Sin and Simplicity

Complex.  Complicated.  Confusing.  Dynamic.  These are words I have heard used to describe our rapidly changing times.  Can life be simple anymore?  What relevancy can simplicity be to our multi-tasking selves?

Prayer
Lord Jesus, we are often a fractured people.  We feel torn apart by competing needs, split into our many roles and goals in life.  Give our hearts and minds focus, our souls integrity, and our lives the simplicity of your Kingdom so that we may be free to deeply live. Amen.

Isaiah 40

In today's reading, the people of God are in exile in Babylonia.  They were taken from their homeland, split up into groups and scattered among the lands and cultures of Babylonia.  Isaiah tells the people that God is going to comfort them and renew their strength.  God who is more powerful than all the armies of all the nations will restore his people.  He tells them they will be moving from captivity to freedom, from being shattered and scattered as a people to being reunified and freed to follow God.

As I read verse two "her sin has been paid for," I was struck by the serious costs of sin!  The theology of Isaiah and other prophets sees the conquering of their nation as a result of their unfaithfulness to God!  The cost of their sin is the loss of a homeland, loss of life, the dispersion of the people, and the captivity of their hearts, minds, and souls.

Then I started thinking, "what are the costs of our sins today?"  "What are we captive to as a result of our sins?"  I know that in our heads many of us realize the Sunday School answers to this.  Our sin separates us from God and each other.  It causes problems in our relationships, and brings death and disorder into the creation and into our lives.  But if many of us are pressed to identify our sins and their consequences, we might struggle a little more with our answers. 

Many sins seem innocuous, part of "normal" life in 21st Century American culture. They often escape our attention.

We are part of a system, a way of life that encourages overconsumption, greed, fear, protectionism, and selfishness. Even though the economic struggles of recent years have opened our eyes to see that we don't need as much as we think, we live behind gates, eat more than we should then exercise to "work it off."  We work too much and are stressed about all of the things we "must" do. American life is often a study in the costs of excess! Our expectations are so large about the houses we should live in, the cars we should drive, the "perfect" schools or sports teams our kids should be on, the "perfect" figures we should have, the hobbies and vacations we deserve, and the amount of activity we can stuff into 24 hours that we are crushed underneath their weight as we go into too much debt, sleep deprivation, impatience, and stress!

Though recent economic struggles have been devastating to many families, particularly the poor, for others they have been a wake up call to consider simplifying their lives.  Indeed, practices of simplicity and fasting are in order to help us become more aware of the costs of the sins of excessive expectations.  I find them hard to practice, but I love some of Richard Foster's practices of simplicity from the book Celebration of Discipline. "Buy things for their usefulness. Reject anything that is producing an addiction in you. Develop a habit of giving things away. Refuse to be propagandized by the custodians of modern gadgetry. Timesaving devices almost never save time. Learn to enjoy things without owning them. Develop a deeper appreciation for the creation. Look with healthy skepticism at all "buy now and pay later" schemes. Obey Jesus' instructions about plain honest speech. Reject anything that breeds oppression in others. Shun anything that distracts you from seeking first the Kingdom of God."

Thank God for the promise of restoration for his people!  We are called to turn from our ways of life that lead us into captivity to things and people and our own expectations, find forgiveness in our gracious Lord, and enter a new life of freedom through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord.  Thanks be to God!

Life Questions

1.  What is holding me captive that I need the cross of Jesus Christ to free me from?
2.  How can I practice greater simple focus on "seeking first the Kingdom of God" by the grace and power of Jesus?

Prayer

Loving Father, lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil, for thine is the Kingdom, the power, and the glory forever and ever, amen!

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Love and Truth

"You say you love me, but that doesn't make it real."  How many love songs have been written about that?  What we call love these days often tilts toward the extreme of "love avoids all conflict because it is nice" or toward the extreme of "love means telling you the truth about yourself when I am right!"  How do we share our deepest, most passionate beliefs about what is right and communicate our love and care at the same time?

Prayer

Lord Jesus, we are not good about communicating.  It's our selfish desire to look good, to be right, to  be superior to others that gets in the way of love.  Love us past our brokeness.  Teach us to love others so that they may come to know your love, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

I Corinthians 8

Comments

So some Corinthian Christians wrote Paul a letter or two regarding problems they were encountering, practical issues of day to day adventures learning to follow Jesus together and teaching pagans to become Christians. The question in chapter 8 that Paul picks up goes something like this,"Why can't we eat the meat from Temple Zeus? They always use the best sauce, and since we now know that their idols aren't real gods anyway, what difference does it make if we eat the good meat?" The reasoning is "since we know what it is true, we don't have to worry about it because we know our actions are right in God's eyes." And, "Why should we care what other people think of us?"

According to Paul, and through Paul according to God, there is more to following Jesus and helping other people follow Jesus than just the right answers. There is loving application of our knowledge. We need to understand where the people we are discipling are in their faith, what their current beliefs are, and where they are most vulnerable. We need to sensitively think about how our words and actions, no matter how correct they are, will impact our impressionable young Jesus followers.

In this case, it was not loving to simply grab a slab of ribs off the table at the market from a vendor in front of Temple Zeus and, knowing like everyone this was leftover sacrificial meet offered to an idol, proclaiming, "Since there are no idols I'm going to thoroughly enjoy these ribs!" To a person who once believed in Zeus, worshipped in that Temple, ate that meat for years while thinking it was to honor their god, and who had just begun to see that Jesus Christ is Lord and that Zeus is not, this would have been difficult and confusing. It might have even caused a crisis of faith and doubt. "Am I sure that Zeus won't hurl any thunderbolts at me? Is Zeus even real? What about this Jesus I am learning about? How can I know? Now that I am his follower, how can I do anything that even remotely resembles my old life?"

According to Paul, and God through Paul, though our theology may be sound, we must lovingly, carefully consider that tender, early shoots of faith in Jesus are easily trampled and uprooted. They need tending and thoughtful care. They need building up and gentle encouragement. Without this love and concern for our Christian family, especially our newest, youngest members, we may be right in mind but wrong in heart, and that is a sin.

The alternative way of teaching Jesus invites us to is to "speak the truth in love." Love takes into account where another person is compared to where God wants them to be, and it considers the best way forward for that particular person. Truth is communicated best through a loving relationship of trust and encouragement. Loving application of the truths of life in Jesus is what builds up his Kingdom. Let's be good builders then, shall we?

Prayer

Holy Spirit, enable us to tie love and truth together for the sake of our salvation and the salvation of your creation.  Amen.

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New World Order

January is the month of establishing priorities.  New eating and exercise plans are made to "get healthy."  Some people are more determined than ever to get their spiritual lives "together," so they start attending church.  People are making plans on their calendars promising "not to let our schedules get too busy this year!"  Everyone's looking for a new order.

Prayer

Dear Jesus, when our lives feel like they're being spun in a blender, and we are gasping for a better order, give us grace to turn to you, to allow you to put our pieces back into the places where they belong, so that peace may reign within us and life may be at its fullest in you.  Amen.

Matthew 1: 14-15

Comments

Understanding that Jesus came to crash the Kingdom of God back into time on earth is essential for his followers. The life order of God broke fully into time and space in the person and life of Jesus! He came to reorder the lives of those who would follow him, live with him and in him and thus live in the Kingdom of God.

"Turn around and have faith and you can enter the Kingdom! Your life can be reorganized by the giver of life!" This is the great invitation! Who doesn't want messed up relationships to find health, joy, love and peace? Who doesn't want to find work that is satisfying, makes a difference, and provides sustenance for their families? Who doesn't want their ailing bodies to be made healthy again? Who doesn't want peace on earth, and end to war, greed, and suffering?  Good news, the Kingdom of God, a Kingdom of love, justice, and mercy is present in Jesus Christ.

Our work, the work of Jesus' followers is to assist God in advancing this Kingdom way of life on the earth, and we do that by living our lives in the grace of Jesus in the Kingdom order and by extending an invitation to others to enter this Kingdom through Jesus.

Life Questions

1.  What parts of my life are in need of reordering by the graceful touch of Jesus?

2.  How can I point others to Jesus who need to find life and health and peace?

Prayer

Gracious Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, you invite us into your Kingdom by the graceful love of Christ through his life, death, and resurrection.  Give us courage to give up our disorders so that we may boldly live in your new order.  Forgive our sins, heal our brokeness, give us power to show others the life-giving ways of Jesus!  Amen.

Listening and Leadership

"Me? I'm not a leader.  I don't lead anything," you might be saying to yourself.  Like it or not, we are all examples to someone!

Prayer

Give us grace to follow your lead, Lord Jesus, into good living that brings healing and peace to this broken world.  May others be drawn to your salvation when they see your light shining in us.  In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.

I Samuel 3

Comments

It is a well known fact that effective human communication involves a) what verbal and non-verbal cues are sent and b) how the listener interprets the verbal and non-verbal cues.  A break down in either a or b does not allow people to connect and creates misunderstandings and issues that deteriorate relationships.

Our relationship to God is no different.  How effectively we listen to God's cues determines how well we follow God's lead in life.  It also determines how well we lead others.  So much of our prayer lives is spent talking to God about what we want and what we need and what the world wants and needs.  It is far more challenging to practice listening to God.

Eli, a priest for God, had begun focusing more on the benefit of getting to eat the choicest cuts of meat from the sacrifices the people were offering to God than on listening and obeying God's commands.  He was even allowing his sons to practice the priesthood in ways that did not honor God without correcting them.  I interpret the sentence, "The word of the Lord was rare in those days" to mean that God wasn't being listened to much in those days! 

So God called forth Samuel to be his servant, his leader of the people.  And one of the most important phrases of this whole passage is how Samuel is taught (ironically by Eli!) to address God by saying, "Speak, Lord, your servant is listening."  Good listeners of God are good spiritual leaders.

You may believe that you are not a leader, but I assure you that you are.  Everyone is an example, albeit a good or bad one, to someone.  Thus, everyone is a leader, like it or not.  The question for all of us is, what kind of a spiritual leaders are we?  The answer to that question rests on how well we listen to God. 

Set aside some time each day, even multiple times a day to pray this prayer, "Speak, Lord, your servant is listening."  Then be silent for a few moments and see what the Lord says.  THEN go work, parent, husband or wife, play, and lead by how well you follow the Lord.

Life Question

1.  How am I doing listening to God in his Word, the bible, and to his Spirit as it speaks to me in prayer?
2.  How am I doing following God's lead?

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