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Monday, 6 November 2017
Isaiah 55:6 Seek Adonai while he is available,
call on him while he is still nearby.
7 Let the wicked person abandon his way
and the evil person his thoughts;
let him return to Adonai,
and he will have mercy on him;
let him return to our God,
for he will freely forgive.
8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
and your ways are not my ways,” says Adonai.
---
Even during his lifetime, many people worked with Martin Luther as he led “the Reformation” in Germany and beyond. As issues arose, they at times reached differing beliefs, and a variety of faith communities trace their beginnings to that time. It wasn’t long before they recognized that “reform” was not a one-time process, but continually needed. Isaiah 55 speaks to all God’s people in all times. No one human institution, however lofty its motives, will always get everything totally right.
• Isaiah 55, likely written after Israel returned from exile in Babylon, observed that God acts in wonderfully merciful ways very different from the patterns we are used to. How does Isaiah’s picture of the gap between God’s mercy and our ways of relating speak to your heart? Are there persons (or groups of people) to whom you do not want to show mercy? Are you convinced that God’s ways are indeed different from, and higher than, ours?
Ø In Psalm 103:10 we read that God “doesn’t deal with us according to our sin.” Do you, like Luther or Wesley, sometimes feel that your sin (specific or general) leaves you not deserving God’s mercy and love? Have you, like the reformers, grasped and internalized that God’s mercy is not connected to “deserving,” but to God’s love and your need?
Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank you that your ways are not my ways. Because of that, I can rely on your great mercy, which reaches me in ways I’d struggle to extend to myself. Amen.
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Chris Abel
Chris Abel is the Young Adults Pastor at Resurrection, and he describes himself as a "Pastor/Creative-type/Adventurer." A former atheist turned passionate follower of Christ, he completed his seminary education in Washington, DC. Before coming to Resurrection, Chris was a campus pastor near St. Louis, MO.
“My plans aren’t your plans,
nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD.” (Isaiah 56:8)
I was in Dallas recently and decided to share an Uber back to the airport with some new friends when I found myself in the middle of an unexpected religious conversation. While exchanging pleasantries, our driver mentioned that his evening plans included going to an “end of the world house.” Curious, I asked “like a haunted house, but Christian?”
I had a flashback to my teen years when I was exposed to the idea of “hell houses,” you know, haunted houses, but going through “hell” and then an attempt to convert the attendees at the end.
Like totally normal churches do.
And so to make matters even more interesting, his next conversational transition was “so do you believe in pre-, mid-, or post-tribulation rapture?”
If this sounds like jargon, you’re right. It’s very specific jargon about a very particular kind of end-of-the-world theology from a very literal reading of a handful of verses in the book of Revelation, which believes Christians will be instantaneously vacated from the earth at some point in the future.
It’s a lot to believe. And based on very little in scripture.
And the more he spoke about the end of the world, the more feverish and excited he grew. Maybe you’ve encountered someone like this. I don’t meet people like this much anymore, but there’s a sub-culture of Christianity that has invented it’s own kind of mythology of the end of the world. They are positive about the future and their interpretation of how Christ will return. It’s like a big puzzle of prophecy.
And yet, in all my years of studying and researching, of seminary classes, and learning from brilliant theological minds, I somehow arrive to this topic with less assurance that I know what’s going to happen. It just seems dishonest to speak with absolute confidence that you have the future figured out.
Think about this. Jesus doesn’t even claim to know. He said, “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” (Matthew 24:36)
Jesus Christ doesn’t even know.
And yet we think we have it figured out?
It seems to me that this is the core of many problems in the Christian church today. We have a lot of people in our world who speak really confidently about topics in which they know little. Mark Twain was really onto something when he said,
“In religion and politics people’s beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second-hand, and without examination, from authorities who have not themselves examined the questions at issue but have taken them at second-hand from other non-examiners, whose opinions about them were not worth a brass farthing.”
I don’t know what a brass farthing is, but it sounds like it’s not worth much. Now I realize that it’s easy to tear down other people’s thoughts and beliefs than it is to present something yourself, so let me finish with my true point:
“Semper Reformanda”
This Latin phrase means “always reforming.” If you heard Pastor Adam’s sermon this weekend, you would have heard this phrase and the idea behind it. We like to think of “reform” or change as something that happens in the past. For example, “Reform was needed back when we had the silly belief that purchasing indulgences could forgive the sins of the dead.” Or, “reform was for polygamous marriages.”
When we believe reform was simply for the past, we are telling ourselves that we have it all figured out now.
In the first century the Jewish religious leaders thought they had it figured out, too. They knew their Torah inside and out. They knew every single prophecy and how the Messiah would appear. They had the future figured out.
Until the Messiah came.
To this day, our Jewish brothers and sisters don’t believe Jesus was the Messiah. Why?
He didn’t fulfill the prophesies in the ways they expected. Instead of bringing about the restoration of Israel, Jesus talked about the restoration of a new “Kingdom of Heaven.” Instead of fighting the Romans and reclaiming their nation, he talked about loving your enemies. Instead of creating a military force, he created healers. Everything about Jesus’ ministry flipped the theological expectations of the day upside down.
And if it happened back then, what’s to keep it from happening today?
What if Jesus returns and it doesn’t look anything like our expectations? What if it’s another 2000 years? What if God’s plans aren’t our plans and we miss the real thing looking for something else?
We need to hold it loosely. As Christians, we are tasked with loving God and people. But we love to complicate things. Instead of focusing on a life of embodying Christ, we’ve built thousands of walls with the bricks formed from our pride and self-assurance, bricks that are “not worth a brass farthing.”
And there’s something freeing and beautiful about trusting that God will take care of things—that we’re not in this alone and someday all things will be made new.
When? I can confidently say…
I have no idea.
---
Brass Farthing is a group of stalwart lads brought together to sing songs, raise good cheer, and otherwise make merry in the company of friends both old and new. We take our inspiration from many periods and enjoy performing historical, traditional, and contemporary compositions in traditional styles.
---
brass farthing in British (noun)
British informal
something of little or no value
his opinion isn't worth a brass farthing
Collins English Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers
---
"Reforming on big issues without nitpicking judgment"
Tuesday, 7 November 2017
Matthew 7:1 “Don’t judge, so that you won’t be judged. 2 For the way you judge others is how you will be judged — the measure with which you measure out will be used to measure to you. 3 Why do you see the splinter in your brother’s eye but not notice the log in your own eye? 4 How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the splinter out of your eye,’ when you have the log in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite! First, take the log out of your own eye; then you will see clearly, so that you can remove the splinter from your brother’s eye!
6 “Don’t give to dogs what is holy, and don’t throw your pearls to the pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, then turn and attack you., 23:23 “Woe to you hypocritical Torah-teachers and P’rushim! You pay your tithes of mint, dill and cumin; but you have neglected the weightier matters of the Torah — justice, mercy, trust. These are the things you should have attended to — without neglecting the others! 24 Blind guides! — straining out a gnat, meanwhile swallowing a camel!
---
Jesus, far from always being somber and serious, often used humorous images to make a point vivid. He painted the absurd picture of someone with a log in their eye criticizing and trying to remove a splinter in another person’s eye. In more somber language, he challenged Pharisees who carefully measured out a tenth of small herbs while ignoring “justice, peace and faith.” During the Reformation and since, Christians have too often split over one small difference while ignoring the many common convictions they share.
• What kinds of psychological “payoffs” often make it feel better to criticize others than to admit and face up to our own challenges? In what ways can recognizing the payoffs from that tendency serve as the first step in changing our behavior? What spiritual practices
have you found that strengthen you to resist the inner urge to judge others?
• Has someone ever judgmentally attempted to remove a “speck” from your “eye?” Did that experience draw you closer either to the other person or to God? How did that experience differ from a time when someone graciously and compassionately offered you insights about your life in a way free from any “holier than thou” dynamics?
Prayer: O God, please help me to see any “logs” in my own eyes, any “camels” I am willing to swallow. Keep me free from judgmental feelings of superiority to others. Amen.
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"Paul’s plea for gospel-based unity"
Wednesday, 8 November 2017
Philippians 2:1 Therefore, if you have any encouragement for me from your being in union with the Messiah, any comfort flowing from love, any fellowship with me in the Spirit, or any compassion and sympathy, 2 then complete my joy by having a common purpose and a common love, by being one in heart and mind. 3 Do nothing out of rivalry or vanity; but, in humility, regard each other as better than yourselves — 4 look out for each other’s interests and not just for your own., 3:3 For it is we who are the Circumcised, we who worship by the Spirit of God and make our boast in the Messiah Yeshua! We do not put confidence in human qualifications, 4 even though I certainly have grounds for putting confidence in such things. If anyone else thinks he has grounds for putting confidence in human qualifications, I have better grounds:
a. 5 b’rit-milah on the eighth day,
b. by birth belonging to the people of Isra’el,
c. from the tribe of Binyamin,
d. a Hebrew-speaker, with Hebrew-speaking parents,
e. in regard to the Torah, a Parush,
f. 6 in regard to zeal, a persecutor of the Messianic Community,
g. in regard to the righteousness demanded by legalism, blameless.
7 But the things that used to be advantages for me, I have, because of the Messiah, come to consider a disadvantage. 8 Not only that, but I consider everything a disadvantage in comparison with the supreme value of knowing the Messiah Yeshua as my Lord. It was because of him that I gave up everything and regard it all as garbage, in order to gain the Messiah 9 and be found in union with him, not having any righteousness of my own based on legalism, but having that righteousness which comes through the Messiah’s faithfulness, the righteousness from God based on trust., 4:1 So, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and my crown, my dear friends, keep standing firm in union with the Lord.
2 I beg Evodia and I beg Syntyche to agree with each other in union with the Lord.
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Two apparently influential women in the Philippian church, Euodia and Syntyche, seem to have come into some kind of conflict. The apostle Paul used that as an opportunity to teach the entire church important lessons. In chapter 2 he described the state of mind in which, ideally, all Christians relate to one another. In chapter 3, he told about his own shift from religious arrogance to humble trust in Christ. Only then did he directly appeal to the two feuding women to find common ground “in the Lord.”
Ø The young Pharisee Saul had all the human credentials—“proper” birth, great education, and even persecuting Christians. What family heritages, human accomplishments and credentials are you proudest of? If preserving any of them ever conflicted with heeding God’s call on your life, what would you choose? What basis for self-worth (other than relying on his own accomplishments) did Paul claim? To what extent are you able to find your value where he did?
• Facing death (at the hands of a Roman executioner), Paul wrote, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day” (2 Timothy 4:7-8). Does it sound like Paul was sad about “throwing away” his promising career to follow Jesus? In what ways has your commitment to Christ given you the kind of sense of purpose Paul showed?
Prayer: Lord God, I’m no less loved by you than the greatest saint, and no more loved by you than the most miserable sinner. Help that to be more than enough for me, as it was for your servant Paul. Amen.
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"Jesus on the foundation for all true reform"
Thursday, 9 November 2017
Matthew 22:34 but when the P’rushim learned that he had silenced the Tz’dukim, they got together, 35 and one of them who was a Torah expert asked a sh’eilah to trap him: 36 “Rabbi, which of the mitzvot in the Torah is the most important?” 37 He told him, “‘You are to love Adonai your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.’[Matthew 22:37 Deuteronomy 6:5] 38 This is the greatest and most important mitzvah. 39 And a second is similar to it, ‘You are to love your neighbor as yourself.’[Matthew 22:39 Leviticus 19:18] 40 All of the Torah and the Prophets are dependent on these two mitzvot.”
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Scholar William Barclay noted that there were two schools of thought among rabbis. Some believed “there were lighter and weightier matters of the law…great principles which were all important to grasp.” Others “held that every smallest principle was equally binding.” * When asked, Jesus was clear about that—he saw some principles as far more vital than others, central to understanding God’s will. Loving God and loving your neighbor are the greatest
commandments, Jesus said, pivotal expressions of God’s will.
• Christians “get it wrong” when we defend any other idea we see as “truth” in ways that keep us from loving God totally, and our neighbor as ourselves. Jesus clearly taught (as reported in all three Synoptic gospels) that any other truth or orthodoxy has value only as it leads us to more fully love God and neighbor. Have you ever seen “truth” presented in ways that were unloving to neighbors, and ultimately even to God?
Ø Jesus said that everything the Bible teaches, all the truths we know about what God wants, “depend” on the two commands he quoted. How would you explain to someone else what makes these two commands so essential? Can you recall any instance when some belief you held led you to be unloving, maybe even without realizing it at first?
Prayer: Lord Jesus, help me to truly love you with all my heart, all my mind, all my being. And as an outgrowth of that, help me to love my neighbor as I love myself, to live my life in accord with your great commandments. Amen.
* William Barclay, Daily Study Bible Series: The Gospel of Mark (Revised Edition). Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1976, p. 294.
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"Humility before God: essential for all lasting reformation"
Friday, 10 November 2017
1 Peter 5:1 Therefore, I urge the congregation leaders among you, as a fellow-leader and witness to the Messiah’s sufferings, as well as a sharer in the glory to be revealed: 2 shepherd the flock of God that is in your care, exercising oversight not out of constraint, but willingly, as God wants; and not out of a desire for dishonest gain, but with enthusiasm; 3 also not as machers domineering over those in your care, but as people who become examples to the flock. 4 Then, when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive glory as your unfading crown.
5 Likewise, you who are less experienced, submit to leaders. Further, all of you should clothe yourselves in humility toward one another, because
God opposes the arrogant,
but to the humble he gives grace.[1 Peter 5:5 Proverbs 3:34]
6 Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, so that at the right time he may lift you up.
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Peter called on early Christian converts (and us) to find the freedom that comes from humility with each other and trust in God. Too often, we’re tempted (like many church reformers at some
point in their life) to link the idea of “reform” with “We have to do everything my way.” But Peter said “no” to that idea. Relate to each other humbly, he wrote, and trust your anxieties to God.
Ø Do you believe it is possible to act with confidence (in a church ministry or reform movement, your work, your family, or just your own life) out of humility rather than pride? What attitudes or actions does it take to make that a reality? How can mutual humility
smooth dealings between followers and leaders, or between people on different sides of a difficult (but not central to the faith) issue?
• James 3:13-15 named “bitter jealousy” and “selfish ambition” as being the reverse of the humility that comes from wisdom. Have you ever seen qualities like bitter jealousy or selfish ambition damage interactions between you and others, especially if you are dealing with a disagreement? How does humility guard your mind and heart from these hurtful ways of thinking?
Prayer: Lord Jesus, maybe I need a new mental “outfit.” Help me every day, in all my contacts, to clothe myself with humility toward the other people with whom I deal. Amen.
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"One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God"
Saturday, 11 November 2017
Ephesians 4:1 Therefore I, the prisoner united with the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called.
2 Always be humble, gentle and patient, bearing with one another in love, 3 and making every effort to preserve the unity the Spirit gives through the binding power of shalom. 4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as when you were called you were called to one hope. 5 And there is one Lord, one trust, one immersion, 6 and one God, the Father of all, who rules over all, works through all and is in all.
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This passage named central truths all Christians hold in common. These are the foundation for God’s new community—a community united, despite its members’ many differences, by their loyalty to the same God. Yet before, during and since the Reformation, Christians have
disagreed (and often divided) for many reasons—from circumcision in New Testament times to the “right” form of baptism or communion in Reformation Europe to slavery in American history and ordaining women among Methodists in the middle of the 20th century. Today, some honest Christians on all sides of the issue argue that the United Methodist church must divide over the issue of same-sex marriage. But, as with all the other issues, we all serve the same God. Many Methodists believe we can disagree on this issue without needing to divide (visit unitingmethodists.com for more information about the “Uniting Methodists” movement).
• Methodism’s founder John Wesley often echoed Ephesians 4. In the introduction to his Notes on the New Testament, he wrote, “Would to God that all the party names, and unscriptural phrases and forms, which have divided the Christian world, were forgot: and that we might all agree to sit down together, as humble, loving disciples, at the feet of our common Master, to hear his word, to imbibe his Spirit, and to transcribe his life in our own!” In his sermon titled “Catholic Spirit”, he asked, “"Though we cannot think alike, may we not love alike? May we not be of one heart, though we are not of one opinion?... Herein all the children of God may unite, notwithstanding these smaller differences." * If more Christians
through the ages had followed Ephesians 4:1-6, as well as Wesley’s counsel, do you believe the church would be stronger and more respected, or weaker? For what reasons?
Prayer: Loving Jesus, guide your people all over the earth. Guide me. As the world looks at your followers, help us to so conduct ourselves that words like “peace,” “unity,” “humility” and “love” will be the main descriptors that come to minds. Amen.
* To read Wesley’s entire sermon on unity, visit www.umcmission.org and search Sermon-39-Catholic-Spirit.
Family Activity: Through portraits of biblical characters and God’s followers of today, the Leawood stained glass window tells the story of God’s transforming love for all people in past, present and future generations. See how many people you can identify and whose stories you can share. Discuss how your life and your family’s life displays God’s love for all people. Gather some family pictures and with words, phrases, drawings, and magazine cutouts design your own artistic expression of God’s love. Find a special place in your home for your family’s creation. Consider a title for it such as “Our family shares God’s love with all!” Thank God for His love. Ask God to help you continue to tell the story of his amazing, faithful love.
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Prayer Requests – cor.org/prayer
Prayers for Peace & Comfort for:
• Mary Haines and family on the death of her aunt Patricia Grey (Twilley) Stone, 10/30
• Nancy Nance and family on the death of her brother Jess D. Paul, Jr., 10/26
• Anne Sanders and family on the death of her cousin Marilynn Roche, 10/21
• Diane and Tom Slezak and family on the death of Diane’s mother Cora Magdaleno, 10/19
Isaiah 55:6 Seek Adonai while he is available,
call on him while he is still nearby.
7 Let the wicked person abandon his way
and the evil person his thoughts;
let him return to Adonai,
and he will have mercy on him;
let him return to our God,
for he will freely forgive.
8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
and your ways are not my ways,” says Adonai.
---
Even during his lifetime, many people worked with Martin Luther as he led “the Reformation” in Germany and beyond. As issues arose, they at times reached differing beliefs, and a variety of faith communities trace their beginnings to that time. It wasn’t long before they recognized that “reform” was not a one-time process, but continually needed. Isaiah 55 speaks to all God’s people in all times. No one human institution, however lofty its motives, will always get everything totally right.
• Isaiah 55, likely written after Israel returned from exile in Babylon, observed that God acts in wonderfully merciful ways very different from the patterns we are used to. How does Isaiah’s picture of the gap between God’s mercy and our ways of relating speak to your heart? Are there persons (or groups of people) to whom you do not want to show mercy? Are you convinced that God’s ways are indeed different from, and higher than, ours?
Ø In Psalm 103:10 we read that God “doesn’t deal with us according to our sin.” Do you, like Luther or Wesley, sometimes feel that your sin (specific or general) leaves you not deserving God’s mercy and love? Have you, like the reformers, grasped and internalized that God’s mercy is not connected to “deserving,” but to God’s love and your need?
Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank you that your ways are not my ways. Because of that, I can rely on your great mercy, which reaches me in ways I’d struggle to extend to myself. Amen.
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Chris AbelChris Abel is the Young Adults Pastor at Resurrection, and he describes himself as a "Pastor/Creative-type/Adventurer." A former atheist turned passionate follower of Christ, he completed his seminary education in Washington, DC. Before coming to Resurrection, Chris was a campus pastor near St. Louis, MO.
“My plans aren’t your plans,
nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD.” (Isaiah 56:8)
I was in Dallas recently and decided to share an Uber back to the airport with some new friends when I found myself in the middle of an unexpected religious conversation. While exchanging pleasantries, our driver mentioned that his evening plans included going to an “end of the world house.” Curious, I asked “like a haunted house, but Christian?”
I had a flashback to my teen years when I was exposed to the idea of “hell houses,” you know, haunted houses, but going through “hell” and then an attempt to convert the attendees at the end.
Like totally normal churches do.
And so to make matters even more interesting, his next conversational transition was “so do you believe in pre-, mid-, or post-tribulation rapture?”
If this sounds like jargon, you’re right. It’s very specific jargon about a very particular kind of end-of-the-world theology from a very literal reading of a handful of verses in the book of Revelation, which believes Christians will be instantaneously vacated from the earth at some point in the future.
It’s a lot to believe. And based on very little in scripture.
And the more he spoke about the end of the world, the more feverish and excited he grew. Maybe you’ve encountered someone like this. I don’t meet people like this much anymore, but there’s a sub-culture of Christianity that has invented it’s own kind of mythology of the end of the world. They are positive about the future and their interpretation of how Christ will return. It’s like a big puzzle of prophecy.
And yet, in all my years of studying and researching, of seminary classes, and learning from brilliant theological minds, I somehow arrive to this topic with less assurance that I know what’s going to happen. It just seems dishonest to speak with absolute confidence that you have the future figured out.
Think about this. Jesus doesn’t even claim to know. He said, “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” (Matthew 24:36)
Jesus Christ doesn’t even know.
And yet we think we have it figured out?
It seems to me that this is the core of many problems in the Christian church today. We have a lot of people in our world who speak really confidently about topics in which they know little. Mark Twain was really onto something when he said,
“In religion and politics people’s beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second-hand, and without examination, from authorities who have not themselves examined the questions at issue but have taken them at second-hand from other non-examiners, whose opinions about them were not worth a brass farthing.”
I don’t know what a brass farthing is, but it sounds like it’s not worth much. Now I realize that it’s easy to tear down other people’s thoughts and beliefs than it is to present something yourself, so let me finish with my true point:
“Semper Reformanda”
This Latin phrase means “always reforming.” If you heard Pastor Adam’s sermon this weekend, you would have heard this phrase and the idea behind it. We like to think of “reform” or change as something that happens in the past. For example, “Reform was needed back when we had the silly belief that purchasing indulgences could forgive the sins of the dead.” Or, “reform was for polygamous marriages.”
When we believe reform was simply for the past, we are telling ourselves that we have it all figured out now.
In the first century the Jewish religious leaders thought they had it figured out, too. They knew their Torah inside and out. They knew every single prophecy and how the Messiah would appear. They had the future figured out.
Until the Messiah came.
To this day, our Jewish brothers and sisters don’t believe Jesus was the Messiah. Why?
He didn’t fulfill the prophesies in the ways they expected. Instead of bringing about the restoration of Israel, Jesus talked about the restoration of a new “Kingdom of Heaven.” Instead of fighting the Romans and reclaiming their nation, he talked about loving your enemies. Instead of creating a military force, he created healers. Everything about Jesus’ ministry flipped the theological expectations of the day upside down.
And if it happened back then, what’s to keep it from happening today?
What if Jesus returns and it doesn’t look anything like our expectations? What if it’s another 2000 years? What if God’s plans aren’t our plans and we miss the real thing looking for something else?
We need to hold it loosely. As Christians, we are tasked with loving God and people. But we love to complicate things. Instead of focusing on a life of embodying Christ, we’ve built thousands of walls with the bricks formed from our pride and self-assurance, bricks that are “not worth a brass farthing.”
And there’s something freeing and beautiful about trusting that God will take care of things—that we’re not in this alone and someday all things will be made new.
When? I can confidently say…
I have no idea.
---
Brass Farthing is a group of stalwart lads brought together to sing songs, raise good cheer, and otherwise make merry in the company of friends both old and new. We take our inspiration from many periods and enjoy performing historical, traditional, and contemporary compositions in traditional styles.
---
brass farthing in British (noun)
British informal
something of little or no value
his opinion isn't worth a brass farthing
Collins English Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers
---
"Reforming on big issues without nitpicking judgment"
Tuesday, 7 November 2017
Matthew 7:1 “Don’t judge, so that you won’t be judged. 2 For the way you judge others is how you will be judged — the measure with which you measure out will be used to measure to you. 3 Why do you see the splinter in your brother’s eye but not notice the log in your own eye? 4 How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the splinter out of your eye,’ when you have the log in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite! First, take the log out of your own eye; then you will see clearly, so that you can remove the splinter from your brother’s eye!
6 “Don’t give to dogs what is holy, and don’t throw your pearls to the pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, then turn and attack you., 23:23 “Woe to you hypocritical Torah-teachers and P’rushim! You pay your tithes of mint, dill and cumin; but you have neglected the weightier matters of the Torah — justice, mercy, trust. These are the things you should have attended to — without neglecting the others! 24 Blind guides! — straining out a gnat, meanwhile swallowing a camel!
---
Jesus, far from always being somber and serious, often used humorous images to make a point vivid. He painted the absurd picture of someone with a log in their eye criticizing and trying to remove a splinter in another person’s eye. In more somber language, he challenged Pharisees who carefully measured out a tenth of small herbs while ignoring “justice, peace and faith.” During the Reformation and since, Christians have too often split over one small difference while ignoring the many common convictions they share.
• What kinds of psychological “payoffs” often make it feel better to criticize others than to admit and face up to our own challenges? In what ways can recognizing the payoffs from that tendency serve as the first step in changing our behavior? What spiritual practices
have you found that strengthen you to resist the inner urge to judge others?
• Has someone ever judgmentally attempted to remove a “speck” from your “eye?” Did that experience draw you closer either to the other person or to God? How did that experience differ from a time when someone graciously and compassionately offered you insights about your life in a way free from any “holier than thou” dynamics?
Prayer: O God, please help me to see any “logs” in my own eyes, any “camels” I am willing to swallow. Keep me free from judgmental feelings of superiority to others. Amen.
---
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"Paul’s plea for gospel-based unity"
Wednesday, 8 November 2017
Philippians 2:1 Therefore, if you have any encouragement for me from your being in union with the Messiah, any comfort flowing from love, any fellowship with me in the Spirit, or any compassion and sympathy, 2 then complete my joy by having a common purpose and a common love, by being one in heart and mind. 3 Do nothing out of rivalry or vanity; but, in humility, regard each other as better than yourselves — 4 look out for each other’s interests and not just for your own., 3:3 For it is we who are the Circumcised, we who worship by the Spirit of God and make our boast in the Messiah Yeshua! We do not put confidence in human qualifications, 4 even though I certainly have grounds for putting confidence in such things. If anyone else thinks he has grounds for putting confidence in human qualifications, I have better grounds:
a. 5 b’rit-milah on the eighth day,
b. by birth belonging to the people of Isra’el,
c. from the tribe of Binyamin,
d. a Hebrew-speaker, with Hebrew-speaking parents,
e. in regard to the Torah, a Parush,
f. 6 in regard to zeal, a persecutor of the Messianic Community,
g. in regard to the righteousness demanded by legalism, blameless.
7 But the things that used to be advantages for me, I have, because of the Messiah, come to consider a disadvantage. 8 Not only that, but I consider everything a disadvantage in comparison with the supreme value of knowing the Messiah Yeshua as my Lord. It was because of him that I gave up everything and regard it all as garbage, in order to gain the Messiah 9 and be found in union with him, not having any righteousness of my own based on legalism, but having that righteousness which comes through the Messiah’s faithfulness, the righteousness from God based on trust., 4:1 So, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and my crown, my dear friends, keep standing firm in union with the Lord.
2 I beg Evodia and I beg Syntyche to agree with each other in union with the Lord.
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Two apparently influential women in the Philippian church, Euodia and Syntyche, seem to have come into some kind of conflict. The apostle Paul used that as an opportunity to teach the entire church important lessons. In chapter 2 he described the state of mind in which, ideally, all Christians relate to one another. In chapter 3, he told about his own shift from religious arrogance to humble trust in Christ. Only then did he directly appeal to the two feuding women to find common ground “in the Lord.”
Ø The young Pharisee Saul had all the human credentials—“proper” birth, great education, and even persecuting Christians. What family heritages, human accomplishments and credentials are you proudest of? If preserving any of them ever conflicted with heeding God’s call on your life, what would you choose? What basis for self-worth (other than relying on his own accomplishments) did Paul claim? To what extent are you able to find your value where he did?
• Facing death (at the hands of a Roman executioner), Paul wrote, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day” (2 Timothy 4:7-8). Does it sound like Paul was sad about “throwing away” his promising career to follow Jesus? In what ways has your commitment to Christ given you the kind of sense of purpose Paul showed?
Prayer: Lord God, I’m no less loved by you than the greatest saint, and no more loved by you than the most miserable sinner. Help that to be more than enough for me, as it was for your servant Paul. Amen.
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"Jesus on the foundation for all true reform"
Thursday, 9 November 2017
Matthew 22:34 but when the P’rushim learned that he had silenced the Tz’dukim, they got together, 35 and one of them who was a Torah expert asked a sh’eilah to trap him: 36 “Rabbi, which of the mitzvot in the Torah is the most important?” 37 He told him, “‘You are to love Adonai your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.’[Matthew 22:37 Deuteronomy 6:5] 38 This is the greatest and most important mitzvah. 39 And a second is similar to it, ‘You are to love your neighbor as yourself.’[Matthew 22:39 Leviticus 19:18] 40 All of the Torah and the Prophets are dependent on these two mitzvot.”
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Scholar William Barclay noted that there were two schools of thought among rabbis. Some believed “there were lighter and weightier matters of the law…great principles which were all important to grasp.” Others “held that every smallest principle was equally binding.” * When asked, Jesus was clear about that—he saw some principles as far more vital than others, central to understanding God’s will. Loving God and loving your neighbor are the greatest
commandments, Jesus said, pivotal expressions of God’s will.
• Christians “get it wrong” when we defend any other idea we see as “truth” in ways that keep us from loving God totally, and our neighbor as ourselves. Jesus clearly taught (as reported in all three Synoptic gospels) that any other truth or orthodoxy has value only as it leads us to more fully love God and neighbor. Have you ever seen “truth” presented in ways that were unloving to neighbors, and ultimately even to God?
Ø Jesus said that everything the Bible teaches, all the truths we know about what God wants, “depend” on the two commands he quoted. How would you explain to someone else what makes these two commands so essential? Can you recall any instance when some belief you held led you to be unloving, maybe even without realizing it at first?
Prayer: Lord Jesus, help me to truly love you with all my heart, all my mind, all my being. And as an outgrowth of that, help me to love my neighbor as I love myself, to live my life in accord with your great commandments. Amen.
* William Barclay, Daily Study Bible Series: The Gospel of Mark (Revised Edition). Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1976, p. 294.
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"Humility before God: essential for all lasting reformation"
Friday, 10 November 2017
1 Peter 5:1 Therefore, I urge the congregation leaders among you, as a fellow-leader and witness to the Messiah’s sufferings, as well as a sharer in the glory to be revealed: 2 shepherd the flock of God that is in your care, exercising oversight not out of constraint, but willingly, as God wants; and not out of a desire for dishonest gain, but with enthusiasm; 3 also not as machers domineering over those in your care, but as people who become examples to the flock. 4 Then, when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive glory as your unfading crown.
5 Likewise, you who are less experienced, submit to leaders. Further, all of you should clothe yourselves in humility toward one another, because
God opposes the arrogant,
but to the humble he gives grace.[1 Peter 5:5 Proverbs 3:34]
6 Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, so that at the right time he may lift you up.
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Peter called on early Christian converts (and us) to find the freedom that comes from humility with each other and trust in God. Too often, we’re tempted (like many church reformers at some
point in their life) to link the idea of “reform” with “We have to do everything my way.” But Peter said “no” to that idea. Relate to each other humbly, he wrote, and trust your anxieties to God.
Ø Do you believe it is possible to act with confidence (in a church ministry or reform movement, your work, your family, or just your own life) out of humility rather than pride? What attitudes or actions does it take to make that a reality? How can mutual humility
smooth dealings between followers and leaders, or between people on different sides of a difficult (but not central to the faith) issue?
• James 3:13-15 named “bitter jealousy” and “selfish ambition” as being the reverse of the humility that comes from wisdom. Have you ever seen qualities like bitter jealousy or selfish ambition damage interactions between you and others, especially if you are dealing with a disagreement? How does humility guard your mind and heart from these hurtful ways of thinking?
Prayer: Lord Jesus, maybe I need a new mental “outfit.” Help me every day, in all my contacts, to clothe myself with humility toward the other people with whom I deal. Amen.
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"One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God"
Saturday, 11 November 2017
Ephesians 4:1 Therefore I, the prisoner united with the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called.
2 Always be humble, gentle and patient, bearing with one another in love, 3 and making every effort to preserve the unity the Spirit gives through the binding power of shalom. 4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as when you were called you were called to one hope. 5 And there is one Lord, one trust, one immersion, 6 and one God, the Father of all, who rules over all, works through all and is in all.
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This passage named central truths all Christians hold in common. These are the foundation for God’s new community—a community united, despite its members’ many differences, by their loyalty to the same God. Yet before, during and since the Reformation, Christians have
disagreed (and often divided) for many reasons—from circumcision in New Testament times to the “right” form of baptism or communion in Reformation Europe to slavery in American history and ordaining women among Methodists in the middle of the 20th century. Today, some honest Christians on all sides of the issue argue that the United Methodist church must divide over the issue of same-sex marriage. But, as with all the other issues, we all serve the same God. Many Methodists believe we can disagree on this issue without needing to divide (visit unitingmethodists.com for more information about the “Uniting Methodists” movement).
• Methodism’s founder John Wesley often echoed Ephesians 4. In the introduction to his Notes on the New Testament, he wrote, “Would to God that all the party names, and unscriptural phrases and forms, which have divided the Christian world, were forgot: and that we might all agree to sit down together, as humble, loving disciples, at the feet of our common Master, to hear his word, to imbibe his Spirit, and to transcribe his life in our own!” In his sermon titled “Catholic Spirit”, he asked, “"Though we cannot think alike, may we not love alike? May we not be of one heart, though we are not of one opinion?... Herein all the children of God may unite, notwithstanding these smaller differences." * If more Christians
through the ages had followed Ephesians 4:1-6, as well as Wesley’s counsel, do you believe the church would be stronger and more respected, or weaker? For what reasons?
Prayer: Loving Jesus, guide your people all over the earth. Guide me. As the world looks at your followers, help us to so conduct ourselves that words like “peace,” “unity,” “humility” and “love” will be the main descriptors that come to minds. Amen.
* To read Wesley’s entire sermon on unity, visit www.umcmission.org and search Sermon-39-Catholic-Spirit.
Family Activity: Through portraits of biblical characters and God’s followers of today, the Leawood stained glass window tells the story of God’s transforming love for all people in past, present and future generations. See how many people you can identify and whose stories you can share. Discuss how your life and your family’s life displays God’s love for all people. Gather some family pictures and with words, phrases, drawings, and magazine cutouts design your own artistic expression of God’s love. Find a special place in your home for your family’s creation. Consider a title for it such as “Our family shares God’s love with all!” Thank God for His love. Ask God to help you continue to tell the story of his amazing, faithful love.
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Prayer Requests – cor.org/prayer
Prayers for Peace & Comfort for:
• Mary Haines and family on the death of her aunt Patricia Grey (Twilley) Stone, 10/30
• Nancy Nance and family on the death of her brother Jess D. Paul, Jr., 10/26
• Anne Sanders and family on the death of her cousin Marilynn Roche, 10/21
• Diane and Tom Slezak and family on the death of Diane’s mother Cora Magdaleno, 10/19
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The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection
13720 Roe Avenue
Leawood, Kansas 66224, United States
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- Or download this week's printable GPS.
©2017 Church of the Resurrection. All Rights Reserved.
The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection
13720 Roe Avenue
Leawood, Kansas 66224, United States
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