"Tight lines" is a blessing fishermen offer each other, a wish for lines taut with the weight of good fish. May God grant that the lines written here be taut with His blessings.
Wednesday, 26 August 2009 | |||
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Look in the Mirror | |||
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My collar is crooked, my hair needs a comb, my nostrils
could use a trim (I'm afraid so, these days). A look in a mirror often
results in an action or two to improve my appearance. Of course it would
be easier to neglect the mirror's verdict and continue in a less
manicured, seedier mode. But to pass muster with my wife it's best if I
take what I see in the glass seriously and do something about
it. As the lectionary moves us into the epistle of James this coming Sunday (our text is James 1:17-27) we hear the Word of God pictured as a mirror, reflecting back to us the changes that need to be made in our religious practice and behavior. The problem, says James, is failing to act on the reflection we see. Our denomination's recent statement on how we read Scripture contains the wonderful phrases, "We do not just read the Bible. The Bible reads us." Those words try to capture much of what James is saying. Our commitment to God's Word is not merely assent to its truths. It is a willingness to be changed by what we are shown about ourselves as we delve into the Word. In what many (notably Martin Luther) have felt to be a stark contrast with the Apostle Paul, James seems to place emphasis on action rather than mere faith. In our text he is concerned with the actions of controlling angry speech, moral purity, and care for those in need, themes to which he returns throughout the letter. To that end, the reading and hearing of the Bible ought to prompt the sort of question asked by those who heard the first preaching of the Gospel, "What shall we do. . .?" Note, however, that those in verse 24 who fail to do the Word and imagined as people who look into a mirror and then forget what they look like. Christian doing arises out of seeing clearly and remembering who we are, people loved and redeemed by the grace of Jesus Christ. When we see and remember ourselves that way, as sinners saved by grace, that is when we are able to offer up "religion" that is acceptable to God (verse 27) by extending grace and care to others. | |||
Wednesday, 19 August 2009 | |||
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Christian Kevlar | |||
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Eric, our ministry intern, tells me that when he was in the
Army, he was assigned to be part of testing new body armor. New Kevlar
vests were put on a mannequin, which was then placed on the firing range.
Then Eric and his buddies would load up and have at the poor dummy,
taking notes on which sorts of rounds penetrated the armor. Even more
fun, says Eric, was to put the vests on watermelons, which provided some
juicy effects when a round made it through. Our text for this week is concerned with Christian Kevlar for protection against and battle with the evil spiritual forces we encounter as we travel through this world. Ephesians 6:10-20 is a well-known catalogue of metaphorical, spiritual armor. It calls for a stance of strength against the powers of darkness. Yet a couple cautions are in order as we approach the text. The first is not to over-emphasize the verses here which speak of evil spiritual forces, verses 11, 12 and 16. C. S. Lewis warning about being too fascinated with the demonic applies here. But it would be especially mistaken and fanciful to think that we have a hierarchy of evil powers listed in verse 12 or that we really need to be concerned too much with the natures of those powers. We recognize that we live in a world that blends the material and the spiritual and that not all spiritual forces are good, but our main concern is a struggle against the evil that comes out of our own hearts, minds and mouths, not techniques for contending with dark angels or some such. The second caution here is to somehow embrace Paul's metaphor and be "military" without being militant. Here we need to keep the first part of verse 12 in mind, "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood. . ." Other people are not our enemies. We are not armored against any man, woman or child for whom our Savior died just as He died for us. We are to armor against the world's evil, which oppresses both those against whom it is done and those who do it. How to be strong and forceful without being militant is the lesson we must learn in order to live for Christ in response to abortion, homosexual behavior, human trafficking, drug trade and many other evils. Our text concludes in verses 18 and 19, with perhaps the best way to appropriate spiritual armor and be strong in the Lord, constant prayer. It's as we pray that we discover new strength and we must pray for each other. Even Paul asks for prayer here. The participles which call for armoring in the previous verses are plural. This is not an image of a solitary Christian warrior going off to battle with the devil (a little critique of John Bunyan here), but of the Christian Church armored and shielded and fighting together as a single soldier for the Lord. We get to that point by praying for each other. God bless you with strength and with good armor as you join forces with brothers and sisters in Christ in the struggle we all share. | |||
Wednesday, 12 August 2009 | |||
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Careful Living | |||
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"We want you to be a careful driver." That's what
Beth and I told our youngest daugther as we resume her driving lessons.
She's back from a mission trip and now Beth and I want to she her
quickly learn to drive and receive her license. But of course our top
concern in it all is that Joanna proceed carefully and safely. Buckle the
seat belt, check the mirrors, watch the road, look ahead, drive the speed
limit, and on and on and on. Be careful. In our text for this Sunday, Ephesians 5:15-20, Paul asked his readers to be careful about how they live. Yet it wasn't really safety with which he was concerned. There's a note that threads through this text asking us to be careful not to waste our lives, to use our time well, to live in Christ and with each other in a way that is consistent with the will of God and with the direction of His Spirit. Verse 16 literally begins, "redeeming the time. . ." The NIV's "making the most of every opportunity" is a little too entrepreneurial and success oriented for my taste. I prefer the more literal sense that we are asked to make good use of the time with which God has blessed us, to live our lives in ways that turn our days and hours and minutes to those pursuits and activities which honor and glorify God and bless the people around us. The text warns against foolishness and drunkenness and debauchery. It's not so much that these things are evil or have bad effects (they are and they do), but that they waste the precious gift of the time we have to praise and serve God in this life. However, lest anyone think that Paul is a killjoy, asserting a kind of spiritual work ethic which demands we make the best practical use of every moment, always laboring to achieve great things for the Kingdom, we come to verse 19. A perfectly good and not at all wasteful expression of life filled with God's Spirit is music. Singing all sorts of songs to each other and humming praise to God in one's heart is fine way to redeem our time. God's will is not to make us productive worker drones but to make us people of praise and thanksgiving. Isn't that what Paul means by living carefully? | |||
Tuesday, 04 August 2009 | |||
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Good Conversation | |||
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I grew up on the King James Version, in which the word
"conversation" still possessed a now obsolete meaning of
something like "conduct" or "behavior." There's an
example just before this week's text,
Ephesians 4:25 - 5:2. In verse 4:22, the word that was
"conversation" in the KJV is translated "way of life"
in the NIV/TNIV. Yet there is still in our text a connection between conduct and conversation. As Paul unpacks last week's theme of living in unity together in the church, a great deal of focus is placed on how we talk with each other. We are to speak truth (not just "truthfully" as in the NIV), put aside anger, put aside unwholesome talk and seek speech that builds others up. Just beyond our text, in verse 4, obscenity, foolishness and coarse joking are also warned against. In the Gospel for the week, Jesus begins by warning the Jewish leaders to quit grumbling among themselves and listen to what God is saying through Him. Their own angry and foolish grumbles are getting in the way of the Good News He has for them. The demise of conversation is often lamented as the result of constant entertainment through television, the Internet, etc. Yet we keep talking with each other, even if it's via cell phone and text messages. How can we cultivate any conversational arena to be pleasing to the Holy Spirit (v. 30) and make it talk that builds each other up in Christ? Is it possible to have good Christian conversation in 2009? | |||
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Profile |
I am the pastor of Valley Covenant Church in Eugene, Oregon. I love to flyfish and hike along the beautiful rivers in our area. I welcome your comments as I share sermon work in progress and occasional other thoughts.
Thank you for visiting this blog. I invite you also to visit my web page.
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