The Place Where Hope Ends

In my Christian tradition, every year we work through a cycle we call the "Church Year".  It starts in late November or early December each year, as we hear the promises of God sending a Savior into the world.  The first major celebration is the birth of Jesus, followed by His baptism, His transfiguration a few weeks later, His death and resurrection, His ascension, and the sending of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost.  Then we focus on the continuing work that God does as the message of Good News in Jesus goes forth through the world.  Then, as November rolls around again, we anticipate Jesus' promise of reappearance, to usher in the new creation to His faithful people.

You may have looked at the title for this entry and wondered about it a bit.  "The Place Where Hope Ends."  That's not a place that we typically think that we want to be.  We want to be somewhere that hope abounds.  We don't want to think about hope ending.  After all, if hope ends, so do our dreams, our reason for pressing on.  We don't want to think about what would cause our hope to end, with the expectation that it would be painful, a dark place with no escape.

In a sense, that's true.  During our lives in this world, hope is a precious commodity, something that can give us strength even in the weakest hours.  We hope for a better life.  We hope for a better marriage, a better family, a better life situation, a better future.  If those hopes come crashing down, we mourn and weep because we have lost the thing that keeps us going.

Yet, there is a place where hope ends, but all things actually are better afterward.  That is the place and time when Jesus reappears in this world.  For those who have put their flickering trust in Him as their Redeemer and Salvation, hope ends, and gives way to reality.  A new creation, in the world that He kills and burns and then makes new.  Hope ends in the furnace of His judgment and His glorious presence, but for those who have cried out to Him, that ending actually leads to something better than before.  It leads to a place where we are with Him forever, and where nothing separates us from Him.  It's a place where the messiness, ugliness, and brokenness of this world are gone, and we are introduced to a place where none of that will ever have any effect on us again.

The place where hope ends starts with Jesus' cross, because there we see the price that is demanded.  The place where hope ends starts, for us personally, when we are touched by the water and God's Word, where God kills, but God also makes alive.  The place where hope ends, for us all, is that moment when God the Father declares that it is time and sends forth His only Son to be Judge and Redeemer, eventually to turn all things over to the Father once more.  For those who are sealed to Jesus through grace, through baptism, and through His Word, hope ends, but it actually ends to an improvement far beyond what we could ever hope for.

Continuing the Message

This past Sunday in worship, God's people and I focused on the story of Sodom and Gomorrah.  You can read all about it in Genesis 18 and Genesis 19.  Also, if you check the blog entries, you can even find a link to the youtube recording of the message.

I did want to follow up on the message with one very important point.  We can look at events such as what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah, as well as all the different events that we see in life, where it seems as though God's justice and judgment come to visit us in this world.  You also don't have to look very hard to find preachers who find it pretty easy to declare, "such and such is God's judgment upon those people", especially when bad things happen to them.

It really calls for us to consider a question that is rather important, though.  What is God's inclination when it comes to dealing with the people of this world?  Really, when we think about it, there are two realities that will occur as people leave this world to go to their eternal destination.  They will either be with God in joy, or they will be separated from God forever in agony.  So the question we are really asking is this: Does God want people to be with Him, or does He want people to be separated from Him?

If we declare that God visits justice and judgment on our lives in this world, we are essentially saying that God wants to condemn.  But is that the way that God wants to deal with the people of this world?  If God simply wanted to condemn the world, would He have sent His Son to die, taking the sins of the world upon Himself?  That hardly seems to be the prevailing attitude of God, if He would do such a thing.

One of the prime teachings that Lutheran Christians especially focus on is that God's overwhelming desire is to save, rescue, and redeem the people of the world.  God doesn't want people separated from Him.  God wants people to be with Him forever, regardless of what they have done, regardless of the direction their lives took in this world.  He wants to forgive.  He wants to show compassion to them.  No, He doesn't overlook how they have gone contrary to His will, design, and Law, but in the grand scheme of things, God wants to restore them to Himself.

I think that this thought frames how we do everything we do as God's people.  Yes, it's easy to point out sins and faults.  It's far more difficult to show people that God wants them drawn to Himself, and that He forgives them, since so often, it causes us to face our fears and uncertainties.  Truth be told, sometimes we want "those people" to receive God's justice rather than God's compassion and forgiveness.  We don't want to face that ugliness in ourselves, and so we may come across as though God wants to condemn.

However, this vitally important teaching reminds us that, as God's people, we have a God who wants to rescue people, not visit His divine justice and vengeance upon them.  And as His messengers, that means that we give a great deal of thought to how we come across to others.  After all, if the image of Christ is being restored within us, that's what we want others to see, and not our desires to see them pay the price.

Evil for Good?

"And why not do evil that good may come?"  Romans 3:8

I've heard the argument from many different angles over the years.  "Christians aren't supposed to be perfect", spoken to give excuse to a particular sin someone enjoyed.  "I want God's grace to shine", as though the more sin one was involved in, the more grace God would provide.  "It's only about God and His grace and forgiveness in Jesus", given as the reason to continue in some sin that that person really didn't want to battle or resist.

Each of these arguments comes back to one thing.  I don't want to give up my sin, even though I know it's sin, so I'll convince myself that God will continually pour out good upon my evil, even if I don't intend to change, to repent of it, or even to consider it as bad.  In other words, why not do evil that good may come? 

Now, there are some things that we should consider.  While God's law calls for complete perfection, God realizes that we are sinful sinners.  We won't be able to be perfect, no matter how hard we try.  However, we also don't admit our inability to do what God says, and then just stop trying to battle against it.  While the sinful nature wants to indulge repeatedly in sin, the new creation wants to do what God says.  In a sense, doing evil that good may come is to continually indulge the sinful nature in the hope that God will simply overlook my intentional sin.

The thing is, God looks much differently at intentional sin than in unintentional sin.  Are both paid for by Jesus on the cross?  Undoubtedly, since that sacrifice covered every sin.  However, does God look at the intentional sin as us choosing sin rather than God?  I have a difficult time thinking otherwise.  After all, if we choose anything other than God, aren't we breaking the commandment against having other gods?  And isn't that the most dire sin of all?

We can never fully do what God says while the sinful nature still exists.  However, as God's Spirit brings Christ's forgiveness to us, the new creation strives to grow in keeping what God says.  Our indulgence of our sin has us basically choosing to side with sin, death, and Satan, the unholy trinity, rather than the Father, Son, and Spirit, the holy Trinity.  And that's where I think Paul's rhetorical question speaks much deeper to us than what we might really want or desire.

Life Together

A man by the name of Dietrich Bonhoeffer once wrote a book entitled "Life Together."  It's a book that I have read numerous times in my life and ministry, and one that I continually find myself returning to.  It speaks to much about our life together as Christians, and what it means to be a part of a Christian congregation. 

This has a renewed interest to me at this time as I enter into my second six-month period at a new congregation.  In many respects, during the first six months, you simply start to get to know people.  Now that I have been here for a while, I've started to notice a change in some of the things people talk to me about.  Instead of, "We're really glad you're here," it's slowly become, "Here's what needs to be addressed in our congregation."  That's a pretty sure sign to me that our life together is something that needs to be discussed.

I don't mean this in a bad way, at all.  One of the facts of our lives is that we live our lives together as sinful Christians.  We're sinful.  We'll not always think the best of others.  We'll not always say the best things about others.  We'll focus on our needs rather than the needs of others.  And we'll always need God's Law to remind us of that sinfulness, and God's Gospel to remind us that Jesus has fully and completely forgiven us.

Just as surely as God has made a new creation within us in our baptism, we also need reminding that the new creation wants to grow in our life together as Christians.  We are Christians, which means we live forgiven lives with each other.  We strive to communicate matters of importance with one another.  We aim to forgive, and to ask for forgiveness, as it is called for in our walk together.  We recognize that there are times when we need to put our service to our fellow Christians ahead of our own preferences or likes.  That's the Christ-like part of our life together.

For the month of August, I'm going to be addressing a number of areas of our life together that we would do well to heed and listen to.  My hope and prayer is that we see where we fall short, ask for forgiveness, and then seek to grow in our lives with each other.  May we do this for the glory of God and His Son, our Lord Jesus.

Blurred Lines

While the Bible doesn't really come out and use the word "accountability", the idea of it is found throughout.  From the very first murder in human history, recorded in Genesis 4, we have that idea there.  Cain murders his brother, Abel, and when God confronts Cain about it, he asks the significant question, "Am I my brother's keeper?"  While God doesn't directly answer that question, it seems pretty clear that the answer is, yes.

So we are called to be accountable in our care for one another.  However, being the sinful human beings that we are, we can also easily overstep that line.  You have likely heard the term "micromanaging" before.  It's the idea of someone who has some level of accountability, but doesn't really trust the person who is doing the work "under" them.  Therefore, they basically step in and dictate each part of the process, and in some ways, demonstrate a lack of trust in those who are tasked with the job.

At this point, it seems like I should also mention that we Americans tend to shy away from this word "accountability."  We throw around words like freedom, but have allowed them to mean something other than what they should be.  We say freedom, but we really mean "I don't want anyone telling me how to do anything."  In other words, we don't want to be accountable to others.  They mind their business, and I mind mine, and we're all happy.  That's the basic idea, at least.

The thing is, that is not how God designed us when He created us.  Part of being in a community means that we sometimes lay aside what we want, or even what is best for us, for the good of others.  That's evident in what Jesus has done for us, and as the new life that Jesus won for us takes root and grows in us, we also work for the good of others, even if we might prefer otherwise, or if it's to our cost.

St. Paul writes it very bluntly in his letter to the Philippians.  In Philippians 2:3-4, he calls for those Christians to count others more significant than they are.  They are called to look to the interests of others, not necessarily at the expense of their own, but at least on equal footing with their own.  And yes, sometimes looking to the good of others does actually cost us, or cause us to lay aside what we would prefer for the good of others.

It's easy to blur these lines.  One of my ongoing battles is maintaining accountability without become too invasive.  It's a constant battle in our lives as Christians.

Learning How You Learn

It seems so easy.  You pick up a ball and throw it to another person squatting about 63 feet away.  Your goal is to throw it in such a way that a guy standing there with a piece of wood can't hit it.  To aid you in this, there are several different ways that you can grip the ball before you throw it, which will affect how it twists and turns on the way to the glove.  If you just look at the grips, you also should be able to throw the ball so that the guy with the wooden stick misses it, right?

How many of us think that we could throw a baseball with the many different pitch options that there are, and do so effectively, just by looking at pictures of the different grips?  I remember, when I was young, that I would go out to the side of our garage and try the different grips to see if I could make the ball spin like it should.  Unfortunately for me, I could really never get the ball to do what I wanted it to do.  But it sure wasn't for lack of trying!

What I'm describing here is something that I call experiential learning.  You learn to do something by actually doing it.  If you want to learn to throw a baseball pitch, you actually go out there and throw the pitch, as least, to the best of your ability.  If you want to learn to become a more conversational person, you don't do it by reading a book; you do it by going out and talking to people.  Sure, the first few conversations may be a bit awkward, but as you learn the give and take of conversation, you learn how to talk with people that you may not know well.

I would argue that the Christian Church has not always focused properly on experiential learning.  So often, we simply teach what God says is right or wrong, but leave it at that.  There's a time and place for this kind of teaching.  It's the first step in our Christian lives.  But so often, that's where Christian instruction stops (and yes, I'm guilty of this too).  We teach the head knowledge, but fail to carry it through to the life knowledge and experience.

Take, for example, God's gift of forgiveness.  We hear that God has forgiven us in Jesus, and that we then become forgiving people.  But so often, that's where the lesson stops.  We don't actually send people out, tell them to find someone to forgive that week, and then talk about their experiences the following time when we get together.  We simply teach it as head knowledge, but the experience of living out forgiveness happens far too infrequently, and in part, I believe that's because we fail to have people experience it and then talk about it.

For those who are part of the place where I minister, you can expect to see much about experiential learning in the future.  And don't be surprised when I actually have you go out and practice some of the things that we believe as Christians!

Living The New Life

One thing I often get asked about are ways that a Christian can live out their faith in a way that extends beyond the self.  How do I live my faith without being offensive, but with a desire to see opportunities to share that faith in witness to Christ Jesus to others?  It's a good question, and one that I love to hear from people.  It means that their eyes are open to more than just their own standing with God.  It demonstrates a heart that yearns for others to know the great gift of forgiveness and new life that we have received in Jesus' life, death, and resurrection.

Since this is something that continues to come up in ministry, I'm going to start a new weekly "series" of sorts.  I'm planning on calling it "Living the New Life."  I call it this because these kind of questions and answers aren't ways that we make ourselves right with God, or even that we do to please God.  Instead, I see these as ways that the new self, created by God in the water of baptism, wants to live before God and before neighbor.  So don't take these as ways to improve yourself, or to be in better standing in God, but as ideas for what opportunities the new life has to live out our faith in Jesus as our Lord, Savior, and Redeemer.

Today I want to start off with something that may seem really simple, and may not even seem to be all that impactful.  Yet, I see it as one way to watch doors open by the Holy Spirit, and a way in which our eyes and hearts can become even more open to the opportunities that God presents in life.  The suggestion: a prayer walk.  And no, I don't mean something that you get a lot of people lined up for, and then going around praying out loud as though you're part of a parade.  I mean a personal or even small family sized prayer walk.

A lot of people have gotten into the "getting fit" trend.  Walking is a great way to do it, and I know of a lot of people who go for a walk on a daily or weekly basis.  So this suggestion merely adds one element to it.  As you walk, why not offer up prayers on behalf of the people, businesses, our households in the area that you are walking through?  If you walk through your neighborhood, why not ask God to pour His grace into those households?  Why not ask Him to open up doors where you can demonstrate your neighborliness in Christ to that household?  If you are walking through a park, why not ask for God to show His grace to the people or families that you pass?  Likewise, if you walk through a mall, you can do the same thing, and even extend it to the businesses in the venue.

Again, this seems like a small thing.  Yet, the new life in you in baptism wants to demonstrate love for neighbor, and prayer is one of the ways to demonstrate that love.  And you never know what will happen as God listens to your prayers.  He may even put one or two of the people in your path with an opportunity that the Spirit is creating.  He may simply be opening your eyes and heart up to those that you may not have thought of as neighbors before.  He could simply be preserving those for whom you pray, planning to work through the impact of another, and yet preserving them in line with your prayer. 

It may seem small, but our God often does great things through small means and packages.  Praying is natural for the new life that God has created in you through your baptism.  And, if you were looking for an added benefit, walking is also good for you, demonstrating some good stewardship of the body that God has gifted to you by His grace.