My only comfort: I'm not the boss of me--there's been a change of ownership. Instead, I belong completely and always to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ. Everything forgiven--picture the cross!--and everything new--set free through the waters of baptism. And watched over (completely and always)--Jesus redeems EVERYTHING for my ultimate good, benefit, restoration, salvation. And through the Holy Spirit: Confidence and Transformation: Assured of eternal life. And made wholeheartedly willing and ready to live for Jesus... starting... not tomorrow... but right now! This is the good news: (1) Hopelessly stuck in a miserable, gloppy, swamp because of sin; (2) Set Free from the quagmire by Jesus; (3) Living a joyful, loving, compassionate life defined by deep, profound gratitude.
Wednesday, July 24, 2013
Belonging to God (Reflections from Synod School)
"Belonging to God" and the Heidelberg. Here's a paraphrase (flowing out of my middle school classes) of the answers to Questions 1 & 2 of the catechism...
Monday, June 3, 2013
True Faith
Sermon for Sunday, June 2, 2013
Heidelberg 450 Series: Lord’s Day 7
First Presbyterian Church ▪
Lake Crystal, Minnesota
Rev. Randal K.
Lubbers, Pastor & Teacher
Q&A 21
What is
true faith?
True faith is
not only a sure knowledge by
which I hold as true
all that God has revealed to us
in Scripture;
it is also a wholehearted
trust,
which the Holy Spirit creates
in me by the gospel,
that God has freely granted,
not only to others but to me
also,
forgiveness of sins,
eternal righteousness,
and salvation.
These are gifts of sheer grace,
granted solely by Christ’s merit.
New
Testament Lesson: Hebrews 4:14-16; 11:1
Therefore, since
we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God,
let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest
who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been
tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Let us then approach
God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find
grace to help us in our time of need… Now
faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
Gospel
Lesson: John 20:24-31
But Thomas (who
was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So
the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them,
“Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark
of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”
A week later his
disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors
were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” Then
he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand
and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord
and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me?
Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”
Now Jesus did
many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in
this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus
is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in
his name.
Is Thomas' Faith an oxymoron?
So is Thomas—we know
him as “doubting Thomas”—is Thomas an example of faith? Is he someone we should
emulate? Or not? I asked for a show of hands and there seemed to be some hesitation.
Perhaps the congregation misunderstood the question, I’m not sure. But there
seems to be some reticence to lift up Thomas as an example of faith. Shouldn’t
he have believed what the other disciples told him? Really? Okay then, would you believe
ME if you were in his sandals?
Blind Faith
We
have this idea of what faith is—we think of “faith” as “blind faith”—something along
the lines of standing blindfolded on the edge of the cliff, told to JUMP, told
to BELIEVE that God will catch you halfway down and carry you to safety. So
faith is something that makes NO SENSE. And faith is something YOU need to do
in order to deserve God’s love. We hear that “Abraham’s faith was reckoned as
righteousness” and feel like we, too, need to muster up enough faith to warrant
God’s acceptance.
But faith
is not “blind trust” in what the church or a preacher says; faith does
not mean “checking your brain in at the door.” The Heidelberg teaches that
faith is a “wholehearted trust” but before that it is “a sure knowledge.” Faith
is both “head” and “heart” and, above all, faith is GIFT. It is NOT a
prerequisite for God’s love.
Thomas
made his own prerequisite very clear. “Unless I can touch with my own fingers
the scars; unless I can put my hand upon the wound in Jesus’ side, I will not
believe that he is risen from the dead. Because how crazy would that be?” And
then Jesus shows up and invites Thomas to experience a certain knowledge and a wholehearted
trust. “Go ahead, Thomas, touch me….”
Thomas
DOES indeed experience that “certain knowledge” and that “wholehearted trust.”
But he discovered he no longer needed to touch. Not even to see. True faith is
a gift—he just needed to say YES to the gift.
BOTH/AND
True faith
is joining Thomas in a simple, heartfelt confession: “Jesus is my Lord and my
God.” Faith is not the “salvation event”
but the acceptance of God’s invitation to the party. Faith relies not on human
wisdom but on the power of God. Both the “knowledge” AND “wholehearted trust” components
of true faith are gifts—gifts which, the Heidelberg says, “…the Holy Spirit
creates in me by the gospel.” So faith comes through hearing the good news. We
can be a “seeker” who searches for meaning and faith and God all our lives, but
unless the good news is REVEALED to us, we have no hope.
So
once again—and it needs to be said again and again because the misunderstanding
is embedded so deeply into the fabric of North American churches: Faith is not a prerequisite for God’s love. Yes, true faith is necessary. The
Heidelberg says, “Only those are saved who through true faith are grafted into
Christ and accept all his benefits.” But again—make no mistake—we are not saved
BY faith, but rather, by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, given freely by
the love of God the Father, received through the power and participation of the
Holy Spirit.
“…Forgiveness
of sins, eternal righteousness, and salvation. These are gifts of sheer grace,
granted solely by Christ’s merit."
Eberhard Busch,
in Drawn to Freedom: Christian Faith
Today in Conversation with the Heidelberg Catechism, quotes a hymn by Paul
Gerhardt,
God, who watched me from above,when I first began to be,enfolded me most graciously,before I knew of his great love
~ P.
Gerhardt (stanza 2 translated from the hymnal of the Evangelical-Reformed
Church of German-speaking Switzerland)
…which reminds me of the beautiful words we
use during baptism—I speak them to the infant in my arms but we all get to hear
them again and again:
For you Jesus Christ came into the world; for you he died and for you he conquered death; All this he did for you, little one, though you know nothing of it as yet. We love because God first loved us. (From the baptism liturgy, French Reformed Church)
And all this should move
us towards greater humility…
When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I did not come proclaiming the mystery of God to you in lofty words or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I came to you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. My speech and my proclamation were not with plausible words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God. (1 Cor 2:1-5)
Faith is Necessary But Not a Prerequisite of God's Love
We know from our
own observation in the world: many people don’t believe, most people don’t
wholeheartedly trust God. Interesting and informative, and connected (I think) to
Paul’s thoughts about humility: Eberhard
Busch explains that, (paraphrase) Faced with this, the Reformers focused their
concerns not on the heathen—not on people across the globe or people outside
the church or on people who golf every Sunday morning—but on the people IN the
church. John Calvin, in fact, said, “If the same sermon is preached, say, to a
hundred people, twenty receive it with the ready obedience of faith, while the rest
hold it valueless, or laugh, or hiss, or loathe it.”
So what to do? If
faith is CREATED IN A PERSON by the Holy Spirit… I can’t cause a person to
believe; I cannot convince a person to trust God; it is all gift. But yet a
gift that comes through hearing.
So what is left
for me to do? I cannot convince or cajole or “guilt someone into faith.” It’s a
gift. And all that is left for me to do… is just… “Preach the good news, Randy.
Just preach the good news. Just tell them about Jesus.”
Lord, increase our faith....
And as for the
question I find myself often asking myself—maybe you wonder this too: How can I get MORE faith? How can my faith be
stronger? Bigger? Better? To my own question, I quickly remind myself… “More
faith? Ha!, you need more? Faith doesn’t need to be “GREAT” (huge, grand,
enormous). The Heidelberg doesn’t ask,
“What is GREAT faith?” or “How can I have MORE faith?” The Heidelberg asks,
“What is TRUE FAITH?” And didn’t Jesus say that a “mustard seed” faith was big
enough even to move mountains?
A pianist, giving
the gift of some degree of music aptitude and (maybe) long fingers, plays
beautifully because she has exercised the gift. A great leaper, a man or woman
with great quickness and speed and a nice jump shot, plays in the NBA or WNBA
because she/he has exercised the gift. If I want more faith, I need to exercise
my faith. It’s not about psyching myself up as much as doing it.
Abraham was told by God to pack up and move the whole family to a place he’d never seen or even heard of, and he got up and went. Noah was told to build an ark and we see his faith not in knowing how he FELT about it all, but in his response: He went out and built the ark. Israel, on the edge of the Red Sea, had NO FAITH whatsoever, or so it seemed, right? They chided Moses for making them leave their comfortable slavery in Egypt to die in the desert because they were trapped between Pharaoh’s army and the sea. And we see their faith not as some positive energy that changed the situation, but in their response to God’s Act of Salvation. Their faith didn’t open the sea. God did. And we see their faith when they’re walking through the sea on God’s path.
A friend shared
an experience about attending Baccalaureate services last week. She said, “I didn’t
want to go; I was too tired to go; I had too many things to do to go—so much,
in fact, that it seemed like I really shouldn’t go. But I did. And then, as I arrived
and even as I wondered ‘why am I here?’—even then, when we were led into
quietness, and my heart become quiet, I realized, ‘Oh, How I Needed This.’”
Even coming to Sunday
worship when we’d rather sleep can be an expression of wholehearted trust. Faith
isn’t so much feeling as doing.
So if you would
like MORE faith…
- When God says, “I have a project for you,” then, like Noah, go out and build it
- When God says, “Leave this place and go over to THAT place,” then, like Abraham, get up and go.
- And when God opens up the sea and provides a Way, then, like the children of Israel, walk through the raging waters, and know, and trust, that you are walking towards and at the same time experiencing God’s abundant life, God’s hope, and God’s peace.
Thursday, May 2, 2013
The Judge (Articles 10 & 11 of the catechism)
“The
self-righteous church speaks in indignation, the true church speaks in
intercession” (H. Gollwitzer et al., Predigten, p. 87 as quoted by
Eberhard Busch in Drawn to Freedom: Christian Faith Today in Conversation with the Heidelberg Catechism, p. 84). Later in this
subsection on God as "the Judge," Busch relates the story of a pastor
who asks a rabbi, "Do you Jews still believe in the God of wrath,
in contrast to us Christians, who believe in the God of love?" The
rabbi answers in the affirmative, but with a twist, saying, "Yes, we
still believe in the God of wrath. But while we leave the wrath to God
in order to practice kindness on earth, you Christians have done it the
other way around!" The point here? God--and God alone--is judge. There
are two kinds of people in the world, as Pascal noted: "The righteous,
who consider themselves sinners, and the sinners, who consider
themselves righteous" (See Busch, pp. 82-91).
More on this later. There's so much depth in this subsection of Busch's book; I'm able to digest this only in small bites. But I'd better chew quickly because we'll be focusing on Articles 10 & 11 this coming Sunday.
More on this later. There's so much depth in this subsection of Busch's book; I'm able to digest this only in small bites. But I'd better chew quickly because we'll be focusing on Articles 10 & 11 this coming Sunday.
Monday, April 22, 2013
Brennan Manning and the catechism
The events in Boston this week reminded us once again that we live in a broken world. Yes, it’s a good world created by a good God, but yet it’s a world marred by sin. Yes, it’s a beautiful world filled with amazing people—each created in the image of God—and, yet, every single one of these amazing persons is marred by sin. Yes, even you. Yes, even me. Yes, even the most important and best people in our lives.
Each of us
is beyond fixing.
And yet, in
the upside-down, paradoxical world of Easter, this is good news. It's good news, because we don’t need
to fix ourselves; which is really a good thing because we can’t. It's good news, because even though
we’re like an old junk car that’s way, way beyond fixing, nevertheless, Jesus
didn’t come to condemn, but to save… FOREVER. In fact, it’s really GOOD NEWS even though my whole "fix-up-the-junk-car" analogy falls apart here because Jesus isn’t really the "Great
Mr. Fix-It"--not really--no, he’s the Great Physician! And instead of merely changing our plugs and tuning us up, the supernatural
Holy Spirit of Jesus makes us BRAND NEW AGAIN.
God isn't in the business of keeping score. God so loved the world that he sent his only Son. Not to condemn the world, but to rescue!
Though the Scriptures insist on God’s initiative in the work of salvation–that by grace we are saved, that the Tremendous Lover has taken to the chase – our spirituality often starts with self, not God…
We sweat through various spiritual exercises as if they were designed to produce a Christian Charles Atlas. Though lip service is paid to the gospel of grace, many Christians live as if only personal discipline and self-denial will mold the perfect me. The emphasis is on what I do rather than on what God is doing. In this curious process God is a benign old spectator in the bleachers who cheers when I show up for morning quiet time.
Our eyes are not on God. At heart we are practicing Pelagians. We believe that we can pull ourselves up by our bootstraps – indeed, we can do it ourselves.
~ Brennan Manning
g
Sunday, April 14, 2013
"And all the children are above average?"
Sermon for Sunday, April 14, 2013
Heidelberg Series: Lord’s Day 2
First Presbyterian Church ▪
Lake Crystal, Minnesota
Rev. Randal K.
Lubbers, Pastor & Teacher
“…And all the children
are above average?”
Jeremiah
17:9
Romans
3:9-12, 23
Matthew
22:34-40
Heidelberg
Catechism Q&A 3, 4 and 5
Can you keep
the Law? Can you live up to loving God and neighbor perfectly? No, the
catechism says, No, I have a natural tendency to hate God… I have a natural
tendency to hate my neighbor.[i]
Except,
of course, here in Minnesota, where all of our children are above average?
Right?
Well,
it's been another quiet week in Jerusalem, my hometown, the City of David, out
on the edge of the Roman Empire. Well, not all that quiet—it is the week before
Passover, after all.
Just
yesterday we all followed Jesus to the Chatterbox Café for breakfast and—wow—the
buzz at the round table went from jovial laughter to subdued murmurings as we
took over the 13 stools at the counter.
Seemed
pretty clear to us at the end of the counter—they’d been retelling stories
about Jesus—not even so much about our amazing entry into town amidst the cheers
of the crowd and all the children waving palm branches (that was old news). The
buzz was all about yesterday: Jesus had
waltzed into the Temple, overturned the tables of the moneychangers (those
cheats!) with stacks of coins crashing to the ground and the cages of doves
breaking open—birds flying all over and the sight of steam coming out of the
ears of the Temple big-wigs. That story!
We
ate biscuits and drank coffee in silence. Judas paid the tab. And Jesus
announced—loud enough for all to hear—“Well, let’s not be late for morning
prayers at the Temple. Besides, I’ve got some teaching to do there…”
And
I was sure I heard one of the guys at the round table remark with a chuckle,
“Oh, let’s go too. This could be good.”
So
after yesterday, you can imagine the reception we got at the Temple, right?
“Just
WHO do you think you are?” asked one of the leaders and all the elders and
chief priests chimed in, “Yes, by what AUTHORITY do you do all the things
you’ve been doing?”
Jesus
smiled. “Well, actually, I have a question for YOU. By what authority did John
the baptizer do HIS thing? Was his message from God? Or was he doing his own
thing?”
We
nearly laughed out loud as they conferred with one another. You could just see
the wheels spinning… Because if they said “it was only a human message” they’d
infuriate all the people who had actually followed and believed John to be a
prophet (and that was a big voting bloc); But, on the other hand, if they said
“his baptism was from God” then Jesus would ask them, “Well then, why didn’t YOU
believe him?” They were stuck. And they knew it. And finally one of the elders
says—and this is rich—he says, “We don’t know.”
You
don’t KNOW? You’re the Pharisees; you’re the ones with all the answers. You don’t
know?! Jesus threw back his head and, with a glint in his eye…
Well, then neither will I tell you by what
authority I am doing these things. But listen to this story. There was a man
with two sons…
A
man with two sons? James and John (sons of Zebedee) glanced at each other.
Andrew smiled at Peter. I looked around and wondered if almost everyone there had
their own idea of where this was going…
Would
Jesus offer an encore of his story about the wayward son and his stay-at-home
brother and the long-suffering father who threw the big party?
Or
maybe a story about Cain and Abel? Isaac and Ishmael? Jacob and Esau? Aaron and
Moses?
There was a man
with two sons...
Lots of possibilities here…[ii]
Jesus
paused.
And
then went on:
There was a man
with two sons and he told the first one,
“Those tomatoes out back really need weeding, and really the whole garden needs
attention so I’d like you to do that today.” But the son shrugged it off— “No
chance, Dad, I’ve got video games to play, basketball in the church parking
lot, bike riding… a full day!” So Dad goes to the second son with the same job
and he dutifully bows and says, “Yes, of course, Dad. Consider it done.” And
then, the agreeable son curls up on the sofa and watches TV all day. Meanwhile the
first son reconsidered his answer, went back to the garden, worked there all
afternoon until the work was done… So which of the two sons actually DID what
his father had asked?
“Well,
duh! The first one” answered the elders.
Ding, ding, ding,
ding! Exactly right! And, don’t you
see, that’s just the reason why the tax collectors and prostitutes are launched
into the Kingdom of God ahead of all of you; because John the baptizer came
along to show you the way to Right Living BUT YOU DIDN’T BELIEVE HIM; but the
tax collectors and prostitutes did; And even when you saw their faith you
didn’t change your mind, you didn’t feel any remorse whatsoever. And you didn’t
believe him.
Now listen to another story. There was land-owner
with a vineyard leased out to a cooperative of farm-workers… And when
harvest-time came he sent his servants back to collect his share. But these
farm-workers took the servants; beat up one, killed another, and drove off a
third with stones. So he commissioned a second delegation of servants—a larger
group than the first—but they treated them the same way as the first ones. So
finally he sent…
He sent his own son, thinking, ‘They will respect
my son.’ Yet when the farm-workers saw the son they said to each other, ‘This
guy is the future owner. Come on, let’s kill him and we shall get everything
that he would have had!’ So they took him, threw him out of the vineyard and
killed him. Now when the owner of the vineyard returns, what will he do to
those farm-workers?
Wow,
I don’t think they saw that one coming—certainly we disciples didn’t—
And the chief priests and Pharisees responded immediately to Jesus’
question, “Well, no doubt about it, the owner will go back to the vineyard—he
MUST go back—and he’ll kick those evil farm-workers out on their you-know-what and
lease the vineyard out to new tenants, ones who will respect him and pay him
what they owe at harvest-time.”
And—Oh,
my! You should have seen their faces when it hit them. Just as they gave their
answer the chief priests realized that Jesus was telling EVERYONE that THEY THEMSELVES
were the evil farm-workers in the story.
Quickly, the Pharisees and chief priests appointed lawyers with trick questions—one from the “conservative right” ("Should we pay taxes to the Roman Emperor, or not?") and one from the “liberal
progressive” camp to ask about marriage in heaven for a women married to seven
brothers one after the other after each of their deaths; and Jesus astounded the crowd with his
teachings. Finally, one more question designed to trip Jesus up.
"Of all the commands in the law,
which one is the greatest?" And Jesus responded,
Love God. And Love Others. That’s
it. No long commentary necessary because everything else depends on this: Love
God with your whole heart and soul and mind. And LOVE your neighbor as
yourself.
And then a trick question for
the Pharisees from Jesus. Which they couldn’t answer. And, wow, from that point
on no one even dared ask him a question.
And
for the rest of the day the big-shots were gone and Jesus was left teaching the
crowds and us disciples, warning against those who teach the right stuff but fail to live it out.
They tie up heavy burdens on
the shoulders of others, but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger.
Essentially
Jesus was saying this: There is something worse than breaking the Law
of God. Thinking you’re good enough to
keep it.[iii]
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees. For you clean
the outside of the cup and plates, but inside they are full of greed and
self-indulgence. You blind Pharisees, clean the INSIDE FIRST, then your
outsides will be beautiful too.
And that’s the
news from Jerusalem, where all the women are strong, all the men are
good-looking, and all the children are above average…
Except that our children are no less in sin and
misery than any others. And neither are their parents and grandparents. And
your heart, like mine, is devious above all else—perverted, Jeremiah says,
beyond our understanding: How can one
created in God’s image be so broken?
The
Law of God—love God, love others—points us graciously towards the Grace-Filled
World of God.[iv]
But our world isn’t filled with grace. Our world is broken. Marred by sin. Our
world is in misery. You and I too.
Brennan
Manning, who knew first-hand about sin in his own life and in the world (and
who spoke of it openly) passed away last week. In his final book, a memoir (All is Grace: A Ragamuffin Memoir) he wrote:
My life is witness to a vulgar grace--a grace that
amazes as it offends. A grace that pays the eager beaver who works all day long
the same wages as the grinning drunk who shows up at ten till five.... This
vulgar grace is indiscriminate
compassion. It works without asking anything of us. It's not cheap. It's
free, and as such will always be a banana peel for the orthodox foot and a
fairy tale for the grown-up sensibility. Grace is sufficient even though we
huff and puff with all our might to try to find something or someone it cannot
cover.
Grace is enough.
Our
natural tendency is to set ourselves up as absolute beings[v]—"I
BELONG TO MYSELF— I AM FREE (TO MYSELF)—I CAN TAKE CARE OF MYSELF—I CAN FIX
MYSELF."
We
are in bondage because we think we can transform ourselves into the image we have
mistakenly ascribed to God; we think God to be a solitary and immovable and
independent being who can do EVERYTHING. But God wants our hearts more than our
sacrifices; God is relational and compassionate.
We’re
unable to liberate ourselves from the bondage in which we have enslaved
ourselves. In fact, the things we really, really, really need are all those
things we really don’t deserve: forgiveness,
grace, help, comfort, redemption.[vi]
And
the good news for “above-average sinners” like me and you?
All
those things are given—freely given—to us poor, ordinary sinners
naturally prone to love ourselves above all else—
Given to us by grace alone.
In
the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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