The Temptation of Anger

So I found this book, "Great Sermons by Great Preachers" (1927) on my bookshelf.

I don't remember exactly where I got it, or how long I've had it. But I decided that I would read one of these sermons a week. There are sermons from Luther, Spurgeon, Bunyan, Edwards, Chrysostom, and of course, Wesley, as well as a whole slew of preachers from the beginning of Christondom up to the turn of the 20th century.
Today's sermon was from Aurelius Augustine, aka St. Augustine, written sometime around 420 AD, entitled "On the Lord's Prayer". This is significant for me, because as a church we are committed to praying this prayer every day for 40 days as we began 2019.

                                                                 #40DaysofOurFather

Augustine takes the approach to divide up the phrases of the prayer and expound generally and briefly upon each one.  "Our Father who art in heaven", "Hallowed be thy name", etc.

What struck me today was his comments on "lead us not into temptation". Augustine here focused inward rather than outward. And on one particular temptation, rather than the many "outward" temptations that beset us regularly, daily, or hourly.

The inward temptation that, for Augustine, this passage clings on, is anger (vengence). The preceeding words of the prayer, "Forgive us our debts (trespasses) as we forgive our debtors (those who trespass against us)" is key for Augustine to the next step in the prayer, "AND Lead us not into temptation".

"What then is that firghtful temptation which I have mentioned, that grievous, that tremendous temptation, which must be avoided with all our strength, with all our resolution; what is it? It is when we go to avenge ourselves. Anger is kindled, and the man burns to be avenged."

I usually do not go straight to thinking about my anger with others, or my desire to be avenged when I think about this part of the prayer. But this temptation does place me at the center focus, I am the locus point and my desire against someone else (perhaps because of what was done to me or said to me, or maybe even what was not done) becomes the primary focus.
Yet we have just asked the Lord to forgive us...as we have forgive others anything (debt, sin, or trespass) that they have done (or not done, or said, or not said) against us.

So I was wondering today, where this temptation sits with me? And as a reader, where does it sit with you? Is there anger in your heart today toward another person?

This prayer that we call "The Lord's Prayer" is found in Matthew 6, as part of a series of sayings of Jesus recorded by Matthew as part of the sermon on the Mount.
The prayer is Matthew 6:9-13. But the very next 2 verses say:

"For if you forigive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins." (Matthew 6:14-15)

It seems that for those people in those hard times in our lives that sometimes we simply can't move on past the feelings. Maybe we feel that we are justified in how we feel, after all, we didn't do anything wrong, which means that all the wrong is on the other person.

But, at least thinking about this prayer today, I don't think it's a matter of right/wrong, or even who is to blame and who is not. After all every one of us has sinned (Romans 3:23).

We are praying this prayer between us and our God. Our righteous, holy ("hallowed be thy name"), perfect, and loving ("Our Father") Judge. And since we are none of these things and God is all of things, we leave it in His capable hands (Romans 12:19).

Augustine offers this hope, "If ye shall see any anger making a stand against you, pray to God against it, that God may make thee conqueror of thyself, that God may make thee conqeror, I say, not of thine enemy without, but of thine own soul within. For He will give thee His present help, and will do it."

If there is anger/vengence in your heart toward another as you pray this prayer today, then I pray with you that God will make it known and that God will be your very help right now to conquer through grace and forgiveness. We have been forgiven much, so as forgiven and redeemed people, let us be the first to offer much forgiveness. This will lighten your soul. The anger that you are holding to is poison to you, not the person to whom you harbor these feelings. By the grace of God, and in the name of Jesus, today, let it go.


Great Sermons by Great Preachers, Jessse Hurlbut, ed, (The John Winston Company, Chicago, 1927), 31-39

God of the Old & God of the New

I have spent a lot of time in the Old Testament book of Kings this month. And I mean “A LOT” of time. I just completed an intensive course in Old Testament exegesis of Kings this month at Duke Divinity School. And as a result, I am thinking a lot about some of those stories and some of those people.

There are great stories in the books of Kings, stories that when we properly understand them, helps us understand the New Testament better. In fact, I am going to go as far as to say that you cannot understand the New Testament if you don’t understand the Old Testament. I know that might seem like a bold statement, but if you don’t understand the need for the Messiah, if you don’t see the correlation between the fall of humanity in the garden of Eden and the redemption of humanity through the cross at Golgotha, if you don’t see how having a “Davidic King” sit on the throne forever is part of an everlasting covenant, then I don’t think that you can effectively understand the New Testament when you read about Jesus.

            Remember, Jesus said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them” (Matthew 5:17).

            When you read the Old Testament through the lens of the Gospel, you see what Jesus was talking about. Jesus is not just introduced in the Gospels as a baby born in Bethlehem. That was just His incarnation into humanity. Jesus is God, pre-existent with the Father and the Holy Spirit. The apostle John, in his gospel, said it this way; “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made” (John 1:1-3). The “Word” mentioned here is Jesus. Think pre-creation, and Jesus was there.

            All of the Bible is God’s Words.

            Some people mistakenly think that the God of the Old Testament is somehow different than the God of the New Testament. Jesus, they think, just seems nicer when talking about love and forgiveness than the God who instructed Moses to kill nations in conquest or who made prohibitions and rules against so much. That line of thinking dates back to at least the second century, and is found in a heretical theology of the early church called Gnosticism.

            I say all of this, simply to say that all of your Bible is important. It is all there, given as a gift, and for a reason. And the reason is not just to teach, thought the Bible surely teaches us in many ways. And the reason is not just to instruct, though the Bible surely offers invaluable instruction. And the reason is not just to provide a narrative history, though the Bible surely offers historical data.

The Bible is here to connect us with God. This is a beautiful, and very complex, story of God’s greatness, of God’s power, and most of all, of God’s love. And God’s love has been ever present, unchangeable, and never-ending. And His love is for you. From the beginning of creation in Genesis, through the ups and downs of life and exile through Kings and Chronicles, through the incarnation at Bethlehem in Luke and into the eternal promise fulfilled in Revelation, the Bible is a story of God with us. Emmanuel.

Take some time this year to read through some of these great stories of God’s love for you. Find a Bible reading plan that is a good fit for you. Engage with a small group Bible study in your church. Or just read through 1 and 2 Kings. God’s love and God’s presence will meet you there.  

King Jesus

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Trees and homes and churches are decorated with lights and wreaths and greenery. The nativity and the Elf on the shelf have made their way from the closets to prominent places within the home. There are cards to be addressed and presents to be purchased and parties to attend and, of course, holiday goodies to eat.

            But it’s actually not Christmastime, it’s Advent. The word “Advent” means arrival, and this month we focus on the Advent, or arrival, of the long awaited Messiah, Jesus. It is a time where we remember the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, as well as look forward to the day that he comes again. His second Advent.

            And during this season the most often thought of image of Jesus is as a cute little baby boy wrapped in snuggly blankets lying in a pristine manger filled with clean and comfortable hay. While this is not exactly how I picture this first night of Jesus’ birth (and I really don’t think it was a “silent” night either), the image of Emmanuel, God with us, in the form of a baby boy is a beautiful image of God’s love and His perfect plan of redemption for all of His creation.

            
            Of course there are other images that come to mind when we hear the name of Jesus.

Jesus the shepherd invokes the image of Christ carrying the lamb on His back as he walks back to the fold to reunite the lamb with the other 99 (Luke 15:3-7).

Nathan Greene

            And there is the image of Jesus as teacher, where I imagine Him on a rock while thousands of eager listeners are fed through the words of this perfect rabbi (Matthew 5-7).

            

                I see Jesus the miracle worker as He spits in the mud and wipes the mixture in the eyes of a blind man and tells him to go wash in a pool and then he received his sight (John 9:1-7).

            

               And one of my favorites is the image of Jesus as the loving father, hiking up His robe to run down the road to embrace His long lost prodigal son who had just returned home (Luke 15:11-32).

           

            The image of Jesus on the cross taking on the sins of the world, all of mine and all yours, the perfect lamb of God, is an image that I think of daily as I confess my sins and ask for his forgiveness new and fresh each morning.

            

           All of these images, and many others, reflect perfect pictures of who God is. They all show an aspect of God’s perfect and multi-faceted character.

            But this is Advent. And while the picture of Jesus in the manger may get the most air time this month, we cannot forget that is season of waiting and anticipation is as much about looking forward in hope as it is looking back in remembrance.

            And so today I want to leave you with this Advent image of Jesus that John gives us in the introduction to Revelation.

“Look, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and all peoples on earth will mourn because of him. So shall it be! Amen. “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.” (Revelation 1:7-8)

                                            
                                           King Jesus. That’s the image on my mind today. 

          
           As we come into this Advent season, is Jesus the King of your life? Every area of your life? We do, after all, have an incredible ability to compartmentalize life. Is King Jesus King over all, or is He just a governor over certain territories you have allowed Him?

            This Advent, I pray that God’s kingdom come in a powerful and beautiful way in your life. I pray that you have accepted Christ’s Kingship and that you are living with a Kingdom-focus in every area of your life. And I pray this abundant life in Jesus (John 10:10) will be your offering of praise to the King of Kings this month, and forever more.

Confident in Christ

Many years ago, when I played high school baseball, I had a walk-up song. If you’re not familiar with a walk-up song, it is a song that is played as a batter walks from the on deck circle to home plate. My walk-up song was by a new rock n roll band, Guns N Roses, and the song was Welcome to the Jungle. I probably even strutted a little when I walked up.

            Now, let me explain something. I didn’t have this loud and in your face rock song playing because I knew that I was that good, I played it because I feared I wasn’t.

            I was about a .200 hitter in a good year. If you don’t follow baseball that means that I got a hit about once every 5 times up to bat, or so. And that’s not very good. So to try to get in the pitchers head I had a song played that I hoped made me look more confident than I was. But in reality I probably just looked cocky.

            Cocky is when you act like something you’re not. Confident is when you believe something to be true or have faith that something will or will not happen. I wasn’t confident in my batting, so I tried to fake it.

            What I did as a teenager on the baseball field, many people do in other areas of their lives. And it’s because they are not confident in who they are. The Bible has a lot to say about who we are and the confidence that we can have because of this.

            In 1 John, the writer says this:

“And we are confident that he hears us whenever we ask for anything that pleases him. And since we know that he hears us when we pray, we also can be confident that he will give us what we ask for” (1 John 5:14-15)

            I know too many people that aren’t confident. They aren’t confident in their abilities, their looks, their relationships, their faith. And then because of this they try to do things or act in ways so that other people will think differently of them. But the truth is that’s just fake.

            We can be confident that God hears us when we pray.

            While I wasn’t confident as a batter in baseball, I was confident when I played defense. I was a catcher. So at any moment that I was on the field behind the plate I was thinking about the pitcher, how he felt and what he was thinking, how his mechanics looked. I thought about the batter, my other teammates on the field and where they were positioned, and even the umpire with his hand on my back. I thought about all these other people.

            Maybe that is a truth in confidence. When we focus on others we can be confident in what we do, but when we focus on ourselves we just get cocky.

            Hebrews 4:12 says that we can come with confidence before the throne of God. This is because of what Jesus has done for us. The source of our confidence isn’t really within us, it’s within God in us. We find our confidence not in ourselves, but in Him. That’s why Philippians 4:13 says that “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength”.

            You can be confident that when you pray the God of the universe hears you! Let that sink in for just a minute, please!

            You have been given confidence through Jesus. Live in this, believe in this, have faith in this, and be confident in this.

Demolishing Strongholds

“The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds”. (2 Corinthians 10:4)

A stronghold is a place that has been fortified so as to protect it against attack. That’s why all the cities of old had their main fortress built on a hill so it was better protected, it was higher ground and when there were dangerous times the citizens could come there for protection. There is even images in Scripture of God being this very thing for us, a mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark, a rampart, a refuge.

The city of Corinth was like this also. There was a hill that was 1857 feet above sea level and there was a citadel that sat atop this hill and all the major battles for this area were fought there. It was known that if you could capture the citadel, you could capture the city. All you had to do take secure of the stronghold, all you had to do was take possession of the high ground.

So as these guys in Corinth were reading this letter from Paul they just had to glance up to this hill and see their own citadel which they had seen battles for, from being a self-governing Corinthian city state to being under the rule of the Greek empire to now being under the rule of the Roman empire, they knew how important the high ground stronghold was, and Paul was saying there is a battle being waged in you and for the stronghold of your heart and mind. Whoever has possession of the stronghold has possession of the city. And there are issues in our lives, that when they aren’t dealt with immediately, they secure strongholds, handholds, and chokeholds in our lives, in our minds, in our moods, in our thoughts, and in our actions.

The question is not “are there strongholds in my life”, but rather, “what strongholds in my life is the devil trying to make me ignorant of”?

You will never experience all life holds living with these strongholds in your life.

Have you ever gone through security at the airport? It’s a hassle, but it’s there for a good reason. It’s there for our safety, and even for the safety of hundreds or thousands of people on the ground while we are in the air. And every person has to go through security, the officials don’t just judge by outward appearances and say, “Well, you look harmless, so you can go through”. No, every person gets inspected. And if you aren’t dangerous you get to go through.

We need a TSA security screening for our thoughts, a Thought Screening Assessment. Even the ones that seem harmless, because sometimes those are the ones that are the most dangerous. So Paul says capture every one, and run it through the Philippians Filter (look at Philippians 4:4), and if that thought doesn’t measure up then don’t let it pass through. Get it out of your head!

No weapon formed against you shall prosper, because you are IN Christ Jesus! We have divine power to demolish strongholds. The pulling down strongholds, the saying no to sin, the taking every thought captive. The Christian ground is not a playground, it’s a battleground. The mightiest weapon of all is the divine power of God in your life. The soldier on the ground needs eyes in the sky. And you have that.

Why would you rely on your willpower when you’ve been given God’s power to live an abundant life in Christ Jesus, our Lord? What strongholds are in your life today? Take time to pray specifically about this area and allow God to do His work in you right now.

Get Some Rest

“Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, Jesus said to them, ‘Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest’” (Mark 6:31)

           

            This is how one of the most popular and well-known miracles of Jesus begins. It’s the story of the feeding of the 5000. But the story starts in a unique way. The disciples are tired. They’ve been doing and doing and doing, and they’ve been so busy and they’ve had so many people coming to them for help that they don’t even have time to eat. Now that’s busy! Being a United Methodist pastor it seems that sometimes time is measured from potluck to potluck. But seriously, eating is important to maintain the pace that we set. Eating is important to survival. And here is Jesus and his disciples, so busy that they don’t even have time to take care of themselves.

            Maybe you know what that’s like. Maybe there aren’t hundreds or thousands of people coming to you for healing, but maybe it feels like it. Maybe the demands that are on you right now are wearing you down. Or maybe it is just that life itself seems to be wearing you down. The constant, or the monotnant, rhythms of life are simply too much right now.

            Notice what Jesus does. He tells his weary and worn workers to come away with him to a quiet place so that they can get some rest.

            They have been doing work, but they were worn out. You can’t keep giving to others if you aren’t getting filled back up yourself. So, the plan is that they get into a boat and head to the other side of the lake to this solitary place. Jesus had been modeling this for them for a while now. Jesus had a habit himself, of getting up early in the morning and going to a solitary place to pray. I think this helped Jesus fill back up. Prayer does that. It is fuel for the empty tank. It is comfort for the downtrodden. It is life giving energy to the spiritually dry.

            So they get away with Jesus, at least for a little while. See, all those people know where they are going, so they all head over to the other side of the lake, too. So there they are, with all their issues, all their problems, and all their needs. The very same people that Jesus was trying to help his disciples get away from. And now they’ve even created a new issue for themselves, they are far from home…it’s getting late…there’s nowhere to get them food….and you know the rest of that story. Jesus feeds them all with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish.

            But here is what I really want you to hear today: Time alone with Jesus is critical for you.

There will be demands that you need to address. There will be distractions that vie for your time and attention. But Jesus is inviting you to come away with him for a little while, to a solitary place, and get some rest.

            The disciples do that, and then they are able to minister to the needs of the people as Jesus allows them to be a part of a mighty miracle showing God’s provision and grace. This will free us up from feeling we have to act because we are responsible for the people around us, to realizing we get this opportunity to act because we are responsible to the people around us.

            So today take some to come away with Jesus to a quiet place, and get some rest. And then when you are filled and rested…go feed the people.

Just Ask

I am reading through the Gospel of Mark. It’s a good idea to always be reading through a book of the Bible, I think. It is something that I encourage all disciples of Jesus to do regularly, in addition to other devotional materials. Just jump into a book of the Bible and read it!

            Today I read Jesus’ parable in Mark 4 about the four soils (aka the “Parable of the Sower”). The story is found in Mark 4:1-20. Let me encourage you to grab your Bible, put down this newspaper, and read that parable for yourself. There’s lots of good stuff in this one.

            So, now that you’ve read it and it’s fresh on your mind, let me point out something in this story today. It’s not exactly something from the parable itself. I love the fact that the disciples aren’t 100% sure they understood all of this, so did you catch what they did?

            “When he (Jesus) was alone, the twelve (disciples) and the others around him asked him about the parables” (Mark 4:10).

            They asked.

            I wonder if many of the things that we are uncertain about, many of the things that trouble us, could be faced more faithfully if we simply asked Jesus about.

            Is that too simplistic?

            “We have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask” (1 John 3:21b-22a).

            “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you shall find; knock and the door shall be opened to you” (Matthew 7:7).

            Of course this is not a magic formula, nor am I saying ask God for a new Corvette, or ask who will win the World Series this year. I am saying that if we ask God, praying in his will, that he will answer us. If we need to understand something, as the disciples did in regards to that parable, then ask Jesus.

            James said that “if any one of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you” (James 1:5)

Maybe this is a lot to digest from this parable, and there is a lot more to talk about just in those verses. If we remember that our job is to share Christ with everyone, and that by sowing the seeds we are being faithful to our calling, then we are trusting God to do the rest.

And if you are in need…ASK! Our God is a loving and generous God. Talk to God today about what’s going on in your life that you don’t understand why it’s happening (or why something isn’t happening). Talk to God about what you feel that you need, and ask him to line your wants/needs up with his will so that in all the circumstances and situations of your life you can be content in his love. Make a list of what you are asking God for, don’t be afraid to this. It’s amazing at what I have asked God for and what he has in turn given me. It hasn’t even always been what I asked for, but it has been so much more and exactly what I needed, even if I didn’t know I needed it at the time!

If you need a little extra encouragement in this then read the parable of the persistent widow found in Luke 18:1-8.

God is your good Father. So just ask him today for what you need, and then trust him that this Father really does know best.