Psalm 39.1-7, Exodus 2.23-3.22, Mark 14.53-72 - Lectionary for 4/12/11

Today's readings are Psalm 39.1-7, Exodus 2.23-3.22, and Mark 14.53-72.

Our life is transitory. If we step back and take a good look at it, we see that everything around us is temporary. Even what we might consider "durable goods" passes away. Even the best built house will eventually wear down and crumble. The majestic oak tree planted by our ancestor will soon pass away. And a person who lives a long time normally wears out before 100 years of age. When the people of Israel were crying out in their bondage they saw it was only temporary. The Lord rescued them. It may not have been in the time they most desired, but it was in his timing. Does God understand our urgency? Does he who is timeless understand that we have needs that are immediate problems to us? Yes he does. In the person of Jesus, God has become man. He understands being up all night praying and then being arrested. He understands hunger and thirst. He understands the pain of being injured then having to go on to do what he is compelled to do. Jesus knows our urgency. Trust in the Lord! He will deliver his people in the right time.

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Dave Spotts
blogging at http://capnsaltyslongvoyage.blogspot.com

Psalm 31.9-14, Exodus 2.1-22, Mark 14.32-52 - Lectionary for 4/11/11

Today's readings are Psalm 31.9-14, Exodus 2.1-22, and Mark 14.32-52.

The Bible is largely a story of betrayal. Sinful man acts in accord with his nature and sins. In our sin we betray our fellow man, we betray even Jesus, the Son of God. And while he is betrayed to death, see that through God's mercy, sinful people like Moses or like the disciples who won't remain awake and pray with Jesus are protected. Even those who come to arrest the true and living God are protected. May the Lord continue to have mercy on us, the people who would betray our Lord and our God.

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Dave Spotts
blogging at http://capnsaltyslongvoyage.blogspot.com

Sermon for 4/10/11 - A Matter of Death and Life

Sermon - "A Matter of Death and Life" Audio link at http://dl.dropbox.com/u/23575548/110410Romans8.mp3

Set our minds on the Spirit, bringing life and peace to us, in the name of ┼ the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

"It's a matter of life and death!" We hear that once in a while. A friend of mine once had a difficult time on the telephone with someone who wanted to come to a church service and take the sermon time one Sunday to give a presentation about the crisis of runaway teenagers. The caller was adamant. This situation of teenagers running away from difficult family circumstances and ending up in homelessness, poverty, prostitution, drug abuse, and even slavery was a matter of life and death. And it is. But what he didn't understand was that my pastor friend had a matter of death and life to address every Sunday, and it was a matter of death and life which applies to every man, woman and child in this world, not only those who run away from home. It is a matter of death and life that won't be addressed by keeping teenagers at home in their difficult circumstances. It is a matter of death and life that is only ever dealt with by the proclamation of Christ crucified for sinners, Christ crucified for us. This is a matter of death and life.

That sounds backwards, right? We think we have life. The brother of former President Jimmy Carter, Billy, when asked about being "born again," responded that he was doing well enough to be born once. And that 's what most of our culture thinks. There's one birth that matters. It's physical. It marks the beginning of our life, just like our physical death marks the end of our life. And we've bought into this idea so thoroughly that it seems crazy to say there's another life, one which starts when God regenerates us by giving us faith in Jesus, then continues into eternity, no matter what happens to our bodily and temporal life. But this is what the Bible says. It's all, in fact, a matter of death and life. Death and life, not life and death. The death comes first.

Recall with me Genesis chapter 3. When mankind enters into sin through our first parents, Adam and Eve, we enter into death. This death is part of the inheritance that each one of us receives from our parents. This sinful condition which brings death and separation from God is obvious throughout our world, from the weeds we kill to the dead animal we saw by the side of the road, to our relatives who reach the end of their apparent life span and who die. Sin brings with it death, and none of us is immune. Eventually we all become like Lazarus. We all become like the people from Ezekiel, who are reduced to bones. We live this life for now, but ultimately our life is, in fact, death. We think we'll be here for a long time. Some of us seem to be in the prime of life. And it's easy to picture many many years of unchanging health, unchanging hopes, a very bright future. But I'll guarantee you this. 120 years from now, none of us will be here. And some of us will be worn out and finished a lot sooner than that. Most of us are realistically looking at fifty years or less. This message, then, the message of the Church, the proclamation of Law and Gospel, is a message of death. We see our sin. We confess our sin. We know the wages of sin is death. And that's what we see in the law. God tells us what our life on this earth will be like, and that it is temporary. Whatever we do for ourselves, whatever we strive for, however we take care of ourselves or our possessions, it will all pass away. We try to keep God's commands and see that we can't. We try to love our neighbors as ourselves and see that we can't. And we try again tomorrow, the next day, and the next day. Yet we are unable to live up to God's perfection in Christ. And we realize we will run out of days surprisingly soon. Our dependence on the flesh, our dependence on our works, our labor, it is all striving to catch the wind, or to keep the sunshine in a shoebox in the closet. We show ourselves hostile to God, enemies to God, who rise up and depend on ourselves when our Lord has shown us clearly that we are to depend on him. It's a matter of death.

Yet this Christian life is also a matter of just that, life. When we have reached the end of our own labors, when we have seen that we are not able to redeem ourselves, when we realize that no matter our efforts we, like Lazarus, will lie down and die, then will decay like he did the second time he died, then we look to our Lord. We look to the hope that God has given us, this faith in Jesus, who has washed us from sin, who has granted us faith, who has promised that his life is a life of perfect righteousness, who has given his life over to death on our behalf, who has risen from the dead as the firstfruits of the resurrection. We look in hope to our Lord, who redeems us, both body and soul. We look to the true life, eternal life, which Jesus promises will never end, no matter what our enemies do to our bodies. We look to the sure and certain hope of the resurrection from the dead. We see that this law, the law that says Christ's death is on our behalf, the law of the Spirit, frees us from the law of sin and death. We see that Jesus, in dying for us, has proclaimed sin and death to be powerless. We see that Jesus, by the Holy Spirit, can set our minds on the life that he gives, granting us life and peace. We see that our Lord has given us a life which is pleasing to God, not because we are able to do worthy things, but because he is working in and through us.

This is the life in the Spirit. This is the life which overcomes the grave. This is the life which our Lord creates in us, not according to our ability, but according to his ability. We, like those dead and decomposed people in the book of Ezekiel, receive life by the breath of the Holy Spirit. We, like they, receive life when there's no earthly reason why we should expect to live. We, like Lazarus, are raised up by the faithful promise of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And we know that in the last day the same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead will give life to our mortal bodies. He will raise us up into immortality. Jesus Christ is the resurrection and the life. We have no reason for fear. We have no reason to despair. We have no reason to run and hide. No. This matter of death and life ends in life. May Jesus Christ, the one who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, dwell in us richly, in the name of ┼ the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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Dave Spotts
blogging at http://capnsaltyslongvoyage.blogspot.com

Psalm 129, Exodus 1.1-22, Mark 14.12-31 - Lectionary for 4/10/11

Today's readings are Psalm 129, Exodus 1.1-22, and Mark 14.12-31.

The overriding theme in today's readings is that of persecution. The Psalmist observes attacks and lashing. The people of Israel undergo oppression in Egypt, even to the point of having the male infants killed. Jesus tells of his coming death. Yet in our Gospel reading we see that the death of Jesus is that which brings life to his people, to all who believe on him. He promises that his broken body is the bread of life and his shed blood is a new covenant. He assures his disciples of eternal life based on his giving of himself for them. May we have God's grace to look to Jesus for life, no matter what struggles we ourselves endure.

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Dave Spotts
blogging at http://capnsaltyslongvoyage.blogspot.com

Psalm 44.1-4, Genesis 49.29-50.7, 14-26, Mark 14.1-11 - Lectionary for 4/9/11

Today's readings are Psalm 44.1-4, Genesis 49.29-50.7, 14-26, and Mark 14.1-11.

Our Lord is the victor in every contest. Yet his victory doesn't look like the kind of victory we would devise. See in our reading from Mark how Jesus' victory over death involves death itself. He dies to conquer death. This seems quite backward to us, as we would expect him to show himself powerful in the same ways we would - immortality, smiting the enemies, etc.

We also observe from today's readings that there is a particular dignity in death. both Joseph and Jesus receive anointings and special ceremonies. The dead are treated with respect and honor. It is not the honor that we might give to an ancestor we worship. Rather, it is an honor in treatment of the body which has been separated from the soul of the believer, the body which will someday become a partaker in the bodily resurrection. Is it costly to treat the dead appropriately? Yes, but it is worth it. This is an honor which we rightly give.

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Dave Spotts
blogging at http://capnsaltyslongvoyage.blogspot.com

Psalm 77.11-15, Genesis 47.1-31, Mark 13.24-37 - Lectionary for 4/8/11

Today's readings are Psalm 77.11-15, Genesis 47.1-31, and Mark 13.24-37.

We open today's reading with an affirmation from the Psalmist - God is good, his works have been wonderful.  We continue by seeing how God preserves the people of Egypt and other nations through famine, though it results in the people being enslaved to Pharaoh. This is an event that many of us would consider as catastrophic. Yet it is evidence of God's provision. We look to our gospel reading today and see that Jesus is talking about his coming in the end of the world. What is the sign? The fig tree sends out its shoots to show summer is coming. So we know the coming of our Lord. We watch and when it is time we will know.

The image of the tree sprouting and growing strikes me. All around us in nature, even in places that are facing catastrophes, we see plants going through their natural cycles. When the time is right, the plant gets busy. Likewise, as our Lord is moving in this world, let us be ready to move in accord with his bidding. May we be sensitive to his word, his calling. There is no disaster which comes upon us that our Lord does not know about. His hand of provision is there in and through it all. We need only look to him.

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Dave Spotts
blogging at http://capnsaltyslongvoyage.blogspot.com

Sermon for 4/6/11 - A Great Command

Sermon "A Great Command" audio at http://dl.dropbox.com/u/23575548/110406Mark12.mp3

Our Lord, of your good pleasure, you have provided all of our needs according to your riches in glory through Christ Jesus. Show us how we also fit into your plan as you continue to give daily bread to people all around us. Amen.

We have two great commandments. We are to love the Lord our God – entirely and always. We are to love our neighbor as ourselves. So as we look at this Gospel reading during this penitential season, we open ourselves to see ourselves as our Lord sees us.

First, love the Lord. Do we truly "fear, love and trust in God above all things"? What do we consider as a god, something to be served, something to motivate us, to guide our lives, that we should revere and worship? Do we trust in the true God? Do we trust in our own ability? Who is providing our daily bread? Who earned that diploma? Who made the money to buy that house or that car? Who is providing for our future? Whose name is on the retirement account? And whoever has a name on it, is that the person we're trusting? Or do we trust our employer? Maybe our government? Where do we find our security? Maybe we trust that the Lord will keep us as long as we have our job, our health, our family. What do we do when all that is taken away? What do we do when our community is ravaged by a natural disaster, when an epidemic strikes and half of our neighbors die, when our country is overrun by revolutionaries who burn all the homes of Christians? What will we do then? That's when we find out who we are serving. That's when we find out whether we fear, love and trust in God above all things. That's when we find out if we are loving the Lord, entirely and always.

May the Lord grant us repentance for trusting in ourselves. May he turn our hearts that we will look to him. May he grant us forgiveness and restoration, that we will look to him in hope, rather than to ourselves in selfish ambition.

But what's that second command, which is also so great? Love your neighbor as yourself. How do we love our neighbor? We see some examples, both positive and negative examples, in our Gospel reading today.

The scribes trust in doctrinal precision. Now doctrinal precision is a good thing. We don't want to scoff at it. We are called to reason together with the Lord. We are called to study and show ourselves approved. People who labor in the Word of God are affirmed in Scripture. We are to be fair minded like the Bereans who study the Scripture to see if the preaching is true or not. We should be doctrinally precise, as much as we can be, as often as we can be. There's nothing wrong with studying a good theology book or spending time making notes and outlining the Scripture passages you read. We want to look at God's Word very carefully and very frequently.

But does it end there? The scribes do all their study to be seen by the people around them. They want greetings in the marketplaces. They want to be honored. They want to be seen as holy. Yet they want to be honored because of their precision. They pursue all this study, all their scholarly exercises as just that, an exercise. That's a terrible misuse of time and effort. It's an abuse of God's Word. Do these seem like harsh words? After all, they are coming from someone who reads New Testament Greek fairly easily, from someone with a pretty good sized reference library (though it's mostly in boxes in the garage), and who has been working intensively with the Scriptures for some thirty years. You'd think I'd appreciate people studying the Scripture just to study it.

That isn't so. The study of the Bible which results only in doctrinal precision does no good whatsoever. In fact, it does harm to Christ's kingdom. It hinders people from hearing and receiving the life-giving words of God's grace, because it is tied up in correcting every little dot of their theology. It can bind burdens on people who will think they can't possibly understand the Bible so they throw up their hands and give up. It can result in a cold, unfeeling theological accuracy which has never given a cup of water to a thirsty person, which has never fed a hungry person, has never clothed the poor, and will never cross the street and stoop down to help a crying, lost child.

Proper study of Scripture drives us to care for our neighbors. Proper love for God drives us to minister to the needs of our neighbors. After all, that's just what God in Christ has done. He saw us, considered us his neighbors, and came to serve us. He saw our deepest need and came to meet it, since he was the one who could meet our need. He came to save, heal, and forgive. He loves us, his neighbors, and comes to us in our time of need. Our God delights in giving us our daily bread. And he does it through neighbors working in their vocations. He does it through us to other people as well. And he uses us to plant the seed of the Word of God in the hearts of our friends and neighbors. He uses us to nurture that faith that he is creating. He uses us to care for one another. He uses us, in short, to do almost all the good he's doing on this planet.

How does he do that? You don't have money enough to feed, clothe, and shelter all the poor. You don't have time to help all your neighbors with everything they could use help with. Not one of us has the resources. Neither did the widow in our Gospel passage this evening. She didn't have much. Most of us would look at her and say that she didn't have anything. She was living off her savings or what people gave her. And she didn't have much. But of what she had, she gave selflessly.

In her giving, did the widow provide anything that God didn't have? Not at all. It's a little bit like your child deciding to buy you a present so asking you for money. We don't give God anything he needs. He derives no benefit from our good works. But our neighbor does. Has the Lord blessed you to be able to provide something that your neighbor can use? Has the Lord blessed you with an opportunity to love your neighbor? You taking that opportunity is God's opportunity to love your neighbor through you.

Love the Lord your God. Love your neighbor.

Our Lord, as you have preserved us, let us preserve others, providing them with what you have given us. Give us a heart to follow you. Forgive us where we have failed our neighbors. Use us in your kingdom to bring you delight. Amen.

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Dave Spotts
blogging at http://capnsaltyslongvoyage.blogspot.com