A Prayer

In response to my posting on 1 Peter, a dear friend sent me this prayer:

O Lord Jesus Christ,

you are the inexpressible joy of Christians,

take away from us whatever is not yours,

and make us yours in all things.

Hear us, O Lord. Amen.

 

Source: Mozarabic Breviary from Prayers of the Middle Ages

 

Mozarabic refers to the medieval Romance languages spoken in the Iberian Peninsula.

 

Pondering First Peter (1)

 

 

I’ve come to First Peter in my morning readings. I think First Peter Chapter One, along with Psalm 101, was the first passage of Scripture I ever wrote about; this would have been in the early 1970s. The patterns I saw in First Peter back then, have expanded and danced in my heart, mind, and soul – and taken me from the present into eternity past and eternity future, indeed, they have nurtured the wonder of living in Christ in the eternals so that present, future, and past are melded into our Lord Jesus Christ, into the glorious and holy Trinity.

 

When “in” First Peter Chapter One, I often see the vistas and hear the music of Ephesians Chapter One. It is as if two choirs from two different churches are in the same venue singing antiphonally – they complement each other, speaking to one another, and the whole is greater than the two parts. Much the same occurs when I move into 1 Peter 2:1 – 10, for here Ephesians 2:11 – 4:16 comes into play.

 

As I ponder 1 Peter Chapter One alongside Ephesians Chapter One, the similarities seem more than the stars of the heavens, with their dance and arrangements changing heavenly patterns in such ways as to manifest the light of Jesus Christ in myriad facets. The fulness of these Himalayas can never be captured, but in Christ (who is the Fulness), it can be glimpsed and experienced.

 

Two thoughts before I close, one from Ephesians and one from Peter.

 

In Ephesians 1:10 Paul writes of the “summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth, in Him.” The Gospel is about Jesus Christ. Life, my life and your life, is to be about Jesus Christ. The lives of our families and congregations are to be about Jesus Christ. Are we substituting other teachings and agendas and “things” for Jesus Christ? What are they? What is capturing our hearts other than Jesus Christ? What goals do we have other than Jesus Christ? What are we known for, other than Jesus Christ? What are we teaching our people to love and live for…that is not Jesus Christ? Are we living…heart, soul, mind, strength and bank account…for Jesus Christ?

 

Peter writes concerning the recipients of his letter, “…and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory…” (1 Peter 1:8).

 

Does this describe us? Does it describe our families and congregations? Is this what we are known for in our communities? Are we overflowing with joy for Jesus?

 

I am not talking about our music, I am not talking about upbeat church services – whether “contemporary” or “traditional” (whatever those words mean…which isn’t much) – I am talking about our hearts, our souls, our innermost beings – are we filled with joy and rejoicing in Jesus Christ? Is He our All in all? Is He our joy? Our source of life? Our love of loves?

 

Are we experiencing and expressing joy unspeakable and full of glory? Are we loving and rejoicing in Jesus Christ with all that we have and all that we are?

 

O my dear friends, the message of Ephesians and 1 Peter is the Message of eternal glory and joy in Jesus Christ, it is a joy and glory that cannot be contained. Have we left our first love (Rev. 2:4)? Have we ever known Jesus as our first love? Whatever the case may be, whether we are the son who is far away or the one who is near, our Father and Lord Jesus wait for us to share the fattened calf with them – to feast with them in this life and in that which is to come, with joy inexpressible and full of glory.

 

(And if you are a pastor or ministry servant – leader, may I gently ask, “Do the people you serve, and the people you live amongst, know and see that you love Jesus Christ? Do they see, in some measure, the joy and glory that you daily have in Him?)

 

Might not this be a good time to tell Jesus how much we love Him? Might this not be a good day to speak with others of our love for Jesus?

There are times when I want to dance down the street rejoicing in Jesus, telling others of His glorious love for them. Loving Jesus is truly joy unspeakable and full of glory. 

 

 

“Fear Of Not Doing Well”

 

 

In my prayer and reflection time this morning, I read the following:

 

“Grant me to see my ignorance, not knowing how or what to pray, my unsavoriness, not delighting in, but loathing to speak for thee, my pride, because I would not speak what I could from fear of not doing it well…” The Valley of Vision, page 363.

 

While you and I don’t use this form of English anymore in our daily conversation, I find it helpful to have a prayer book, such as The Valley of Vision, that maintains the English used when the prayers were first written. Why? Because it slows me down and forces me to drive s-l-o-w-l-y. When I read slowly it is more likely that I will reflect on the words, the phrases, the construction of a paragraph or verse, the relationship of the words to each other, the paragraphs and verses to each other.

 

This morning I was struck by, “my pride, because I would not speak what I could from fear of not doing it well.”

 

Is this true of you? Can you relate to these words? They are true of me and I can easily relate to them – I have confronted them many times in my life, sometimes to God’s glory, sometimes not.

 

There are a few root reasons why we don’t share Jesus Christ with others; our lack of love, our failure of obedience, our ignorance of who Christ is in us and who we are in Christ, our ignorance of our calling in Christ to lay our lives down for others…and our pride. Can you think of other reasons we don’t share the Gospel?

 

All of us who know Jesus Christ, who are in a relationship with Him, have something to tell others. When we use, “I don’t’ know what to say,” or “I’m afraid I’ll be asked a question that I don’t know the answer to,” as an excuse not to share Jesus Christ, much of the time what we are really talking about is our pride – we don’t want to be humiliated or rejected because of Jesus Christ. Let’s remind ourselves that Jesus Christ presented a prefect witness for God and He was rejected and crucified.

 

Witnessing to others for Jesus Christ always entails the questions, “Am I willing to be identified with Jesus Christ in His humility? Am I willing to be humbled before others for the sake of others and the glory of Jesus Christ?”

 

When Peter wanted to spare Jesus rejection, suffering, and death Jesus replied, “Get behind me Satan, you do not value the things of God but the things of man” (Matthew 16:21 – 23).

 

God uses our imperfect words and deeds for His glory, for what other words and deeds can we possibly offer? When people see God’s love coming through our imperfect words and actions, then they will know that it is God who should be receiving glory and not us. Why would we have a problem with this?

 

Times without number I have had to make the decision to reject my pride and ego – to flee from them! – and imperfectly share the love of Jesus with others…whether they appreciated it or not, whether it was socially acceptable or not, whether it was the right time and right place (in the eyes of the world) or not.

 

I am still…after all these years…learning to do this.

 

What about you?

The Wise and the Foolish at the Summit

 

I begin my days in darkness, that is to say, before the sun rises…usually before there is even a hint of

sun on the horizon. There is something about the first fruits of the day, the quiet, the anticipation…the

 listening.

 

This morning I was pondering the summit of Mount Everest. Those who attempt the summit leave in darkness and can be seen with their headlamps on as they slowly make their way higher and higher. Some make it, some don’t. Some who don’t make it are wise, they know when enough is enough; others who don’t make it are foolish. Sometimes the wise suffer accidents, being wise doesn’t make us immune from tragedy; sometimes the wise may even be affected by the foolish.

 

Everest has become a tourist destination, and with tourism has come death. Everest has become an attraction, a theme park. During the past few years the Nepalese government has worked to place restrictions on the number of people on the mountain in an effort to reduce deaths and accidents. There are the wise and the foolish on Everest, both climbers and non-Nepalese expedition guides.

 

As a lover of our national parks, I pay attention to tragic accounts of visitors who fail to understand that our national parks are not theme parks, they are not amusement parks – they are glorious and awesome and can be quite dangerous. Every year people die because they do not heed the warnings of the Park Service; they hike unprepared, they venture off approved trails, they approach wildlife; as a result they are injured or they die.

 

Why do we treat the Gospel, the Scriptures, worship, and our Lord Jesus as tourist destinations and amusement parks? Charlatans offer expeditions in prophecy, they pedal “your best life now,” they promise to improve virtually every aspect of life, as if they were cruise directors hawking to one and all a great ride, a wonderful adventure, and fun for all. When we tire of one activity they produce another; another book, another video series, another teaching. Does no one notice that no one grows, that we don’t mature into Christ as His People? Do we not wonder why we are no closer to the summit after ten, twenty, or fifty years on the Christian entertainment tour than when we started?

 

Can we see the dead bodies on the mountain? Those who sincerely thought they were pursuing the truth, following the blind on the mountain – and then they ran out of oxygen and simply gave up (or fell into a crevasse), more casualties of the toxic religious world that “is ever learning and never coming to the knowledge of the truth.” Of course their leaders can, and will, readily recruit the next expedition to nowhere.

 

The Scriptures teach us again and again that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom – but our entertainment directors will have none of that; the Bible is some kind of playbill, God is our therapist, and sin is no more than the common cold. We are the focus of the spotlight and our Lord Jesus is a stagehand.

 

After pondering Everest this morning I opened a book I was reading and saw a quote from the enigmatic Emily Dickinson, “Somehow myself survived the night/And entered with the Day…”

Ignorance of Scripture is Ignorance of Christ

 

 

One of my friends, in response to my reflection on Jerome’s (and mine!) irascibility, mentioned that Kathleen Norris touches on Jerome in The Cloister Walk. Here is how Norris begins on page 23:

 

“We hear from Jerome today, at morning prayer, a section of the Prologue to his commentary on Isaiah. He was a contentious man: ‘Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ,’ he booms, and his words shatter our sleepy silence. Jerome was the hard-edged, brilliant fellow who first translated the Hebrew scriptures into Latin. And, judging from his letters and his life, he may have been one of the most irascible people who ever lived.”

 

What do you think of this idea that, “Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ”?

 

As Jesus makes clear in Luke Chapter 24, on both the road to Emmaus and in the Upper Room, all of the Scripture reveals Him – the Law, the Prophets, the Writings. And we can now add what we term the New Testament. Of course the Scriptures must be made alive by the Holy Spirit, for only God can reveal God (see 1 Corinthians Chapter 2, as well as John 5:39 – 40; 6:63).

 

We don’t seem to mind our ignorance. Much of what passes for Christian ministry, including Sunday school and small group curricula, caters to our ignorance, coddles it, enables it, encourages it. It does not expect us to know the Bible, nor think, nor search for Christ in Scripture, nor grow in Christ from one year to the next.

 

I have a friend who built his own high – performance airplane. Do you think he knows his plane? Do you think he keeps his plane well – maintained?

 

He is also a flight instructor. Do you think he conveys to his pupils that what they are doing is a matter of life and death? He will refuse to teach a flight student if that student isn’t taking flying seriously, if that student is not paying attention to him, the flight instructor.

 

We tend to pay attention to things that matter, to pay attention to things that are matters of life and death. I view the Bible as a deep-sea diver with a bell helmet views the oxygen line connecting him to his ship; no functioning oxygen line means no life support, no life support means death in the ocean. No Word of God means no life, and no life means death in this dark and dying world.

 

How is it that adults act like children, worse than children, when it comes to knowing the Bible? “I don’t like to read.” How many times have I heard that? A long-serving elder told me that a few months ago…really? Would you tell your employer that? Would you tell your professor that? Why do we think we can tell our God that? Our church? Our brothers and sisters? Men and women and children have suffered and died to preserve the Scriptures, and are doing so today…and we accept the statement, “Well, I don’t know the Bible because I don’t like to read”?

 

We do what is important to us. We pay attention to what matters to us.

 

Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ, and for the professing seasoned Christian, ignorance of both is inexcusable.

 

What would St. Jerome say?

A Church In Texas - Follow Up

Continuing from the previous post, my fourth example of repentance, confession, and reconciliation, concerns the Lord’s Table, the Lord’s Supper, Communion, the Eucharist; particularly as it relates to its celebration as a pastor. 

Now, because of some fine teaching I received as a rather young Christian, I have long had some measure of understanding that when we partake of the Bread and Wine that we are not only partaking of the Head of the Body, our Lord Jesus Christ, but we are also partaking of all of His Body – that is we are partaking of one another in Him, for we are indeed the Body of Christ. (1 Cor. 10:16 – 17; 11:23 – 32; 12:12). In this light, “discerning the body rightly” (11:29) relates not only to the Head, but to the Body as well, and we ought to be careful in that “if we judged ourselves we would not be judged” (11:31).

 

Since this is a Table and Feast of reconciliation, most especially The Reconciliation, The Atonement, it is a place where conviction of sin finds relief in confession, repentance, cleansing, forgiveness, and grace for obedience. It is a Place where we can find not only reconciliation with God through Christ, but where, through the Grand Reconciliation, we can find reconciliation with one another. In fact, if we have reconciliation with God through Christ, we must, we really must, seek reconciliation with one another.

 

And so while the Eucharist most certainly has its vertical (Jesus Christ and me) dimension, it just as certainly has its horizontal (you and me; “us”) element – for there is no “Jesus and me” without “us,” for we are His Body.

 

To stand before the People of God, in the Presence of God, and to serve the Bread and Wine, the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, is holy and fearful – it is sacred… while it is celebratory, it is also fearful – for it is a place where eternity and time intersect, where ages past and ages to come meet some 2,000 years and also meet today, in that place, in that moment. To repeat the words of our Lord Jesus, “This is My Body…this is My Blood…” this is holy and sacred.

 

BUT, what to do as a pastor if, looking out over your congregation, you see someone, or a group, to whom you have spoken a sharp word or have otherwise done wrong to? Suppose you see your wife and know that before you left your home that morning that you had been unkind to her? How can you serve at the Lord’s Table with unclean hands? How can you speak words of reconciliation when you need reconciliation with your brother or sister or wife?

 

There is only one course of action, and that is to express your sorrow and ask forgiveness before the People of God, demonstrating to the congregation how we should approach the Communion Table. I have done this more than once, explaining that before I can move forward with the Table that I need to confess and ask forgiveness for something I’ve done within the congregation.

 

(To be clear, I ought not to approach the Table, or the pulpit on any Sunday, without asking the Holy Spirit to search me deeply, revealing sin and disobedience and asking Him to lead me in confession and repentance and obedience.)

 

Frankly, as I think about all of this, it is a bit frightening that so many congregations and, I suppose, pastors, take the Table so lightly – not correctly judging, understanding, and discerning the Lord’s Body. We treat the Table with less thought than we do a fast food drive thru; we are more aware of a hamburger and fries than we are of the Body and Blood of our Lord.

 

In Christ Jesus, we are reconciled and should be always reconciling. We are reconciled to God and should be always reconciling with one another in Christ.

 

Is this the Way I am living?

 

What about you?