumble, turning such thoughts into prayers, and in this seeking to be obedient children of God. In and through Jesus.

our suffering for Christ, part of God’s good work?

Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or thief or any other kind of criminal, or even as a meddler. However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name. For it is time for judgment to begin with God’s household; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And,

“If it is hard for the righteous to be saved,
what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?”^[a]

So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.

1 Peter 4:12-19

During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him and was designated by God to be high priest in the order of Melchizedek.

Hebrews 5:7-10

I was noting I think for the first time the strange (to me) connection Peter makes between Christian suffering and God’s judgment. Seems like there’s a connection there. And we could possibly tie that to Christ’s own suffering as mentioned in the book of Hebrews, how he actually somehow “learned obedience” in such. Once made perfect might refer to his accomplishment of our salvation by his death.

We need to stare the hard sayings of Scripture directly in the face and remain there. This is not at all diminishing God’s love, not in the least. It is pointing to what we actually need as those who are being restored into what God meant for us in the first place, now through the new creation in Jesus.

On the other hand, the passage from 1 Peter quoted above might simply mean that the judgment from God is to separate those who suffer for doing ill from those who suffer for doing good and because of their witness for Christ. That well could be the meaning.

I find it interesting to see some possible link between what God is doing and what God did with Jesus, if we understand either very well. Either way, we can be sure that God is at work in our lives to help us be ready for whatever persecution we may have to endure. In and through Jesus.