Just Ask

Saturday: "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it. We have a hard time with this because we all know that not everything we ask for is done. In the movie “Bruce Almighty”, when he was getting things his way, the rest of the world suffered. It was only in the end, when all he wanted was wholeness and happiness for someone else, that he was truly able to fill the void within. When we walk with God, our focus is on the kingdom.

My gate or Our Gate?

Friday: And where I go you know, and the way you know." Thomas said to Him, "Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?" Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. We like to use this as our own personal gate keeper “keep out” sign. We like to narrow it down to only those who are Christian, and the right kind of Christian, who live in the right way, who believe in the right sort of way, who follow the right sort of way, which is our way. Jesus’ way however is different. Jesus’ way is grace. Jesus’ way is love. Jesus’ way reaches out to welcome in the sojourner. Jesus’ way welcomes home the prodigal son and then celebrates. Jesus’ way welcomes sinners, tax collectors, women of the night, Pharisees, Zealots, fisherman, the blind, the lame, the leaper, etc, etc, etc….and makes them whole again. There is even room for us.

lots of room

Thursday: "Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. How many rooms? Who gets what room? Which rooms are bigger and have the largest closets? O wait a minute, this is heaven not home. In heaven there is room for everyone. In heaven, it’s the more the merrier. In heaven, all of creation will be transformed. In heaven, God gets to control the door, and God’s door is grace. Do you think Stephen and those who stoned him are there living it up and loving it up side by side? Not in our world, but this is not our world.

Time to get down

Wednesday: Friends, this world is not your home, so don't make yourselves cozy in it. Don't indulge your ego at the expense of your soul. Live an exemplary life among the natives so that your actions will refute their prejudices. Then they'll be won over to God's side and be there to join in the celebration when he arrives. It is not a matter of keeping up with the neighbors; it is a matter of getting down with them. We are called in this world to live as if we truly believed we were just prepping for the next one. God calls us to prep not by showing others how good we are, but by letting others know how good they are in God’s eyes. After all, we were all created by God. We were all created in the image of God. That which you do onto the least you do onto God. So shouldn’t that be your best? If we follow Biblical principles, in the end we will all be judged, not by how good we do, but by how well we treat others, especially, the poor among us. That may not be popular Christianity, but it sure is Biblical.

grow up mature

Tuesday: So clean house! Make a clean sweep of malice and pretense, envy and hurtful talk. Now, like infants at the breast, drink deep of God's pure kindness. Then you'll grow up mature and whole in God. To get ready for the journey, drink deep of God’s pure kindness. Just as breast milk has been shown to be so important to the nutritional, medical and psychological needs of an infant, so we too, when starting out our life in Christ, need the proper nourishment. That nourishment is defined as “God’s pure kindness.” With this as the basis of our walk with God, we are able to fill all we do with that same kindness. It helps build up our immunities to such things as greed, malice, anger, deceit, and most of all, self-righteousness.

forgiveness

Monday: While the members of the Sanhedrin were throwing stones at Stephen, he prayed. "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit," he said. Then he fell on his knees. He cried out, "Lord! Don't hold this sin against them!" When he had said this, he died. Stephen was not spared from the evil done against him. Stephen was spared from doing evil in return, even if that evil could at this point be only a thought or a prayer. He was connected to the love of God and was given the gift of the Spirit. That gift enabled him to live in peace and grace and in the end, even that horrible end, to utter the same thoughts as Jesus on the cross, “forgive them.” Could we do the same? Could we follow the way, the truth and the life of grace and forgive those who would do such a thing in our lives? The answer is no, not without the spirit of God in us. Without that, we to might utter such cries as bring it on.

the change from Saul to Paul

Sunday: He saw Jesus standing at God's right hand. "Look!" he said. "I see heaven open. The Son of Man is standing at God's right hand." When the Sanhedrin heard this, they covered their ears. They yelled at the top of their voices. They all rushed at him. They dragged him out of the city. They began to throw stones at him to kill him. The witnesses took off their coats. They placed them at the feet of a young man named Saul. The young man named Saul later changed his name to Paul and is responsible for a major portion of the New Testament as well as the church’s mission to the non-Jewish communities. Paul was caught up in the law. Paul was an enforcer of the rules, sent from town to town to bring about order. That is of course until he received a different order from God (Acts 9). On the road to Damascus Paul began his journey from law to grace. He opened his eyes to the way, the truth, and the life, which is a message of God’s love and grace.

How do we get there

Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. We like Thomas have this for an answer for our question of how we get to heaven. If Jesus is the way as in a direction, well it's kind of foggy out this morning and in the midst of things we might get lost. There are many roads to take, what if we take the wrong one? So many questions, I don't think it will work. If Jesus is the truth then I must understand Jesus correctly and there are confusing texts in places. There are contradictory texts in places, what do I do with that. It is like being on a journey and realizing that if you are not driving the right kind of car you won't get there and no one will tell you exactly what the right kind of car is. If Jesus is the life, then how about my life? Must I make a dramatic once in a lifetime change and become born again and then I am done with it?

The answer I think is to see Jesus not from our eyes, but from Jesus eyes. Jesus' way was a way of peace and caring and healing, how are you called to live that out in your life (which is most certainly different from how I will live that out in my life). Jesus' way is truth. It is not about believing the right things. It is not about being for or against the right things. It is not about doctrine or rules or language or belonging to the right church or maybe even the right faith, it is about grace and how you embody that in your life. Jesus is the life, a life connected with the will and the love of God. When you find yourself connected, you find yourself changed. Not once in a lifetime, sometimes not even all that dramatic, but changed. Day by day we are changed. Day by day we learn to love and care for others as Jesus did. Day by day we work at taking one more step toward living a life of Grace until we look back over that zig - zag line and see how we have changed. We also see how our companions on that journey are not all like us, do not believe all like us, have started in many different places. We begin to see heaven on earth. We begin to see God.

It's a big pasture

Saturday: , I am the gate. Those who come in through me will be saved. Wherever they go, they will find green pastures. We are saved by a loving God who watches over us, it is grace. Many want to put limits on grace. The world wants to tell you that you may be saved by grace, however……… Grace with conditions is not grace at all, just fair warning. Live life fully which means live life in the presence of God. You will spend less time looking over your shoulder for the wolves and more time eating with friends.

Can you hear me now?

Friday: He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. After he has gathered his own flock, he walks ahead of them, and they follow him because they recognize his voice. It is also not a matter of staying behind closed doors, that was the trouble with the second Eden, the first century church. To stay there is to die. God leads us out into the world, into the green pastures where we are nourished and fed by lives lived fully in the world, just not without Christ’s presence. Without Christ with you in the world, the wolves will get you. Without going into the world, you wither up and die. By going into the world with Christ, you live and are nourished.

Thursday: I assure you, anyone who sneaks over the wall of a sheepfold, rather than going through the gate, must surely be a thief and a robber! For a shepherd enters through the gate. Lord, Lord, I hate sneaks. Jesus had a thing for having things out in the open. In this image, the shepherds used to sleep at the opening to the fenced in area, the sheep could not get out or the wolves could not get in without wakening the shepherds. The sheep were not locked in, nor were the wolves locked out, but it didn’t happen without the shepherd knowing about it. Same with us, we are free to move, but God is watching.

wouldn't it be nice

Wednesday: Day after day they met together in the temple. They broke bread together in different homes and shared their food happily and freely, while praising God. Everyone liked them, and each day the Lord added to their group others who were being saved. Wouldn’t it be nice if the rest of the world would say that about us? Wouldn’t it be nice if our grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren could read about this generation as the one that moved our nation closer to this ideal of God’s kingdom? It all starts in your neighborhood and with seeing all of humanity as created in the image of God.

Everyone shared

Tuesday: Everyone was amazed by the many miracles and wonders that the apostles worked. All the Lord's followers often met together, and they shared everything they had. They would sell their property and possessions and give the money to whoever needed it. Now here is a text we don’t hear of often. It is the second Eden. It too ended with greed, the desire to be our own God and get ahead on the backs of others. The trouble with the second Eden was that it was a small group in the midst of the whole world rather than a movement to bring this concept of sharing to the whole world. In the end, it too failed. In the end, if we continue in our greed, in our not sharing, in our continually increasing gap between rich and poor, between nations with so much and those with so little, with profit as the main goal, we too will fail.

We reach out, serve and incite miracles 

we praise God in Worship, Song and Prayer 

Christ Our Savior Lutheran where we are inspired by God's love to Praise, Nurture and Serve 

It's about grace

Gospel Lesson - John 14:1-14 (New King James Version) (not the usual version I use, but it flows nice here)

Jesus Is the Way, the Truth, and the Life
1 "Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. 2In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. 4And where I go you know, and the way you know."
5Thomas said to Him, "Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?"
6Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

When Jesus speaks of being the way and the truth and the life and no one gets to the father but through him, the first thing that comes to mind is that it is only though the name of Jesus or the right doctrine that we get to heaven. I believe that what Jesus was saying was grace. It is not through trying or minipulating or practicing exclusive religion or adhearing to all the rules as interpreted by me. It is by loving and forgiving, by opening your arms to the world poor and to the worlds rich and drawing them into a mutual understanding of community. It is by loving and accepting those who spend all thier time crying Lord, Lord as well as those who wouldn't be caught dead crying Lord, Lord. Instead of a statement of exclusivity, it is the ultimate statement of inclusivity beyond our wildest dreams. It is a statement of God's Grace.