Dear Ones,
Every year as we begin the new church year in Advent, I send out a message that summarizes the year spiritually, and looks forward to the coming year. This is not a state of the church address for our local church, but a more general note as a pastor to the larger audience of whoever reads this in the blogosphere or on the web. An expanded version is sent to friends and family and anyone who asks for it.
WHAT ABOUT THE RECESSION?
I think it will be a few years before we sing "Happy Days Are Here Again." I believe church prophetic voices and economic forecasters are converging to say the same thing these days--we are going to come out of this recession, but it is going to get worse before it gets better. I believe, along with others, that Obamanomics will fall short. As a student of economics, this means Austrian economics is part of our hope http://www.mises.org/, not Keynesian government command economics which is what the new President is planning. We need to pray for President Obama daily. Socially and spiritually, I believe America will be refined in 2009. Spiritually, Isaiah 48:10, Joel 2, and Daniel 3 are important scriptures for Christians. For awhile, I think we will shake our heads in the midst of our country and say "Lord have mercy."
FEAR NOT
In all the days ahead, God does not want us to fear, but like Joseph, our call is to understand the times and know what to do in both plenty and famine. For those who are retired and have suffered significant contraction of life savings, I think Joseph is part of God's word of hope. Thrown into a pit by the actions of his brothers, what at first looked like evil God turned around for good because Joseph kept the faith and eventually his family was healed. Draw close to both your earthly and spiritual families in this recession. Band together, pool resources, and love each other selflessly. God is in control of this recession. Put your faith in the sure foundation of hope that is our Rock of Salvation. Make a daily time of prayer, Bible reading, and meditation part of your life and you will do much better for the next few years.
ABOUT OFFERING FORECASTS
Having stepped into the waters of sounding the alarm on possible threats to our society in the past, I want to offer the disclaimer that all forecasters whether economic, prophetic, or weathermen must admit--due to our limited human knowledge, we only see in part and know in part. We can only offer possible outcomes in our forecasts, and as the events grow closer clarify them. So, when a hurricane is forming forecasters can only say there are several possible outcomes with varying degrees of probability of which one is most likely to occur.
Which outcome actually happens--whether a hurricane makes landfall and affects your life or turns out to sea and does not effect you is in God's hands. Similarly, the current recession is worsening--this is for certain. What comes to pass and how each of us are affected in this season of refining depends on God.
I am sending this to you for your own prayerful consideration.
PASTOR WITH AN MBA
In addition to being a priest, I have an MBA degree and am a CFO for a non-profit in western New York. For the past six months I have been studying every analysis I can find on recessions and the Great Depression. I have been to a recent local economic summit where I heard a Federal Reserve President (Charles Plosser) and JP Morgan Chief Economist (James Glassman) give mixed forecasts for the economy. I regularly scan the economic and financial environment reviewing hundreds of analyses and forecasts of economists from a wide variety of perspectives. I am do business on Wall Street and have several friends working for major investment banks there that provide me with insight to the Street. I also monitor government and market activity, and what the prophetic voice of God through the Church is saying. I also pray. This is my watch of the Lord.
A few months ago, as a result of this lifestyle of watching, I called our church to get their financial houses in order, live under your means, save money, pay down debt, be faithful to God, and get in a good cash position and invest only in value--no speculative gambling trusting greedy thieves, but only real stewardship investing. I agree with Rick Joyner FROM Morningstar Ministries and the economists who say we will recover. I believe the data forecasts a deeper recession and longer gradual return to stability than we would hope for. I agree with Rick Joyner--God is calling us to know his hope, and be ambassadors of hope.
PASTORAL TRAVAIL
In closing, I must confess that my shepherd's heart has ached for those whose faith in Jesus Christ is growing cold. Since 1992 when I was ordained, I have noticed that during hard times people either draw close to God or they fall away from God and pursue pleasure to numb the pain of life.
This year, I have seen many who do not even realize how far they have fallen away from God. A few weeks ago I was sharing songs I loved as a new believer with my daughter Stephanie. I got on You Tube and we found two Dallas Holm songs that were close to my heart as a baby Christian in 1984 "Rise Again" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GofHDhByXNg and "I Saw the Lord" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgVzd7L_Mp4&feature=related
These songs are my prayer for those who have fallen away from God their first love; drawn away by materialism, pleasure, cares of this world, pride, or emotional and spiritual pain. I pray they would know that God sees them, and they would see a fresh vision of God in their lives and rise again to faith. These words of Jesus, are for those who are backsliding from Revelation 2-3:
Rev. 2:4 Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. 5 Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first.
Rev. 3: 15 I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! 16 So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. 17 You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. 18 I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see. 19 Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent. 20 Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.
I agree with a word the prophet Bob Jones has recently spoken and I would like to share a portion of it. This is for all pastors, leaders, and believers whose hearts ache having seen Christians they love growing cold in their faith, drunk on the things of the world, and blind in the midst of even global calamity:
And this year the walk shall be hard to begin with. We shall walk through the sewers of man and begin to discern what is God and what is of man. Then we shall put our shoes on and follow God the rest of the year. Offended, The Holy Spirit offends the mind to reveal the heart. If you are offended, the Holy Spirit will not be able to reveal the truth which will set you free. He will not violate your free will. So repent from your sins and seek Jesus and you’ll find Him. This will be a very, very hard year but the righteous will be given a little help when they look to their Lord.
Joel 2:13 Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity. 17 Let the priests, who minister before the LORD, weep between the temple porch and the altar. Let them say, "Spare your people, O LORD. Do not make your inheritance an object of scorn, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, 'Where is their God?' "
Rick Joyner http://www.morningstarministries.org/Articles/1000041409/MorningStar_Ministries/Media/Word_for_the/2008/Discerning_the_Times.aspx
http://www.lewrockwell.com/podcast/?p=episode&name=2008-12-07_079_jim_rogers_on_the_crash_of_08.mp3 Wisdom from Jim Rogers from whom I learned how to buy and sell commodities futures for the Abbey.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/rozeff/rozeff247.html Buffalo area academic on the economy
IHS,
Kevin Baker+
Priest St. Patrick’s Church, Amherst, NY
CFO Abbey of the Genesee, Piffard, NY
Advent 2008
Friday, December 19, 2008
Sunday, December 07, 2008
Conspire--A Word That Can Change Christmas
4 WORDS THAT CAN CHANGE YOUR CHRISTMAS—CONSPIRE
INTRO
• I wonder how many of you as kids or parents have had the talk—Christmas isn’t going to be as big this year. These words of small Christmas are spoken when a person has a consumer mentality of Christmas.
• Today as we enter week two of our Advent Conspiracy, I want to show you how to make Christmas big every year for the rest of your life. How to accumulate things that really matter and not junk.
• Back to Genesis to make Xmas big. God created the world and all in it, and said it was all good.
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. 28 God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground."
• God made us to be like him, and gave us everything we needed in this world, and made man and woman King and Queen to rule together over God’s world. Then Satan came with a lie.
• The temptation and fall for men and women is for us to become discontent with God’s blessing and want the KINGDOM OF MORE instead of the KINGDOM OF GOD.
• What caused Adam and Eve to fall, and what causes God’s people ever since to fall away from God into sin is to become obsessed with getting what God has not given us.
• That was the story of God’s people leaving Egypt as well. Delivered from slavery and oppression and on the way to the promise of a land of their own.
• There God would give them a land where they could be free people to worship God, land filled with plenty, they became obsessed with what God had not given them on their journey.
• Even though everyday, bread from heaven would just show up supernaturally to give them all the food they needed on their journey to the promised land, they became obsessed with what they did not have.
• They wanted meat, and throw in a little garlic and some vegetable salad too God.
• Americans are like this. We have so much, but what a re we concerned about? The STUFF we do not have.
• In the KINGDOM OF MORE, we are told a lie too. If you can just get the stuff you don’t have, the stuff that the Jones’s next door have, then you will have that life you always wanted.
• Right now, commercials; emails; texts ads are all coming at you with lies from the same source that Adam and Eve were tempted.
• OK. STOP. Right there, some of you are going to think, wow—Fr. Kevin is going Scrooge. I see where this is going. He is going to go activist and give us preacher rant about not letting the commercial consumer Christmas steal the truth that Jesus is the reason for the season, etc.
• Now, let me tell you right up front, I like getting gifts, especially things I needed or wanted, and especially when they are the right size, color, or brand I wanted
• I do confess, there are some gifts that make me want to rant. Have you ever noticed how much junk shows up in stores—especially dollar stores—this time of year? If I can rant, please don’t rationalize giving people useless stuff they will only throw away saying “Self, feel good about giving the dollar store your money for junk people are going to throw away after getting it because it’s the thought that counts! They’ll appreciate and like you because of the thought.”
• That leads me now to the WORD FOR TODAY THAT COULD CHANGE YOUR CHRISTMAS.
• It is the word driving this whole Advent series—CONSPIRE. 2: to act in harmony toward a common end circumstances conspired to defeat his efforts
• The second Sunday of Advent is the Sunday of PEACE/SHALOM. At Christmas, Jesus came to bring peace on earth and good news for mankind.
• When Jesus was born, the Romans were in power. This is the background to Advent. They were the Empire that dominated the world like America has been since WWII.
Luke 2:1In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. 2(This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3And everyone went to his own town to register.
• A little background to the Jesus story. Octavian, the adopted son of Julius Caesar was in power at the time Advent angels started appearing to Joseph and Mary from 27BC to AD 14.
• Octavian said that since his father was a god, he was the son of God. There were prophesies that the son of god would bring peace to the whole earth, so Octavian changed his name to Augustus.
• This was a religious title of divinity meaning the illustrious one. He saw his divine mission to bring peace to the world as the son of God.
• If you look at Roman coins form the time of Augustus Caesar, they say things like:
o Salvation is found in none other save Augustus.
o There is no other name given to men by which they can be saved.
o Caesar is Lord.
• So into that world, Jesus was born to bring real peace. The world will always offer one type of peace, and then Jesus comes offering us a peace that is sourced in heaven—the realm of God not of this world.
• The early Church all acted in harmony together toward a common purpose of saying that the only name and true salvation that could bring peace was that Jesus is Lord, not Caesar.
• Shalom or peace is a state of being where everything it put right. It results in a sense of wellness.
• Christians since the beginning say real peace only comes when Jesus, not Caesar is Lord of your life.
• So the Advent Conspiracy, and our word for today, CONSPIRE—A DECISION WE CAN MAKE AS BELIEVERS TO ACT IN HARMONY TOGETHER TOWARD A COMMON PURPOSE OR END.
• I am not proposing we become Scrooge. I am proposing we conspire together to change how juts our family does Christmas. Maybe it will catch on like church did in the Roman Empire.
• The world’s merchants tell us hyper-spending and consuming is the altar of worship where you will find happiness. Spend your cash and all your credit cards the banks were readily supplying for the cause—notice—were past tense.
• The message of the KINGDOM OF MORE—getting stuff is going to make you happy. Foreclosed?
• In America we think buying things will cure everything. Lose a boyfriend or job, shopping is the cure. Getting new things is what will make you feel new. It doesn’t last though.
• In fact, even a Skymall on planes to sell you junk at 600% markup to cure you!
• Get beauty, sex, fame, education, money, bigger better houses and you will be somebody, you will have influence, you will be happy.
• Nothing wrong with any of these when received from God used as he intends. HOWEVER…
• When we get obsessed with wanting these things or suing them in ways God does not want for us, and we arrange our whole life thinking these things will satisfy us—God is going to destroy these false gods and altars of worship to set people free from the lie of THE KINGDOM OF MORE.
• A shocker—in a deep recession, a housing and credit crisis—the KINGDOM OF MORE IS IMPLOSING… Guess how much money economists forecast will be spent on THE KINGDOM OF MORE in 2008? $475 Billion. 50% of people still paying off last year’s Xmas credit cards!
• A couple passages and I am going to end.
Isa. 55:2 Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.
Luke 10:1After this the Lord appointed seventy-two[a] others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. 2He told them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. 3Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. 4Do not take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road. 5"When you enter a house, first say, 'Peace to this house.'
• Let me pull this all together now. Adam and Eve conspired with Satan to invade the Kingdom of God with the Kingdom of More.
• When Jesus was born, the Kingdom of God invaded the Kingdom of More and challenged the false gods of this world like Caesar who promised a false kind of peace.
• When Jesus came, look how he told his foot soldiers of peace to invade the Kingdom of more.
• Go to every town and place with the message of real peace. AND TAKE NO PURSE, OR BAG, OR SANDALS.
• He was saying, it is not going to take a lot of money, or expensive luggage or shoes, you don’t need $3000 suits to do it.
• In fact, the way the Kingdom of God will invade the Kingdom of More is not by being obsessed with accumulating the stuff the world has that doesn’t matter, but getting less of that and accumulating things that really matter. He called those things treasure in heaven.
• SELAH. STOP AND THINK NOW. LISTEN TO YOUR HEART. What thoughts are coming to your mind? What is Jesus saying in there?
• Here is the CONSPIRACY. Pray. If you are a family, start having a conversation about what God is saying to us. As a church—if you can’t feed 1000 people feed just one—that’s our prophecy.
• The Empire of More is calling out. They are obsessed with getting things to make them feel new and happy. Jesus says “NO, you don’t need more. You need less.” Not $17B in makeup. Not $10B in perfume. Let’s talk about WWJB. It is the new thing. Not just WWJD.
• Morgan Spurlock who made the McDonald’s expose “Super Size Me” has a new message “What would Jesus buy.” Rev. Billy is warning everyone in Times Square about the Shop-ocalypse yelling STOP SHOPPING. The Shop-Ocalypse happened in September and October.
• Here is the Advent Conspiracy message. Less is more. I am not saying don’t have Christmas or buy gifts. I am saying don’t get sucked into buying useless things and think that will make you feel new or make you or someone else feel happy giving or receiving those kinds of things.
• $10B would give clean water to the whole world. $19B would feed all the world’s hungry. Our nation wants to spend $34 billion on automakers and $700B on banks to prop up the Kingdom of more. It’s time we focus not on CNBA but on the pulpit on Sunday for useful things.
• CONSPIRACY: WHAT HARMONY CAN YOUR FAMILY FIND TO ACT OTGETHER WITH A PURPOSE TO INVADE TH EKINGDOM OF MORE WITH REAL PEACE?
• Story—parents with 2 kids. Son makes it real big and has everything. Your daughter did not do well. Doesn’t have enough food. No good schools. Poor roads out where she lives. You as the father or mother as your son to help but he won’t.
• As Xmas, God the Father looks on us and asks us to sacrifice to help those in need.
• St. Francis heard the call and gave everything including the clothes off his back. Not what I ask.
• I ask, think about an Angel Tree Kid. Sponsor a child from Compassion International. Give to Helping Hands. How about giving each other gifts of time together? How about we conspire to not buy useless junk at dollar stores…Help one family in need; or one child without clean water, or a school, or roads where they live.
• God’s Kingdom will fill you with peace, joy, love, and, hope when you accumulate less of the Kingdom of more and give away the Kingdom of God.
INTRO
• I wonder how many of you as kids or parents have had the talk—Christmas isn’t going to be as big this year. These words of small Christmas are spoken when a person has a consumer mentality of Christmas.
• Today as we enter week two of our Advent Conspiracy, I want to show you how to make Christmas big every year for the rest of your life. How to accumulate things that really matter and not junk.
• Back to Genesis to make Xmas big. God created the world and all in it, and said it was all good.
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. 28 God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground."
• God made us to be like him, and gave us everything we needed in this world, and made man and woman King and Queen to rule together over God’s world. Then Satan came with a lie.
• The temptation and fall for men and women is for us to become discontent with God’s blessing and want the KINGDOM OF MORE instead of the KINGDOM OF GOD.
• What caused Adam and Eve to fall, and what causes God’s people ever since to fall away from God into sin is to become obsessed with getting what God has not given us.
• That was the story of God’s people leaving Egypt as well. Delivered from slavery and oppression and on the way to the promise of a land of their own.
• There God would give them a land where they could be free people to worship God, land filled with plenty, they became obsessed with what God had not given them on their journey.
• Even though everyday, bread from heaven would just show up supernaturally to give them all the food they needed on their journey to the promised land, they became obsessed with what they did not have.
• They wanted meat, and throw in a little garlic and some vegetable salad too God.
• Americans are like this. We have so much, but what a re we concerned about? The STUFF we do not have.
• In the KINGDOM OF MORE, we are told a lie too. If you can just get the stuff you don’t have, the stuff that the Jones’s next door have, then you will have that life you always wanted.
• Right now, commercials; emails; texts ads are all coming at you with lies from the same source that Adam and Eve were tempted.
• OK. STOP. Right there, some of you are going to think, wow—Fr. Kevin is going Scrooge. I see where this is going. He is going to go activist and give us preacher rant about not letting the commercial consumer Christmas steal the truth that Jesus is the reason for the season, etc.
• Now, let me tell you right up front, I like getting gifts, especially things I needed or wanted, and especially when they are the right size, color, or brand I wanted
• I do confess, there are some gifts that make me want to rant. Have you ever noticed how much junk shows up in stores—especially dollar stores—this time of year? If I can rant, please don’t rationalize giving people useless stuff they will only throw away saying “Self, feel good about giving the dollar store your money for junk people are going to throw away after getting it because it’s the thought that counts! They’ll appreciate and like you because of the thought.”
• That leads me now to the WORD FOR TODAY THAT COULD CHANGE YOUR CHRISTMAS.
• It is the word driving this whole Advent series—CONSPIRE. 2: to act in harmony toward a common end circumstances conspired to defeat his efforts
• The second Sunday of Advent is the Sunday of PEACE/SHALOM. At Christmas, Jesus came to bring peace on earth and good news for mankind.
• When Jesus was born, the Romans were in power. This is the background to Advent. They were the Empire that dominated the world like America has been since WWII.
Luke 2:1In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. 2(This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3And everyone went to his own town to register.
• A little background to the Jesus story. Octavian, the adopted son of Julius Caesar was in power at the time Advent angels started appearing to Joseph and Mary from 27BC to AD 14.
• Octavian said that since his father was a god, he was the son of God. There were prophesies that the son of god would bring peace to the whole earth, so Octavian changed his name to Augustus.
• This was a religious title of divinity meaning the illustrious one. He saw his divine mission to bring peace to the world as the son of God.
• If you look at Roman coins form the time of Augustus Caesar, they say things like:
o Salvation is found in none other save Augustus.
o There is no other name given to men by which they can be saved.
o Caesar is Lord.
• So into that world, Jesus was born to bring real peace. The world will always offer one type of peace, and then Jesus comes offering us a peace that is sourced in heaven—the realm of God not of this world.
• The early Church all acted in harmony together toward a common purpose of saying that the only name and true salvation that could bring peace was that Jesus is Lord, not Caesar.
• Shalom or peace is a state of being where everything it put right. It results in a sense of wellness.
• Christians since the beginning say real peace only comes when Jesus, not Caesar is Lord of your life.
• So the Advent Conspiracy, and our word for today, CONSPIRE—A DECISION WE CAN MAKE AS BELIEVERS TO ACT IN HARMONY TOGETHER TOWARD A COMMON PURPOSE OR END.
• I am not proposing we become Scrooge. I am proposing we conspire together to change how juts our family does Christmas. Maybe it will catch on like church did in the Roman Empire.
• The world’s merchants tell us hyper-spending and consuming is the altar of worship where you will find happiness. Spend your cash and all your credit cards the banks were readily supplying for the cause—notice—were past tense.
• The message of the KINGDOM OF MORE—getting stuff is going to make you happy. Foreclosed?
• In America we think buying things will cure everything. Lose a boyfriend or job, shopping is the cure. Getting new things is what will make you feel new. It doesn’t last though.
• In fact, even a Skymall on planes to sell you junk at 600% markup to cure you!
• Get beauty, sex, fame, education, money, bigger better houses and you will be somebody, you will have influence, you will be happy.
• Nothing wrong with any of these when received from God used as he intends. HOWEVER…
• When we get obsessed with wanting these things or suing them in ways God does not want for us, and we arrange our whole life thinking these things will satisfy us—God is going to destroy these false gods and altars of worship to set people free from the lie of THE KINGDOM OF MORE.
• A shocker—in a deep recession, a housing and credit crisis—the KINGDOM OF MORE IS IMPLOSING… Guess how much money economists forecast will be spent on THE KINGDOM OF MORE in 2008? $475 Billion. 50% of people still paying off last year’s Xmas credit cards!
• A couple passages and I am going to end.
Isa. 55:2 Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.
Luke 10:1After this the Lord appointed seventy-two[a] others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. 2He told them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. 3Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. 4Do not take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road. 5"When you enter a house, first say, 'Peace to this house.'
• Let me pull this all together now. Adam and Eve conspired with Satan to invade the Kingdom of God with the Kingdom of More.
• When Jesus was born, the Kingdom of God invaded the Kingdom of More and challenged the false gods of this world like Caesar who promised a false kind of peace.
• When Jesus came, look how he told his foot soldiers of peace to invade the Kingdom of more.
• Go to every town and place with the message of real peace. AND TAKE NO PURSE, OR BAG, OR SANDALS.
• He was saying, it is not going to take a lot of money, or expensive luggage or shoes, you don’t need $3000 suits to do it.
• In fact, the way the Kingdom of God will invade the Kingdom of More is not by being obsessed with accumulating the stuff the world has that doesn’t matter, but getting less of that and accumulating things that really matter. He called those things treasure in heaven.
• SELAH. STOP AND THINK NOW. LISTEN TO YOUR HEART. What thoughts are coming to your mind? What is Jesus saying in there?
• Here is the CONSPIRACY. Pray. If you are a family, start having a conversation about what God is saying to us. As a church—if you can’t feed 1000 people feed just one—that’s our prophecy.
• The Empire of More is calling out. They are obsessed with getting things to make them feel new and happy. Jesus says “NO, you don’t need more. You need less.” Not $17B in makeup. Not $10B in perfume. Let’s talk about WWJB. It is the new thing. Not just WWJD.
• Morgan Spurlock who made the McDonald’s expose “Super Size Me” has a new message “What would Jesus buy.” Rev. Billy is warning everyone in Times Square about the Shop-ocalypse yelling STOP SHOPPING. The Shop-Ocalypse happened in September and October.
• Here is the Advent Conspiracy message. Less is more. I am not saying don’t have Christmas or buy gifts. I am saying don’t get sucked into buying useless things and think that will make you feel new or make you or someone else feel happy giving or receiving those kinds of things.
• $10B would give clean water to the whole world. $19B would feed all the world’s hungry. Our nation wants to spend $34 billion on automakers and $700B on banks to prop up the Kingdom of more. It’s time we focus not on CNBA but on the pulpit on Sunday for useful things.
• CONSPIRACY: WHAT HARMONY CAN YOUR FAMILY FIND TO ACT OTGETHER WITH A PURPOSE TO INVADE TH EKINGDOM OF MORE WITH REAL PEACE?
• Story—parents with 2 kids. Son makes it real big and has everything. Your daughter did not do well. Doesn’t have enough food. No good schools. Poor roads out where she lives. You as the father or mother as your son to help but he won’t.
• As Xmas, God the Father looks on us and asks us to sacrifice to help those in need.
• St. Francis heard the call and gave everything including the clothes off his back. Not what I ask.
• I ask, think about an Angel Tree Kid. Sponsor a child from Compassion International. Give to Helping Hands. How about giving each other gifts of time together? How about we conspire to not buy useless junk at dollar stores…Help one family in need; or one child without clean water, or a school, or roads where they live.
• God’s Kingdom will fill you with peace, joy, love, and, hope when you accumulate less of the Kingdom of more and give away the Kingdom of God.
Worship--A Word That Can Change Christmas
WORSHIP: A WORD THAT CAN CHANGE CHRISTMAS
INTRO
• Advent is the season where we look forward to Jesus coming at Christmas, and at his second coming at the end of time. This year, I am asking us all to join together in what we are calling the Advent Conspiracy.
• Conspire = 2: to act in harmony toward a common end. The end this year is transforming the consumer Christmas back into the real Christmas gift.
• In traditional Advent services, each Sunday of Advent focuses on a different theme—hope, peace, joy, and love.
• I think God’s Spirit fills the air with the presence of these blessings each December in America because we are still a nation where many, if not a majority, are Christians.
• As we begin the new Christian year today, our Advent celebration will combine the traditional Advent themes with 4 important words that can change our Christmas.
• Every year, I think most of us ask the question, “How can I recalibrate my heart and soul to capture the real spirit of Christmas? That’s where we want to begin of preparation for Xmas this year.
• Each week, I want to share just one important word to think about.
READ LUKE 2:22-38
• What we notice here in Luke’s Gospel is the Old Jewish ritual of a woman who had a baby was to present herself in the Temple for ritual cleansing, and on the eighth day after birth, the male child was to be circumcised which was the sign of being in covenant with God.
• One thing to make note of was the offering of turtledoves was that of a poor family who could not afford the more elaborate offerings.
• In v. 25, we meet Simeon. A faithful believer who had it revealed to him by Holy Spirit that he would not die until he had seen the Lord’s Christ come.
• He waited all of his life for the coming of the Lord on the scene to make all things right—to ransom captive Israel.
• So this older faithful believer is led by the Holy Spirit to go hang out in the Temple courts at the same time Joseph and Mary have come with Jesus to present him to God.
• To make a long story short, Simeon ends up meeting the Holy Family. He who had held the promise in his heart, now holds the realization of the promise in his arms.
• Now, here is the one word for this week that I am going to ask you to hold on to through the Advent and Christmas seasons—WORSHIP. Notice Luke 2:28
28Simeon took him in his arms and praised God,
• The word used by Luke for praised here is eulegeo—we get the word eulogy from it. To eulogize is not only something you can do when someone dies, but when some one lives.
• In Greek, eulogy meant to bless and celebrate with praises. This is what Simeon did when he caught on to what the birth of Jesus really meant for him and the whole world.
• WORSHIP is a word we want to cultivate in our lives the next 3 weeks. We will talk about it, read about it, learn about it, and do it.
• Now don’t be afraid of this word. For some early in your spiritual journey worship might seem strange. I remember being real self-conscious about singing in church… Let me share more…
1. Worship is the reason God made us.
• We all sense deep in our soul that we live for a reason bigger than paying bills.
• Worship means we were all meant to look for wonder, and awe in our lives. We have a longing to find that something that seems to be missing in our lives.
• Worship happens when we find what we were missing. It happens when like Simeon, we find that dream we have been hoping for. This is what happens when Jesus comes into our lives.
• Let’s lay a foundation for understanding worship from Leviticus 23:
1 The LORD said to Moses, 2 "Speak to the Israelites and say to them: 'These are my appointed feasts, the appointed feasts of the LORD, which you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies.
• Back when God was first guiding the spiritual leaders of his people in how to lead worship, God had Moses put in place a series of feasts and festivals. We get our word festive from feast and festival—it means a time of joy!
• What God built into the calendar of worship 3450 years ago, was a time for his people to relax, celebrate, and focus on who God is. This would be a time of joy—a party! Weekly, seasonally, and annually. That’s what holy days were—days set apart from all others for God.
• God was saying to them and to us today, that holidays are times where God wants us to realize life is not just about GO, GO, GO and wearing ourselves out.
• Life will find focus when worship is in the center of it. Festive joyful celebration of who God is.
• If you want to have a new kind of Christmas filled with hope, here are some reasons to celebrate:
WORSHIP BEGINS BY NOTICING THE GIFTS GOD HAS GIVEN YOU AND THANKING HIM FOR THEM
• In my life, I remember one time at Christmas, in the midst of our kids excitement on Christmas, in all the noise, paper, empty boxes, and playing, I looked at them and said God—thank you for my kids. Now they are all grown up and Kathie and I have hearts that ache for that…
• Then, for married people—have you ever looked at that person God gave you as a spouse, and thank God for them? I was watching a movie “Family Man” and in the midst of problems and her husband’s apparent mid-life crisis, she says “No matter what happens, I choose us.”
LET ME TELL YOU A STORY ABOUT WORSHIP. Pastor Gene Appel. Most recently a teaching pastor at Willow Creek Church, and recently back on his own as senior pastor of a local church.
• Church in Vegas growing, new building, dedication >>> Wife leaves him that night a guy at work.
• Decision made by leaders that he should stay as pastor. First Christmas> After Xmas Eve service
• Alone in a mostly empty casino lounge eating the blue plate special while other lonely people pull slots.
• Goes home to empty house, did laundry, packed for next day, and went to his empty bed.
• Heart aching, sings Jesus love me this I know to fall asleep.
• What Gene Appel teaches us is sometimes we worship not because we feel like it, because we have to. All he had at that most empty moment on Xmas eve was the love of Jesus.
• The only thing that makes sense sometimes when the world and life is spinning out of control is to worship.
Walter Brueggemann: Worship is a bold refusal to let the trouble that surrounds us be bigger than the God who comes to meet us there.
• Sometimes a song is what helps us put words on what our heart is trying to say to God in worship.
• This is why music and poets are so powerful. They tap into releasing the emotion of our hearts.
• This song is by Chris Tomlin and we sing it here. I know it helps me worship…
The splendor of a King, Clothed in majesty Let all the earth rejoice, All the earth rejoice
He wraps himself in light, And darkness tries to hide And trembles at his voice, And trembles at his voice
CHORUS(1): How great is our God, sing with me How great is our God, and all will see How great, How great Is our God
• And this is one of those Christmas hymns that taps into my heart and helps me express something I might not otherwise be articulate:
1-What Child is this who, laid to rest On Mary's lap is sleeping?
Whom Angels greet with anthems sweet, While shepherds watch are keeping?
Ch: This, this is Christ the King, Whom shepherds guard and Angels sing; Haste, haste, to bring Him laud, The Babe, the Son of Mary.
3-Why lies He in such mean estate, Where ox and ass are feeding? Good Christians, fear, for sinners here The silent Word is pleading.
4- So bring Him incense, gold and myrrh, Come peasant, king to own Him;
The King of kings salvation brings, Let loving hearts enthrone Him.
• Advent and Christmas mean that just as Jesus once appeared in this world, he is about to appear in your life this Christmas.
• Jesus appears when the magic fills the air—people treat each other differently, a spirit of giving fills the land, festivities and parties start.
• I wonder what would happen if all of us started reacting to Jesus like Simeon. What if we looked for Jesus in the sea of people that we meet during the holidays?
• What if we reacted like the shepherds who were working the midnight shift when Jesus appeared in this world.
• Today is the Advent Sunday of Hope. Hope has a name—JESUS.
• This year, HOPE and WORSHIP mean that God intends to appear to you like he did to Simeon. The Spirit says “You will not die till you the Lord’s Christ appear in your life.”
• What would happen this year if you found the real joy and the source of all the festivities and holy-days we are experiencing once again in the month of December.
• Remember, God commanded his people to set apart special days as feasts, festivals, and holy days.
• Since Jesus came the first time, the Church has set apart the weekly day of the Lord, as well as seasonal days like Advent and annual holy days like Christmas.
• Worship are the appointments God has written into your Outlook or Daytimer for you to rest, celebrate, and rediscover that God made us to experience the awe of his presence, and praise him and thank him for his goodness.
• So as we begin this awe filled season of Advent, let us conspire together. Let us act in harmony toward the common goal of transforming the consumer Christmas.
• Look for Jesus in the children; in the people you meet; in the love you realize God has given you in your family; and see him in the needs of the poor.
Come next week and I will give you another word that can change your Christmas.
INTRO
• Advent is the season where we look forward to Jesus coming at Christmas, and at his second coming at the end of time. This year, I am asking us all to join together in what we are calling the Advent Conspiracy.
• Conspire = 2: to act in harmony toward a common end. The end this year is transforming the consumer Christmas back into the real Christmas gift.
• In traditional Advent services, each Sunday of Advent focuses on a different theme—hope, peace, joy, and love.
• I think God’s Spirit fills the air with the presence of these blessings each December in America because we are still a nation where many, if not a majority, are Christians.
• As we begin the new Christian year today, our Advent celebration will combine the traditional Advent themes with 4 important words that can change our Christmas.
• Every year, I think most of us ask the question, “How can I recalibrate my heart and soul to capture the real spirit of Christmas? That’s where we want to begin of preparation for Xmas this year.
• Each week, I want to share just one important word to think about.
READ LUKE 2:22-38
• What we notice here in Luke’s Gospel is the Old Jewish ritual of a woman who had a baby was to present herself in the Temple for ritual cleansing, and on the eighth day after birth, the male child was to be circumcised which was the sign of being in covenant with God.
• One thing to make note of was the offering of turtledoves was that of a poor family who could not afford the more elaborate offerings.
• In v. 25, we meet Simeon. A faithful believer who had it revealed to him by Holy Spirit that he would not die until he had seen the Lord’s Christ come.
• He waited all of his life for the coming of the Lord on the scene to make all things right—to ransom captive Israel.
• So this older faithful believer is led by the Holy Spirit to go hang out in the Temple courts at the same time Joseph and Mary have come with Jesus to present him to God.
• To make a long story short, Simeon ends up meeting the Holy Family. He who had held the promise in his heart, now holds the realization of the promise in his arms.
• Now, here is the one word for this week that I am going to ask you to hold on to through the Advent and Christmas seasons—WORSHIP. Notice Luke 2:28
28Simeon took him in his arms and praised God,
• The word used by Luke for praised here is eulegeo—we get the word eulogy from it. To eulogize is not only something you can do when someone dies, but when some one lives.
• In Greek, eulogy meant to bless and celebrate with praises. This is what Simeon did when he caught on to what the birth of Jesus really meant for him and the whole world.
• WORSHIP is a word we want to cultivate in our lives the next 3 weeks. We will talk about it, read about it, learn about it, and do it.
• Now don’t be afraid of this word. For some early in your spiritual journey worship might seem strange. I remember being real self-conscious about singing in church… Let me share more…
1. Worship is the reason God made us.
• We all sense deep in our soul that we live for a reason bigger than paying bills.
• Worship means we were all meant to look for wonder, and awe in our lives. We have a longing to find that something that seems to be missing in our lives.
• Worship happens when we find what we were missing. It happens when like Simeon, we find that dream we have been hoping for. This is what happens when Jesus comes into our lives.
• Let’s lay a foundation for understanding worship from Leviticus 23:
1 The LORD said to Moses, 2 "Speak to the Israelites and say to them: 'These are my appointed feasts, the appointed feasts of the LORD, which you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies.
• Back when God was first guiding the spiritual leaders of his people in how to lead worship, God had Moses put in place a series of feasts and festivals. We get our word festive from feast and festival—it means a time of joy!
• What God built into the calendar of worship 3450 years ago, was a time for his people to relax, celebrate, and focus on who God is. This would be a time of joy—a party! Weekly, seasonally, and annually. That’s what holy days were—days set apart from all others for God.
• God was saying to them and to us today, that holidays are times where God wants us to realize life is not just about GO, GO, GO and wearing ourselves out.
• Life will find focus when worship is in the center of it. Festive joyful celebration of who God is.
• If you want to have a new kind of Christmas filled with hope, here are some reasons to celebrate:
WORSHIP BEGINS BY NOTICING THE GIFTS GOD HAS GIVEN YOU AND THANKING HIM FOR THEM
• In my life, I remember one time at Christmas, in the midst of our kids excitement on Christmas, in all the noise, paper, empty boxes, and playing, I looked at them and said God—thank you for my kids. Now they are all grown up and Kathie and I have hearts that ache for that…
• Then, for married people—have you ever looked at that person God gave you as a spouse, and thank God for them? I was watching a movie “Family Man” and in the midst of problems and her husband’s apparent mid-life crisis, she says “No matter what happens, I choose us.”
LET ME TELL YOU A STORY ABOUT WORSHIP. Pastor Gene Appel. Most recently a teaching pastor at Willow Creek Church, and recently back on his own as senior pastor of a local church.
• Church in Vegas growing, new building, dedication >>> Wife leaves him that night a guy at work.
• Decision made by leaders that he should stay as pastor. First Christmas> After Xmas Eve service
• Alone in a mostly empty casino lounge eating the blue plate special while other lonely people pull slots.
• Goes home to empty house, did laundry, packed for next day, and went to his empty bed.
• Heart aching, sings Jesus love me this I know to fall asleep.
• What Gene Appel teaches us is sometimes we worship not because we feel like it, because we have to. All he had at that most empty moment on Xmas eve was the love of Jesus.
• The only thing that makes sense sometimes when the world and life is spinning out of control is to worship.
Walter Brueggemann: Worship is a bold refusal to let the trouble that surrounds us be bigger than the God who comes to meet us there.
• Sometimes a song is what helps us put words on what our heart is trying to say to God in worship.
• This is why music and poets are so powerful. They tap into releasing the emotion of our hearts.
• This song is by Chris Tomlin and we sing it here. I know it helps me worship…
The splendor of a King, Clothed in majesty Let all the earth rejoice, All the earth rejoice
He wraps himself in light, And darkness tries to hide And trembles at his voice, And trembles at his voice
CHORUS(1): How great is our God, sing with me How great is our God, and all will see How great, How great Is our God
• And this is one of those Christmas hymns that taps into my heart and helps me express something I might not otherwise be articulate:
1-What Child is this who, laid to rest On Mary's lap is sleeping?
Whom Angels greet with anthems sweet, While shepherds watch are keeping?
Ch: This, this is Christ the King, Whom shepherds guard and Angels sing; Haste, haste, to bring Him laud, The Babe, the Son of Mary.
3-Why lies He in such mean estate, Where ox and ass are feeding? Good Christians, fear, for sinners here The silent Word is pleading.
4- So bring Him incense, gold and myrrh, Come peasant, king to own Him;
The King of kings salvation brings, Let loving hearts enthrone Him.
• Advent and Christmas mean that just as Jesus once appeared in this world, he is about to appear in your life this Christmas.
• Jesus appears when the magic fills the air—people treat each other differently, a spirit of giving fills the land, festivities and parties start.
• I wonder what would happen if all of us started reacting to Jesus like Simeon. What if we looked for Jesus in the sea of people that we meet during the holidays?
• What if we reacted like the shepherds who were working the midnight shift when Jesus appeared in this world.
• Today is the Advent Sunday of Hope. Hope has a name—JESUS.
• This year, HOPE and WORSHIP mean that God intends to appear to you like he did to Simeon. The Spirit says “You will not die till you the Lord’s Christ appear in your life.”
• What would happen this year if you found the real joy and the source of all the festivities and holy-days we are experiencing once again in the month of December.
• Remember, God commanded his people to set apart special days as feasts, festivals, and holy days.
• Since Jesus came the first time, the Church has set apart the weekly day of the Lord, as well as seasonal days like Advent and annual holy days like Christmas.
• Worship are the appointments God has written into your Outlook or Daytimer for you to rest, celebrate, and rediscover that God made us to experience the awe of his presence, and praise him and thank him for his goodness.
• So as we begin this awe filled season of Advent, let us conspire together. Let us act in harmony toward the common goal of transforming the consumer Christmas.
• Look for Jesus in the children; in the people you meet; in the love you realize God has given you in your family; and see him in the needs of the poor.
Come next week and I will give you another word that can change your Christmas.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Two Dimensional Love
"The Two Dimensions of Love"
Rev. Kevin L. Baker
October 26, 2008 Proper 25
On the whole, God's love for us is a much safer subject to think about than our love for Him. C.S. Lewis.
• Today, our Gospel reading calls us to think about our love for God and being like God by loving other people in life. There is a vertical dimension of love—toward God. There is a horizontal dimension—if you really love God you will love people like Jesus loves them.
• As CS Lewis said, it is always a nicer thing to think of God’s love for us than of our love for God.
• Why? Because all of us struggle with being unloving. We prefer to do what we want rather than what God wants—especially on Sundays.
• One of the greatest ways to keep us from God, or at least of weakening our faith, is to convince us—little by little—to trade REAL love for a counterfeit. The world offers many counterfeits.
• I hope to tell us about real love today so we can always recognize counterfeit love when we see it.
• "Teacher," they ask, "which commandment in the law is the greatest?" There were 613 of them in Hebrew Scripture. Which was the most important?
• Jesus responded to the lawyer’s question with two quotations from the Torah. The first quotation came from the Sacred Jewish Prayer called the Shema Israel. Shema = LISTEN
• This was a prayer contained in the sixth chapter of the Book of Deuteronomy 6:5 and recited by pious Jews every morning and evening, "Hear this, O Israel, Shema Israel, Listen up—this is huge.
• This is the most important thing—The Lord our God; The Lord is one. You shall love your God with your whole heart, your whole soul and your whole mind."
• The second quotation came from the Book of Leviticus, 19:18, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
• We can't just love God part time, we have to love Him with ALL—with everything we have. We can't just be good to our neighbor sometimes, we have to treat our neighbors with the same concern we have for ourselves.
• We hear these words repeated to us every week as we begin to worship. The summary of the Law as it is called, is right before the confession of sin. It is designed to cause us to ask ourselves—did I love God with my all and love my neighbor as myself since the last time I was in church?
• Since the answer is always no—we then move right into confessing our sins.
• I think the main reason we can never give perfect love back to God as he gives it to us is we still do not know what love really is.
• Let’s take the words Jesus says to us in what is known as his Great Commandment, the one commandment that summarizes all the commandments, this morning and look at them carefully.
1. YOU SHALL
37Jesus said to him, " 'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' 38This is the first and great commandment.
• The question was “What is the Greatest Commandment of all God’s laws?” Jesus said “If you love me, you SHALL keep my commandments. If we don’t, we fall short of loving God.
• Jesus directs his answer to all of us like he did to Peter after the resurrection. Do you love me?
• Jesus says the Greatest of all God’s laws—you shall love me. This is personal. Do we really love God?
2. LOVE
You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' 38This is the first and great commandment
• Well if we are to love God, we need to know what love is. What is love? Can you define it?
• Where we learn about love is from God. Love is God’s very nature. Humanity by nature is selfish and unloving. Everyone of us are unloving on a regular basis.
• We don’t love God and we don’t love others. We think love is a good feeling of pleasure. We think love is how we feel when people give to us. Some think love is sex or gifts.
• In reality, love is a willful decision to make a commitment to totally give all our focus and energy in life for the good of someone else other than ourselves even when we are wronged in the process.
• Since we are unloving by nature, God came to change our nature—to give us a new heart, a new will, and new miracle power to change the way we think and live from being about us to being about others.
• Love is a fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5. It is the number one character trait God wants to produce in us when we become followers of Jesus and he comes to live in our hearts and lives by faith.
• Greater love has no man than this—than he that will lay down his life for his friends. There is no love greater than the cross of Jesus Christ. Jesus left comfort and got involved totally to help us.
• That is why the ancient Church made sure every time worship takes place, that the love story of Jesus for sinful man is front and center at the altar as we offer up our thanksgiving for Jesus.
• Worship is about coming to love God in words, in actions, and in renewing our vows to him. I will always love you Jesus. I thank you for loving me. I give myself to you. Worship is loving God.
• It is not about being entertained, or technologically awed, or emotionally moved so we feel good, or about how good some ministry is or is not.
• Worship is about giving ourselves to God and loving him because he first loved us.
• The ISBE defines love this way: Love, whether used of God or man, is an earnest and anxious desire for and, an active and beneficent interest in, the well-being of the one loved
• That means when someone loves another person, it is serious concern; it is that longing and anxious desire to make sure the person we love is going to be okay.
• Love is the expression of this concern to the point of total sacrifice that we would give all we have including our very life without condition, and take nothing so the person we love is okay.
• We see this in real love stories—in marriages; in parents love for their children; in real friendships; and in people who give up their lives to the cause of taking the Gospel to the world.
• In 1 Cor. 13 St. Paul defines this kind of love, a love the Greeks called AGAPE, unconditional love. Total giving of ourselves without reservation for someone else.
3. WHO ARE WE TO LOVE? THE LORD.
• The question today is do we really love the Lord? Do we give him our hearts—what we are committed to? Do we give him our soul—our emotions and will? Do with give him our mind—how we think about everything? Or, do we have idols—things that are more important than God.
• Notice Jesus says the word ALL. We are to love the lord with ALL our heart. ALL our soul. ALL our mind. ALL OR NOTHING.
• Funny, the Greek word there όλη (whole-ay), translated "all" really means "ALL", as in whole, complete, total, ALL. It means everything!
• Are we really most concerned to seriously give our whole life to God so that we really care about what God is concerned about? God is passionate about driving hate, sin, and death from the earth.
• Loving God is a question--are we willing to really commit ourselves without condition to seeing the Good News of God’s love reach every nook and cranny of this planet so love overcomes sin?
• If you are willing to try, then learn to love God as he defines it, and learn to love your neighbor.
• Now, do any of us actually achieve this kind of love, probably not. But we're moving toward it.
• And in order for me to love God with my WHOLE heart, I have to first let go of the piece of my heart devoted to ME! And it's a BIG piece.
• "Love the Lord" means to give up our own sense of lordship. This vertical love means that God is in charge, not us. Alright. That's the first part, the vertical love relationship. Love God.
Part two. This is the horizontal love relationship. Love your neighbor at least as well as you love yourself.
• The first and greatest commandment is to love God taken from Deuteronomy 6.
• The second greatest commandment, Mr. Lawyer, even though you only asked for the greatest let me also tell you the second greatest is Leviticus 19:18.
• Mr. Lawyer, if you really love God, the evidence is in how you love your neighbor.
• The way you love God most is by loving people like Jesus did. Love your neighbor.
• Not just your family and people who are nice to you, but the person next to you—on your street, at work, at the store, on the side of the road, in the hospital, the one who just lost their job or a loved one—those people. Do to them as you would have people care about you.
• Jesus is quoting everybody's favorite book of the Bible, Leviticus. Yes, there is some really good stuff in there. It's not just that all the talk of priestly duties and proper sacrifice techniques.
• Chapter 19 is pure genius. If you have a Bible turn there and look at it. If you only read one chapter of Leviticus, let it be that because God tells us how to love our neighbor here.
• Here is a quick summary of the first 17 verses of Leviticus 19--Be holy. Share what you have with others. Don’t steal from people, cheat people, or lie to people.
• Don’t make fun of people—especially the disabled. Don’t show favoritism. Don’t slander people.
• Don’t hold grudges and bitterness toward others or plot revenge but speak frankly about problems.
• I might also add from our first reading in Exodus today—caring about widows and fatherless kids, and lending money to the poor. This is what it means to love your neighbor as yourself.
• Last night God showed me a glimpse of LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR in Joe Drachhio as his mother died his main concern was not for himself but for his family. Tell the story… In his own pain, he was giving so others could be okay.
• I wonder if today we can step back and really look at what the focus of our lives is all about.
• Is loving God really at the center of your life every day? Are you really concerned about what God is concerned about? Look at the cross—what does it say?
• It says I care enough to leave the comforts of heaven to get directly involved in the lives of others.
• It means I care enough to commit myself, without conditions, to the point of self-denial and self-sacrifice to help remove the pain and hurt that sin has caused in them so they can be okay.
• 1 Cor. 13 AGAPE Love means I am seeking God to make me like him—to be patient and kind to people. To not envy people, to not boast which makes other people feel bad.
• To not be prideful and arrogant, to not be rude to people, to not be easily angered, to not keep a record of wrongs when people in my life screw up and hurt me.
• Loving God means I am learning to hate what evil does in this world, and instead to love The Truth—thy Word is truth; Jesus is the Truth.
• Love means I am learning to always trust God and people, to protect God and others, to always be hopeful even when things look bad, and to persevere in my relationships with the people God puts in my life.
• This is the Great Commandment. Two dimensional love. Vertical toward God, and horizontal toward others. Let us pray.
Rev. Kevin L. Baker
October 26, 2008 Proper 25
On the whole, God's love for us is a much safer subject to think about than our love for Him. C.S. Lewis.
• Today, our Gospel reading calls us to think about our love for God and being like God by loving other people in life. There is a vertical dimension of love—toward God. There is a horizontal dimension—if you really love God you will love people like Jesus loves them.
• As CS Lewis said, it is always a nicer thing to think of God’s love for us than of our love for God.
• Why? Because all of us struggle with being unloving. We prefer to do what we want rather than what God wants—especially on Sundays.
• One of the greatest ways to keep us from God, or at least of weakening our faith, is to convince us—little by little—to trade REAL love for a counterfeit. The world offers many counterfeits.
• I hope to tell us about real love today so we can always recognize counterfeit love when we see it.
• "Teacher," they ask, "which commandment in the law is the greatest?" There were 613 of them in Hebrew Scripture. Which was the most important?
• Jesus responded to the lawyer’s question with two quotations from the Torah. The first quotation came from the Sacred Jewish Prayer called the Shema Israel. Shema = LISTEN
• This was a prayer contained in the sixth chapter of the Book of Deuteronomy 6:5 and recited by pious Jews every morning and evening, "Hear this, O Israel, Shema Israel, Listen up—this is huge.
• This is the most important thing—The Lord our God; The Lord is one. You shall love your God with your whole heart, your whole soul and your whole mind."
• The second quotation came from the Book of Leviticus, 19:18, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
• We can't just love God part time, we have to love Him with ALL—with everything we have. We can't just be good to our neighbor sometimes, we have to treat our neighbors with the same concern we have for ourselves.
• We hear these words repeated to us every week as we begin to worship. The summary of the Law as it is called, is right before the confession of sin. It is designed to cause us to ask ourselves—did I love God with my all and love my neighbor as myself since the last time I was in church?
• Since the answer is always no—we then move right into confessing our sins.
• I think the main reason we can never give perfect love back to God as he gives it to us is we still do not know what love really is.
• Let’s take the words Jesus says to us in what is known as his Great Commandment, the one commandment that summarizes all the commandments, this morning and look at them carefully.
1. YOU SHALL
37Jesus said to him, " 'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' 38This is the first and great commandment.
• The question was “What is the Greatest Commandment of all God’s laws?” Jesus said “If you love me, you SHALL keep my commandments. If we don’t, we fall short of loving God.
• Jesus directs his answer to all of us like he did to Peter after the resurrection. Do you love me?
• Jesus says the Greatest of all God’s laws—you shall love me. This is personal. Do we really love God?
2. LOVE
You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' 38This is the first and great commandment
• Well if we are to love God, we need to know what love is. What is love? Can you define it?
• Where we learn about love is from God. Love is God’s very nature. Humanity by nature is selfish and unloving. Everyone of us are unloving on a regular basis.
• We don’t love God and we don’t love others. We think love is a good feeling of pleasure. We think love is how we feel when people give to us. Some think love is sex or gifts.
• In reality, love is a willful decision to make a commitment to totally give all our focus and energy in life for the good of someone else other than ourselves even when we are wronged in the process.
• Since we are unloving by nature, God came to change our nature—to give us a new heart, a new will, and new miracle power to change the way we think and live from being about us to being about others.
• Love is a fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5. It is the number one character trait God wants to produce in us when we become followers of Jesus and he comes to live in our hearts and lives by faith.
• Greater love has no man than this—than he that will lay down his life for his friends. There is no love greater than the cross of Jesus Christ. Jesus left comfort and got involved totally to help us.
• That is why the ancient Church made sure every time worship takes place, that the love story of Jesus for sinful man is front and center at the altar as we offer up our thanksgiving for Jesus.
• Worship is about coming to love God in words, in actions, and in renewing our vows to him. I will always love you Jesus. I thank you for loving me. I give myself to you. Worship is loving God.
• It is not about being entertained, or technologically awed, or emotionally moved so we feel good, or about how good some ministry is or is not.
• Worship is about giving ourselves to God and loving him because he first loved us.
• The ISBE defines love this way: Love, whether used of God or man, is an earnest and anxious desire for and, an active and beneficent interest in, the well-being of the one loved
• That means when someone loves another person, it is serious concern; it is that longing and anxious desire to make sure the person we love is going to be okay.
• Love is the expression of this concern to the point of total sacrifice that we would give all we have including our very life without condition, and take nothing so the person we love is okay.
• We see this in real love stories—in marriages; in parents love for their children; in real friendships; and in people who give up their lives to the cause of taking the Gospel to the world.
• In 1 Cor. 13 St. Paul defines this kind of love, a love the Greeks called AGAPE, unconditional love. Total giving of ourselves without reservation for someone else.
3. WHO ARE WE TO LOVE? THE LORD.
• The question today is do we really love the Lord? Do we give him our hearts—what we are committed to? Do we give him our soul—our emotions and will? Do with give him our mind—how we think about everything? Or, do we have idols—things that are more important than God.
• Notice Jesus says the word ALL. We are to love the lord with ALL our heart. ALL our soul. ALL our mind. ALL OR NOTHING.
• Funny, the Greek word there όλη (whole-ay), translated "all" really means "ALL", as in whole, complete, total, ALL. It means everything!
• Are we really most concerned to seriously give our whole life to God so that we really care about what God is concerned about? God is passionate about driving hate, sin, and death from the earth.
• Loving God is a question--are we willing to really commit ourselves without condition to seeing the Good News of God’s love reach every nook and cranny of this planet so love overcomes sin?
• If you are willing to try, then learn to love God as he defines it, and learn to love your neighbor.
• Now, do any of us actually achieve this kind of love, probably not. But we're moving toward it.
• And in order for me to love God with my WHOLE heart, I have to first let go of the piece of my heart devoted to ME! And it's a BIG piece.
• "Love the Lord" means to give up our own sense of lordship. This vertical love means that God is in charge, not us. Alright. That's the first part, the vertical love relationship. Love God.
Part two. This is the horizontal love relationship. Love your neighbor at least as well as you love yourself.
• The first and greatest commandment is to love God taken from Deuteronomy 6.
• The second greatest commandment, Mr. Lawyer, even though you only asked for the greatest let me also tell you the second greatest is Leviticus 19:18.
• Mr. Lawyer, if you really love God, the evidence is in how you love your neighbor.
• The way you love God most is by loving people like Jesus did. Love your neighbor.
• Not just your family and people who are nice to you, but the person next to you—on your street, at work, at the store, on the side of the road, in the hospital, the one who just lost their job or a loved one—those people. Do to them as you would have people care about you.
• Jesus is quoting everybody's favorite book of the Bible, Leviticus. Yes, there is some really good stuff in there. It's not just that all the talk of priestly duties and proper sacrifice techniques.
• Chapter 19 is pure genius. If you have a Bible turn there and look at it. If you only read one chapter of Leviticus, let it be that because God tells us how to love our neighbor here.
• Here is a quick summary of the first 17 verses of Leviticus 19--Be holy. Share what you have with others. Don’t steal from people, cheat people, or lie to people.
• Don’t make fun of people—especially the disabled. Don’t show favoritism. Don’t slander people.
• Don’t hold grudges and bitterness toward others or plot revenge but speak frankly about problems.
• I might also add from our first reading in Exodus today—caring about widows and fatherless kids, and lending money to the poor. This is what it means to love your neighbor as yourself.
• Last night God showed me a glimpse of LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR in Joe Drachhio as his mother died his main concern was not for himself but for his family. Tell the story… In his own pain, he was giving so others could be okay.
• I wonder if today we can step back and really look at what the focus of our lives is all about.
• Is loving God really at the center of your life every day? Are you really concerned about what God is concerned about? Look at the cross—what does it say?
• It says I care enough to leave the comforts of heaven to get directly involved in the lives of others.
• It means I care enough to commit myself, without conditions, to the point of self-denial and self-sacrifice to help remove the pain and hurt that sin has caused in them so they can be okay.
• 1 Cor. 13 AGAPE Love means I am seeking God to make me like him—to be patient and kind to people. To not envy people, to not boast which makes other people feel bad.
• To not be prideful and arrogant, to not be rude to people, to not be easily angered, to not keep a record of wrongs when people in my life screw up and hurt me.
• Loving God means I am learning to hate what evil does in this world, and instead to love The Truth—thy Word is truth; Jesus is the Truth.
• Love means I am learning to always trust God and people, to protect God and others, to always be hopeful even when things look bad, and to persevere in my relationships with the people God puts in my life.
• This is the Great Commandment. Two dimensional love. Vertical toward God, and horizontal toward others. Let us pray.
Friday, October 17, 2008
What is Life Like In A Monastery--Part One
What It Is Like to Work in A Trappist Monastery—Part One
By Rev. Kevin L. Baker
When people think of monks and monastic life, I am sure images of beautiful settings, paradise, Gregorian chants, peace and quiet, contemplation, and silent other-worldly monks fill the imagination. Yet, there is more. I am often asked what a monastery is really like. I pray this very short article will give a glimpse into monastic life while protecting the privacy of the community in which I live and work.
Two years ago, God gave me a blessing that ranks among the most significant opportunities of my life. I was hired to work in a Roman Catholic monastery as a Controller. My job has since developed into more of a Director of Finance and Marketing. The monastery where I work is a chapter of the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance. You can learn more about them by clicking the links at the conclusion of this article.
Cistercians, or Trappists as they are also commonly called, live under a Benedictine Rule. The Cistercian way of life is one of living by the work of one’s hands and prayer. The center of work life at the Abbey of the Genesee is primarily a bakery called Monks’ Bread. Since 1953, our products have been a regionally popular line of breads and cakes. It is a large industry and needed an MBA to look after the business in an increasingly complex and competitive marketplace. In addition to the bakery, there are three retreat houses with a capacity of 47 beds, a farm, forestry industry, bookstore, online store, and the Abbey Church.
As a priest, I am no stranger to the spiritual life, liturgy, or prayer. Yet, a monastery is completely different than the life of a local church pastor. A monastic community, on one level, can be compared to life in the military. The armed forces protect their nation from enemies. Monasteries protect the God's holy nation from spiritual enemies (1 Peter 2:9-10) with spiritual weapons of warfare that are mighty unto God to the pulling down of strongholds (2 Corinthians 10:4). My experience is that the monks are the special forces of God.
Life in a monastery feels like you are on a military base and in a church at the same time. The community life is very institutional. The life is one of rank, order, obedience, self denial, hard work, prayer, striving for perfection (be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect), and discipleship. Much like life in the local church, the monks are working out their salvation in the context of a group of imperfect people. Humanity is definitely part of monastic community life. People are people.
The very human side of the monastery also reveals the presence of the Divine. In the midst of the order of the Benedictine Rule, the discipline of the liturgy of the hours, the work of the hands as counter-balance to the intense focus on the interior life, and lectio divina (spiritual reading), the monastery is also a conduit of God’s presence, power, and glory. There are many times while I am working that I experience a sense that heaven and earth have truly become intermingled.
Keep watch for Part Two of This Article Soon.
About the Trappists
Abbey of the Genesee
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