Reflection: Shall We Look for Another? (December 16, 2012)

The 3rd Sunday in Advent
Malachi 3:1-7; Philippians 1:2-11; Luke 3:1-14


Sometimes Jesus simply doesn't live up to our expectations. It’s not that He’s done anything wrong, it’s just that He hasn't done what we thought He would do. He’s quiet when we want Him to speak. He’s active in our lives when we’d rather take things easy. He moves us when we’d rather stay still. He tells us to be still when we want to take action. It doesn't make sense to us. It’s confusing. We’re certainly not the first people to experience this. When John the Baptist was in prison he struggled with this very thing. He had heard about what Jesus was doing and it didn't line up with his expectations of the Messiah. Concerned about this, John sent two of his disciples to Jesus with an important question, “Shall we look for another?”.

When Jesus’ work in our lives doesn't line up with our expectations (or desires) we may be tempted to “look for another.” Certainly, the world offers plenty of alternatives to Jesus — many of which are very appealing. Numerous influential people, even many who promote themselves as faithful Christians, propose lifestyles and life choices that sound a lot better to us than Jesus’ call to deny ourselves and take up our crosses daily in order to follow Him. But before we consider looking for another, we should remember the first part of John’s question to Jesus, “Are you the one who is to come?”.

Jesus’ answer to the first part of John’s question resolved the second part. The divine works that He performed were proof that He was the one to come, the one promised by God through the prophets for the redemption of mankind. We need only look to the work that He has done in our lives to realize that there is no one to whom we can look for peace, joy, hope, or purpose. In the divine work of Baptism He has joined us into His salvation. In the divine work of His presence under bread and wine He renews and refreshes us. In the divine work of forgiveness He assures us that we always have a place in His family. We may be confused at times by how Jesus is working in our lives, but we can be confident that in whatever ways that He is working that He has our good in mind. Knowing that He is the one whom the Father sent into our world for our redemption and that He continues to work for our good, we can turn aside all temptation to look for another because there is no one who loves us as He does.

Audio file of the sermon "Shall We Look for Another?"

Journal: "Meaningful Action" to End the Killing of Children

What "meaningful action" will end the killing of children in America?

In his initial response to the shooting deaths of twenty six- and -seven-year-old students and six adults in Newtown, CT, President Obama called for "meaningful action" to end such tragedies. Many suspected that he was speaking of a political solution (a suspicion that he confirmed two days later). While a political solution is unlikely to have any real impact on the safety of our children, the President's call for "meaningful action" is one that Christians should rally around. If there is going to be any action taken in view of this heinous crime, it will come from those of us who bear the name of Christ. But are we willing to take the "meaningful action" that would make a positive difference?

Thus far the political talk about ending mass killings of innocent people has centered around gun control. Not surprisingly, people who see the 2nd Amendment as fundamental to our freedom are resisting and will continue to resist any efforts by our government to limit access to weapons and ammunition. Such a reaction speaks to the fundamental problem confronting us as a people: abuse of our rights, real and perceived. While we may or may not have abused our rights under the 2nd Amendment, we certainly have abused our 1st Amendment rights. With far more detrimental effects, we have abused rights that are more perceived than real.

There are certainly genuine rights that belong to us as citizens of the United States. These rights should be protected and promoted by our government and our citizenry. But these rights, real rights, are abused when we insist upon maintaining them to the detriment of our neighbor. Have we, as Christians, displaced the call of Christ to love sacrificially (i.e., love in a way that may cost us something) with the American ideals of individual rights? Our long held insistence that we can have things both ways has eroded our witness and render us ineffectual in the public square. "Meaningful action" will only come about when we recognize that being faithful to our call as citizens of heaven to deny ourselves, take up our crosses, and follow Jesus invariably involves setting aside our claim on rights as citizens of a nation. For Christian Americans, we abuse our rights when we refuse to deny ourselves and set our rights aside for the sake of others.

We also abuse our rights as Christians in this world when we make use of rights to sin. While we must wrestle with the out workings of how to exercise our 2nd Amendment rights for the sake of our neighbors, there's a much clearer course of action for us when it comes to our 1st Amendment rights. While we enjoy the freedom as citizens of America to engage in a wide variety of expression, especially in our entertainment, much of what we engage in is clearly sinful. Have we let our 1st Amendment rights trump God's call to hate the wickedness and impurity of our world? How can we praise God with our lips and look upon His glory with our eyes while filling our minds with the base, despicable, and vile content found in everything from children's cartoons to first person shooter video games? We have not only stood by while our culture has immersed itself in violence, sinful sex, and wanton materialism for its entertainment, we've joined in with them as a celebration of our 1st Amendment rights. "Meaningful action" includes us as God's people ridding our lives of this cancer. "Meaningful action" calls for us to exercise our free speech to speak with passion and conviction for an end to such destructive expression.

If we are reluctant to exercise our Constitutional rights in a God-pleasing way, we are paralyzed when it comes to addressing the greatest contributor to the causes of mass shootings: the insistence on a right that does not exist in either our Constitution or God's Word. The so-called right to abortion (or "reproductive choice") has so undermined our understanding of the value of human life that there is no possibility of protecting lives until we rid it from our national psyche. No degree of restriction of 2nd Amendment rights and no amount of constraint of our 1st Amendment rights can change the way that we have come to view the sanctity of human life. If there is a clarion call to "meaningful action" by God's people by the mass shootings in our country, it is first and foremost to take a stand for life. How can we honestly mourn the deaths of twenty children and at the same time ignore the 4,000 or so children who died that same day through abortion? A nation that will not protect the lives of children before they are born can not protect the lives of children after they are born.

Despite the President's call, it's improbable that our government will take any "meaningful action" that will change our violence saturated, self-centered, and pleasure-driven culture. Any attempts to do so will meet will stiff resistance from people insisting on their rights - real and perceived - and be choked to death in the gridlock of a divided nation. But there is a greater call to action. God's call to act is the only chance that we have of changing things in our world. It's up to God's people in this nation to do the hard work of self-denial and self-sacrifice if any "meaningful action" will come out of our responses to the tragedies of Newtown, Aurora, Virginia Tech ... and wherever is next. How will we answer that call?

Reflection: What Shall We Do? (December 9, 2012)

The Second Sunday in Advent
Malachi 3:1-7; Philippians 1:2-11; Luke 3:1-14


When our world allows some room for Jesus in its Christmas celebrations He is relegated to the manger as a helpless, harmless baby. What a contrast to the image of Jesus that John the Baptist painted for people in his ministry. When John came as God’s messenger to prepare the way for the Messiah he didn't sell a kind and gentle Jesus that could appear quietly and mostly unnoticed in our busy and distracted lives. Instead, John proclaimed Him as coming to judge His people, condemning those who had gone after other gods and refining those who had remained faithful. “The axe is at the root,” John warned. And people listened. Baptized by John for repentance, they sought his guidance for being ready for the Lord’s appearance. “What shall we do?” they asked with sincere and eager hearts.

Like the people who came to John in the wilderness beyond the Jordan River, we have been included in God’s covenantal promises. When we were washed in Baptism we were joined into Christ and His body, the Church. And like them, we are called to join with John in making ready the way for the Messiah in our worlds by living our lives in response to His grace. When we consider the great need that surrounds us and the importance of the work that Christ has called us to do, our pressing question should also be “What shall we do?”

John’s answers to the people of his day were specific to their circumstances, but they provide us with insights into what we are called to do as God’s people in the world now. If we are serious about responding to Christ’s love, we don’t have to sit around wondering what it takes for our “love to abound more and more” so that we and others will “be pure and blameless for the day of Christ” (Phil. 1:9-10). But do such desires really fill us? Have we, instead, taken the gifts of God and consumed them for ourselves? Are we bearing the fruits of repentance or have we slipped into the self-centered complacency that John condemned? Are we counting on church membership, spiritual legacy, or our own efforts to “endure the day of His coming” or have we despaired of these things and submitted ourselves to the Refiner’s fire? The answers are evident in the fruit that we bear. The axe is at the roots — our roots — and the call to repentance is sounding. What shall we do?

Audio file of the sermon "What Shall We Do?"

Reflection: How Loud Is Your Love? (December 2, 2012)

1st Sunday in Advent
Jeremiah 33:14-16; 1 Thessalonians 3:9-13; Luke 19:28-40


Although devices to amplify the human voice had been around for a few centuries before Thomas Edison’s invention, his was the first to be called a megaphone. Made up of two Greek words, megaphone literally means “great voice.” The sole purpose of a megaphone is to make a person’s voice louder (i.e., greater). In a way, every Christian is called to be a megaphone of sorts. Our lives are meant to amplify the Word of God. We are especially called to loudly proclaim the Gospel by serving in an overflowing love “for each other and for everyone else” (1 Thess. 3:12).  Such a calling raises the question, “How loud is your love?”.

Measuring our loving service in terms of volume shows that many of us have been pretty quiet — but not the good way of serving without fanfare or reward. “How loud is your love?” isn't asking about doing loving works quietly. Rather, it’s asking about the frequency and intensity of our love. How much of ourselves do we put into loving each other? What amount of our time, financial resources, and productive abilities are invested in serving other people as our service to Christ? What are we risking in order love to people outside of our circle of family and friends? These are the measures of how loud our love is.

While our love is often muted, the love that God has for us blasts out with a deafening roar. He loves us so much that He took on human flesh and entered our world of suffering, sin, and death. Turning up the volume of His love, Jesus assumed the guilt of our sins and humbled Himself by taking our place, even enduring the mockery and humiliation of crucifixion. From the Cross He cranked the volume up all the way in His triumphant proclamation, “It is finished!” Breaking the silence of the tomb, His love blared out His triumph over the grave and the certainty of eternal life for all who trust in Him. How can we stand quietly on the sidelines while the world desperately needs to hear of His love? How will they hear if we do not broadcast the good news over the noise and confusion of our world in words and deeds that loudly proclaim His love? Our calling is to be His megaphones, to amplify His love in our world and to join with those who have loudly loved through the centuries and across borders so that all people would know that they too are loved with the loudest of loves.

Audio file of the sermon "How Loud Is Your Love?"