5 Minutes with Pastor Chris

Prayer: Forgive Us Our Debts/Trespasses/Sins

Dear Friends,

 

This Sunday we continue our series on “Prayer During the Great Recession.”  These past few weeks we have been delving into The Lord’s Prayer and on May 31st we will focus on verse 12, “Forgive Us Our Debts/Trespasses/Sins.”   Anglican Bishop N.T. Wright has this to say about our passage for the week:

 

The prayer for forgiveness — “forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors” (Matt. 6:12); “forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us” (Luke 11:4) — is the one instance of a prayer Jesus taught his followers to pray that they did not suppose he needed to pray himself.  The well-known scene of John the Baptist’s initial objection to baptizing Jesus (Matt. 3:14-15) and the very early tradition of Jesus’ personal sinlessness (cf. John 7:18; 8:46; 2 Cor. 5:21; Heb. 4:15; 1 Pet. 2:22) bear witness to the great divide at this point between Jesus and his followers.  They needed to repent and seek God’s forgiveness, but he did not.

 

This exception, however, clearly proves the rule that the Lord’s Prayer was intended by Jesus to bind his followers closely to the agenda of his whole ministry.  Forgiveness, which is offered freely and without recourse to the temple system, was another hallmark of Jesus’ work — indeed, so much so that it was the cause of scandal (as, e.g., in Mark 2:5-12).  Furthermore, there is good reason to think that Jesus regarded this free offer of forgiveness as a central part of his inauguration of the new covenant, and that he saw the corresponding obligation to mutual forgiveness as a necessary badge of membership (see Jesus and the Victory of God, 268-74).  This prayer for forgiveness, therefore, though not aligning itself with anything in Jesus’ own spirituality, belongs very closely with the total picture of Jesus’ public ministry, as his ministry is set out in the Gospel narratives.

 

I hope you can join us Sunday as we dive into this sacred and transformative text!

 

Pastor Chris

Let's Go Green!

Greetings,

A dear friend of mine in New Jersey, Dr. Rick Carter, was recently writing about the ReImagine Community in San Francisco. This is a group whose focus is on creating “green space.” It’s not an environmental goal, though they also are passionate about stewardship of the earth.  Rather, it’s based on the elementary fact that green is the blending of yellow and blue. ReImagine wants to blend yellow and blue spirituality.

What do they mean by this? Yellow spirituality includes Bible study, spiritual disciplines and every aspect of personal discipleship. Blue spirituality centers on actions that demonstrate the better world that God has promised us upon Christ’s return, where all is put to rights.

All Noble Things are Difficult

“ALL NOBLE THINGS ARE DIFFICULT” by Oswald Chambers

"Enter ye in at the strait gate . . because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way. . ." Matthew 7:13-14

If we are going to live as disciples of Jesus, we have to remember that all noble things are difficult. The Christian life is gloriously difficult, but the difficulty of it does not make us faint and cave in, it rouses us up to overcome. Do we so appreciate the marvelous salvation of Jesus Christ that we are our utmost for His highest?

Grief without despair

Dear Friends,

Perhaps, you’re like me, and through life you have been made acutely aware of the grief that follows the death of a loved one.  Perhaps, you too, have experienced doubt in the midst of despair or loneliness in the quietness of loss.  I hope these words from Saint Paul, offer the same comfort to you this day, they did to their original audience 2000 years ago. 

What really counts in life?

Stan Ott, another Presbyterian Pastor recently wrote the following provocative devotional.  He asks, …

“What really counts in life?  What kind of life is “really life?”

Economic uncertainty can easily lead to unease about our future.  We wonder about the life that is really life.  Paul’s remarks to Timothy offer guidance to our day:

Happy New Year!

Friends, enjoy these challenging words from Stan Ott, church growth consultant for the PC(USA) of Central Florida.

 

Stan writes,…

 

“We tend to assume health, work, family, friendships, and finances will all work out in any given coming new year, although none of us knows for sure what will happen in that year, much less in a coming month, week, day, or second.

 

Jim Tozer, my friend and mentor, used to say Scripture teaches us to, “Pray, work, and wait!”  It is a good word for the New Year for all of us.

"Glorious Humility" by Margaret Manning

Glorious Humility

By Margaret Manning

(Evangelist with Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Atlanta, Georgia.)

 

 

Every time I read Luke’s account of the birth of Jesus, I marvel at the details he chooses to emphasize surrounding God’s coming into the world as a baby. I am struck by the way Luke juxtaposes the announcement of the King of Israel--“for to you is born this day in the city of David the Savior who is Christ the Lord”--with the sign of his kingship--“and this will be a sign for you: you will find a babe wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger” (Luke2:11-12). The King of Kings arrives into this world and is laid in a feeding trough for animals, while the King’s royal vestments are woven, cloth strips. 

 

Luke’s narrative highlights what seem to be the most ordinary and the most mundane details of Jesus’s birth for us as modern readers. And yet, these seemingly ordinary details highlight how God reveals glory in the birth of Jesus. Luke’s preoccupation with ordinary details reveals his belief that the glory of God’s kingdom would look very different from  the kingdom the people of Jesus’s day were expecting.

 

Out of the silence of 400 years, out of the silence of that quiet night, the angel spoke and announced that the waiting was over. He is here, Luke tells us, born in the same city as your great king of old, King David! The people now would see their new David--their new deliverer, their Messiah. The prophet Micah announced this special context, “As for you, Bethlehem too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you one will go forth for me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity” (5:2). Out of the silent sky came the news that surpassed all news. The king had come and the world would never be the same, for a king had been born this day in the city of David, who is Christ the Lord!

 

And yet, this king would not be born in an expected palace or even into the household of a priest, like John the Baptist, for example. God had other plans. The glorious place of Israel’s new king  would be other than expected: “This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths, and lying in a manger.” Born this day, Luke tells us, in the city of David is your Christ, your Messiah. And guess what? You’ll find him in a manger, a feeding trough for ordinary farm animals. The Messiah--the King of Israel--is laid in a manger? 

 

But not only does God choose a manger for a palace, God chooses to reveal this glorious news to the least likely recipients. We might expect that the birth of Israel’s king would be heralded throughout the nation--to the priests and the rulers, to the leaders of the people, to the influential members of that society. But in fact, only a few people actually heard about it. The coming of Jesus, the Messiah, was but a whisper into the ears of a few select individuals.

 

The announcement comes first to an unmarried young girl, who would bear the baby. She was young and insignificant, and an illegitimate and unexplained pregnancy would  certainly not help her place in that society. The announcement also comes to shepherds, the least influential in that society, young children who were out in the fields, far from their towns and villages, tending to the sheep. In other words, the glory of Israel was revealed to those who most would deem inglorious. Israel’s new king was born to a young, unmarried girl, in a town not her home, and in a dirty manger with animals as the only witnesses to the birth. The heavenly announcement was made only to a group of poor, unnoticed shepherds.

 

The Almighty God, who created heaven and earth, who created the shepherds and the animals and Mary and Joseph, was the same God who chose to be glorified in human flesh as the baby Jesus. Unveiling the glory of God through humble means and ordinary details is a point Luke does not want us to miss! Humility reveals the glory of God! Humility demonstrates his greatness and glory. Humility is the hallmark of Jesus’s Kingdom. Dr. James Denison  elaborates: “As a young child, he was celebrated by foreign Magi, not of his own people. He spent his public ministry touching lepers, welcoming Gentiles and prostitutes, discipling tax collectors and other despised people, and offering the gospel to all who would receive it. His birth proved his words: ‘God so loved the world that God gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but receive eternal life.’” 

 

In a world that confuses glory with glitter, glamour, power, and prestige, would we see God’s glory in this seemingly inglorious package, cradled in a feed-trough, presented to peasants, announced to shepherds? Luke’s record of these events reminds us that the most humble circumstances reveal God’s glory. May this glorious humility grace our hearts this Christmas.

"The Arrival" by Max Lucado

The Arrival by Max Lucado

God had entered the world as a baby.

 

Yet, were someone to chance upon the sheep stable on the outskirts of Bethlehem that morning, what a peculiar scene they would behold.

 

The stable stinks like all stables do. The stench of urine, dung, and sheep reeks pungently in the air. The ground is hard, the hay scarce. Cobwebs cling to the ceiling and a mouse scurries across the dirt floor.

 

A more lowly place of birth could not exist.

 

Off to one side sit a group of shepherds. They sit silently on the floor; perhaps perplexed, perhaps in awe, no doubt in amazement. Their night watch had been interrupted by an explosion of light from heaven and a symphony of angels. God goes to those who have time to hear him—so on this cloudless night he went to simple shepherds.

 

Near the young mother sits the weary father. If anyone is dozing, he is. He can’t remember the last time he sat down. And now that the excitement has subsided a bit, now that Mary and the baby are comfortable, he leans against the wall of the stable and feels his eyes grow heavy. He still hasn’t figured it all out. The mystery of the event puzzles him. But he hasn’t the energy to wrestle with the questions. What’s important is that the baby is fine and that Mary is safe. As sleep comes he remembers the name the angel told him to use … Jesus. “We will call him Jesus.”

 

Wide awake is Mary. My, how young she looks! Her head rests on the soft leather of Joseph’s saddle. The pain has been eclipsed by wonder. She looks into the face of the baby. Her son. Her Lord. His Majesty. At this point in history, the human being who best understands who God is and what he is doing is a teenage girl in a smelly stable. She can’t take her eyes off him. Somehow Mary knows she is holding God. So this is he. She remembers the words of the angel. “His kingdom will never end.” (Luke 1:33)

 

He looks like anything but a king. His face is prunish and red. His cry, though strong and healthy, is still the helpless and piercing cry of a baby. And he is absolutely dependent upon Mary for his well-being.

 

Majesty in the midst of the mundane. Holiness in the filth of sheep manure and sweat. Divinity entering the world on the floor of a stable, through the womb of a teenager and in the presence of a carpenter.

 

She touches the face of the infant-God. How long was your journey!

 

This baby had overlooked the universe. These rags keeping him warm were the robes of eternity. His golden throne room had been abandoned in favor of a dirty sheep pen. And worshiping angels had been replaced with kind but bewildered shepherds.

 

Meanwhile, the city hums. The merchants are unaware that God has visited their planet. The innkeeper would never believe that he had just sent God into the cold. And the people would scoff at anyone who told them the Messiah lay in the arms of a teenager on the outskirts of their village. They were all too busy to consider the possibility.

 

Those who missed His Majesty’s arrival that night missed it not because of evil acts or malice; no, they missed it because they simply weren’t looking.

 

Little has changed in the last two thousand years, has it?

The Small Group Experience

Good Morning Friends,

Have you ever thought about being part of a small group?  I suppose my first small group experience outside of my family, was a Sunday School class when I was just a wee toddler.  Then of course there was the church youth group, which was very much a small group of peers who enjoyed food, fun, fellowship, and study.  Once I graduated high school, I discovered that I had to find or form a group like this on my own.  And so a few friends and I came together and would meet weekly to pray for one another, to laugh together, to cry together.  It was a wonderful, safe place of support and encouragement.  Since those early years, I have cherished the great privilege of being invited into someone’s life and the great blessings of having a group of folks, deeply a part of my own life.  Here’ what Paul said,   

 

We need each other

They had a dinner for Jesus. Martha served the food, and Lazarus was one of the people eating with Jesus. Mary brought in a pint of very expensive perfume made from pure nard. She poured the perfume on his feet, and then she wiped his feet with her hair. And the sweet smell from the perfume filled the whole house.  - JOHN 12:2–3

Greetings Saints,

When I was young I played the clarinet, trombone, and drums in my high school band.  I was humbled to play in the symphonic, marching, and jazz bands.  However, to this very day I don’t believe I was ever any good.  In fact, I still can’t read music, and anyone who’s heard me sing knows I can’t keep a tune, but my band director convinced me that I was needed.  She convinced me that the instruments I played were necessary for the band to be a band, that my love for music was treasured, and that my role was essential.  And so I joined the various musical groups. Some of the scores I played competently, while in others, I marched along and learned from the more experienced musicians who took the lead.