Tag: christian faith

All Who Come and Touch are Made Well (Matthew 14:34-36)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment

They crossed the lake and came to land at Gennesaret, where the people recognized Jesus. So they sent for the sick people in all the surrounding country and brought them to Jesus. They begged him to let the sick at least touch the edge of his cloak; and all who touched it were made well. (Good News Translation)

Jesus showed up. That’s all it took. The very presence of Christ emboldened people to act. And these were not just the religious folk. They were on the other side of the lake – which for us means the other side of the tracks. In other words, the people of Gennesaret were poor and needy with lots of sick persons, as well as spiritually pagan.

This wasn’t a place that pious people visited. It was far from being a destination vacation spot. But it was just the sort of place that Jesus would visit. It was for people like those at Gennesaret that Christ came.

Jesus Recognized

In the previous story of the disciples on the lake during a storm, Jesus walked out on the water to them. When they saw him, they didn’t recognize him. But here, in today’s story, a bunch of people who weren’t following Jesus around, knew who he was straightaway.

One of the great ironies of the New Testament Gospels is that Jesus often got a cool reception of unbelief amongst the religious insiders in his own homeland, while tending to receive faith from spiritual outsiders in heathen places. Christ initiated a seismic shift and a great transfer of replacing the insiders with the outsiders. This sort of activity was so spiritually scandalous and cataclysmic that it eventually got Jesus killed.

“Many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.”

Jesus (Matthew 19:30, NIV)

People Respond

The people of Gennesaret demonstrated their faith by acting on the sight of Jesus amongst them. They sent others out into the surrounding countryside to let them know that Jesus was here. That was all it took for the rural folk to not only come but to bring all their sick friends and family with them. Belief abounded, that this man, Jesus, could do the impossible work of curing and healing.

And this is precisely the sort of mentality and heart attitude Jesus was looking for. In telling his parable of the soils, Christ wanted the response of the fourth soil: To not only hear and acknowledge, but to also take the words and ways of God into one’s life in such a way that growth and development happens, fruit matures, and a harvest of righteousness, justice, and peace occurs.

“The seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” (Matthew 13:23, NIV)

Jesus Makes All the People Well

The most “touching” thing to me in this short account of Christ encountering the people of Gennesaret is that every single person who came to Jesus was made well, without exception.

Such was the faith of the people, that they neither needed nor expected Jesus to come and lay his hands on them or to even say anything. They simply believed that if they could but touch the fringe of his cloak, healing and wellness would happen.

And the people weren’t just seeking their own betterment, but were concerned for everyone they knew who needed help. Whether there was superstition mingled with the faith is really of no concern; just a smidgeon of faith in Jesus is potent and powerful enough to effect a complete makeover of a person.

Moreover, there wasn’t simply individual and isolated instances of wholeness and healing; there was a mass level miracle, a giant group touch of healing and health.

Jesus welcomed them all, and allowed all the people to touch. Most of us don’t want a bunch of strangers touching us or our clothes, at all. That’s too weird and creepy, and likely makes us uncomfortable. What’s more, no respectable person would ever think of touching a rabbi – especially women. That sort of thing was religiously and culturally unacceptable.

Another irony we see is that the crossing of purity boundaries and laws which made people ritually impure is turned on it’s head. Instead, this kind of activity of people touching Christ made the impure folks pure. As something of a rule-breaker at heart, I find this reality refreshing. We need a lot more of it.

Jesus and People Today

Today’s Gospel lesson might seem a nice story that happened a very long time ago. We may also believe it doesn’t have much to do with me today. After all, Jesus isn’t bodily roaming the countryside today. We don’t see mass healings of people. In some places, we rarely see any healing at all from a direct result of faith. So, why even talk about this? Why bring it up? Do you just want to get my hopes up, only to dash them? Isn’t all this stuff pie-in-the-sky thinking, anyway?

Those are legitimate questions and concerns. And we ought not to disparage or make light of anyone asking them. All of us have likely encountered reaching out in faith without any healing or change of circumstance. Rather than going to one of two extremes, by either berating ourselves for a supposed failure of faith, or of discounting God altogether as a figment of the unenlightened mind, we can take a different approach.

The very nature of faith is contact, connection, and care. Faith is up close, relational, and involves touch. Faith is free, yet it is not cheap. Faith always involves a cost: vulnerability and intimacy. If we ever look for faith from afar and have no intention of getting up close and personal – so close as to touch the hem of a garment – then that which we seek will forever be elusive to us.

I’m not talking about a process or a plan that you can predictably access to get the result you want. Rather, I’m referring to real human contact and relationship that can only happen with being open about needs and wants, and is willing to expose one’s inner person to the outside world. I’m talking about putting away the false front we put up for others to see, and let the true self come out. Yes, it’s risky. Yes, it most likely will hurt. And yes, it will lead to healing.

When a person goes to a doctor for a pain they cannot get rid of, and get a diagnosis of needing surgery to deal with the hurt, we willingly allow the surgeon to create more pain for us by cutting into our body. We allow it because we understand that more pain leads to less pain.

And the same is true for our soul. Our broken hearts, our damaged emotions, our racing thoughts, and our hurting spirits need to experience the invisible scalpel of God. Divine intervention is often unpleasant – at least at first – but then later results in wellness for all who invite it’s touch.

May you come with vulnerable faith, confident hope, and active love, to the One who can help you realize your most intimate longings. Amen.

Some Needed Encouragement (Revelation 15:1-4)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment
The Seven Last Plagues and the Harps of God, by Nicolas Bataille, c.1380 C.E.

I saw in heaven another great and marvelous sign: seven angels with the seven last plagues—last, because with them God’s wrath is completed. And I saw what looked like a sea of glass glowing with fire and, standing beside the sea, those who had been victorious over the beast and its image and over the number of its name. They held harps given them by God and sang the song of God’s servant Moses and of the Lamb:

“Great and marvelous are your deeds,
    Lord God Almighty.
Just and true are your ways,
    King of the nations.
Who will not fear you, Lord,
    and bring glory to your name?
For you alone are holy.
All nations will come
    and worship before you,
for your righteous acts have been revealed.” (New International Version)

Let’s keep in mind that the book of Revelation (also known as The Apocalypse of John) is a vision of the Apostle John about how things shake out in the end. The purpose of the vision is not for us to get lost in esoteric speculations about the future and try to figure out specific dates and times of God’s judgment.

Rather, John’s Revelation was primarily meant to give believers a future hope that their hardships and suffering will not last forever; there is a time coming, soon, when Judge Jesus will make all things right and all things new. In other words, the vision of John was designed to provide needed encouragement to followers of Jesus.

The believers needed a connection to their spiritual heritage – a way to see that they weren’t an isolated faith island in the middle of the world’s crud. The heavenly beings were singing a song of Moses and of the Lamb (Jesus). The two are connected, thus bringing together the saints of ages past with the struggling Christians of the present.

The song of Moses is a song of triumph, sung after the Israelites passed through the Red Sea unharmed and the Egyptian army was eradicated:

“I will sing to the Lord,
    for he is highly exalted.
Both horse and driver
    he has hurled into the sea.

“The Lord is my strength and my defense;
    he has become my salvation.
He is my God, and I will praise him,
    my father’s God, and I will exalt him.
The Lord is a warrior;
    the Lord is his name.
Pharaoh’s chariots and his army
    he has hurled into the sea.
The best of Pharaoh’s officers
    are drowned in the Red Sea.
The deep waters have covered them;
    they sank to the depths like a stone.
Your right hand, Lord,
    was majestic in power.
Your right hand, Lord,
    shattered the enemy.

Flee From Egypt, by Rev. Albert Lee Wagner, 1975

“In the greatness of your majesty
    you threw down those who opposed you.
You unleashed your burning anger;
    it consumed them like stubble.
By the blast of your nostrils
    the waters piled up.
The surging waters stood up like a wall;
    the deep waters congealed in the heart of the sea.
The enemy boasted,
    ‘I will pursue, I will overtake them.
I will divide the spoils;
    I will gorge myself on them.
I will draw my sword
    and my hand will destroy them.’
But you blew with your breath,
    and the sea covered them.
They sank like lead
    in the mighty waters.
Who among the gods
    is like you, Lord?
Who is like you—
    majestic in holiness,
awesome in glory,
    working wonders?

“You stretch out your right hand,
    and the earth swallows your enemies.
In your unfailing love you will lead
    the people you have redeemed.
In your strength you will guide them
    to your holy dwelling.
The nations will hear and tremble;
    anguish will grip the people of Philistia.
The chiefs of Edom will be terrified,
    the leaders of Moab will be seized with trembling,
the people of Canaan will melt away;
    terror and dread will fall on them.
By the power of your arm
    they will be as still as a stone—
until your people pass by, Lord,
    until the people you bought pass by.
You will bring them in and plant them
    on the mountain of your inheritance—
the place, Lord, you made for your dwelling,
    the sanctuary, Lord, your hands established.

“The Lord reigns
    for ever and ever.” (Exodus 15:1-18, NIV)

Throughout the millennia, this deliverance from harsh slavery to freedom is annually recalled and remembered in the Passover. The original Passover in Egypt involved a lamb being slain and it’s blood applied to the doorposts of each Jewish home. The avenging angel “passed over” those homes and instead dealt with the Egyptian houses which had no lamb’s blood over the door.

The song of Moses and the song of the Lamb (Jesus) are really the same song. Both the deliverance out of Egypt and through the Red Sea, as well as the deliverance from guilt and shame through the cross and resurrection, was real salvation from all that oppressed and hindered the people from living into their true selves.

This connection to salvation history was a great boon to the early believers undergoing their own brand of injustice, oppression, and persecution – just for being followers of Jesus.

So, we all need to apply the death of the Lamb to our present situations, so that we can endure through hardship and not give up and experience a failure of faith. We continually need a strengthening of faith, to recall and remember who we are and to whom we belong, so that we will sing our own song of hope and deliverance.

“Awake and Sing the Song,” by English hymnist William Hammond (1719-1783)

Awake, and sing the song
Of Moses and the Lamb;
Tune every heart and every tongue
To praise the Savior’s name.

Sing of His dying love;
Sing of His rising power;
Sing how He intercedes above
For those whose sins He bore.

Tell, in seraphic strains,
What He has done for you;
How He has taken off your chains
And formed your hearts anew.

His faithfulness proclaim
While life to you is given:
Join hands and hearts to praise His name
Till we all meet in heaven.

Amen.

Walk on Water? Why? (Matthew 14:22-33)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment
Jesus Walks on Water, by Konstantin Alexejewitsch Korowin, 1890 

Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone,and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.

Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear.

But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

“Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”

“Come,” he said.

Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”

Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”

And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.” (New International Version)

In the New Testament Gospels, we see Jesus for who he is – Son of God and true Sovereign of the universe – seeking to reconcile people to God through his life, miracles, and teaching. In the Gospels we also see Christ’s disciples for who they are – a rag-tag bunch who express both belief and doubt, and experience both faith and failure.

The reality of the Christian life is that it is a sort of three-steps-forward and two-steps-backward kind of experience. The expectation that we will “succeed” and have everything go hunky-dory each time we step out in faith, is far from how things actually work in both the world and in God’s kingdom. Doubt and failure are important experiences for the believer in Jesus.

Without failure, there is no Christian life. Why? Because it means we are still in the boat.

It’s evidence that we never left the safety of established routines and responded to God’s command to step out of our comfort zone, and boldly go where we’ve never gone before.

Our failures may, like Peter, be colossal bellyflops. Yet, Jesus is there – extending grace to Peter and helping him, even in his failure of faith. Failure does not define us; it isn’t our identity. Jesus is Lord over everything, including storms, hardship, and trouble. 

Yes, there are a lot of scary things in life. Learning to ride a bike was scary. Driving for the first time on an icy road was scary. Getting married and having kids was scary. Admitting a fault, mistake, or weakness is scary. Being vulnerable with another person is scary.

It can even be scary to be at church. Why? Because we might fail, and it may crush us.

The fear of failure, however, need not control our lives. Why? Because grace overcomes everything.

We all find ourselves, at times, caught midway between faith and doubt. But to know this situation is to experience grace. If the worst scenario you worry about in your head would actually come to pass, it will still never change the reality that God loves you! And it will not stop Jesus from extending his hand to you in a life-saving grip of grace. 

Fear melts away when we keep our eyes on Jesus. So, we must focus on Christ, instead of fixating on the waves around us. The truth sets us free. Therefore, let’s notice five truths about Jesus that help us overcome the fear of failure and embrace a life of faith.

1. Jesus is a person of prayer

Jesus was deeply dependent on his heavenly Father. His life exhibited the necessities of simple prayer and obedience. If Jesus found the need for solitude and prayer for his life and ministry, how much more to we need it!? 

The Lord had his disciples get into the boat and go out on the lake. Jesus knew they were about to face a storm. The boat ended up getting thrown around by the waves. Even though the disciples were doing God’s will by going out on the lake, they were not spared from adversity.  

Jesus wanted his disciples to experience the storm. Why? Because it is through the storm that we learn faith.  

Faith is developed through experience and adversity. Faith that never endures distress, never grows and matures. Faith must be exercised – and if it isn’t, it atrophies and becomes useless. 

Show me a person with great faith, and I’ll show you a person that has gone through a boatload of adversity and hurt, having allowed Jesus to grace them with healing.

2. Jesus is present with us, and this presence brings an end to fear

Being in the middle of a lake during a storm did not prevent Jesus from being present with the disciples – he just walked on the water to be with them. Even though the disciples had just participated in the miracle of Jesus feeding the five thousand, another miracle was not on their radar – which is why they did not recognize Jesus and were afraid when they saw him.

While afraid, we don’t see Jesus, even when he’s right in front of our faces. Why? Because we don’t expect him to be there and mistake him for a ghost.  

When the disciples cried out in fear, Jesus responded. I used to have a factory job, training workers. When the training was completed, I had the trainees evaluate our time together. The top response I received is that my presence helped them to learn their job – the freedom to fail time and time again without judgment. Having me there to rescue them, when things got too much, built confidence that they could do it on their own.

3. Jesus desires those who follow him to imitate him

Jesus walked on water. Jesus invited Peter to walk on water. Peter was not chided by Jesus for getting out of the boat, but for doubting that he could continue in the miracle that was happening. 

Jesus isn’t merely interested in disciples being able to regurgitate his teaching. Why? Because he wants us to exercise our learning through actual deeds of faith.  

Once the command of Jesus was given to Peter, “Come”, then walking on water became only a matter of trust.

“Christianity has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult and left untried.”

G.K. Chesterton

We understandably get nervous when a crazy Jesus and an unpredictable Holy Spirit call us to change by getting out of the friendly confines of the boat. Why? After all, we might fail. 

However, it is at those times that we bank on God’s Word and promises. The Apostle James said that if we find ourselves lacking wisdom to deal with the unpredictable and unknowable, we are to ask God who gives generously to all without finding fault and will be given to us. (James 1:5)

Christ Walking on the Sea, by Natali Fedorova

Peter responded to his predicament by crying out to Jesus, “Lord, save me!” Jesus immediately reached out and saved Peter from his own doubt and lack of faith. Jesus called Peter a “little-faith.”

Many people have lived too long with the notion that God is some stern angry deity who is constantly displeased with sinful people, and that only through perfection will God ever be happy with us. The truth is that Jesus wants us to imitate him; and, when we fail, he is there to pick us up. 

4. Jesus has the authority to settle the storm when he is ready to do it

Jesus is King. Christ is Sovereign of the world. He will bring the crisis to an end according to his own good pleasure and good timing. Rather than spending all our emotional capital by worrying or conniving to get out of a situation, we can trust God and keep our eyes on Jesus.  Our job is to believe; God’s job is everything else.

5. Jesus’ power led the disciples to acknowledge who he is

Worship happens when we see Jesus as he really is, the Son of God. Flat, dull, boring worship comes from flat, dull, boring Christians who are unable to see the power of Jesus in their lives. We discover the power of God when we are in a situation which requires God’s strength to deliver us. Grasping Jesus as the Son of God is more than a verbal confession of faith; it is being able to trust him, like getting out of a boat in the middle of a lake.

We are to live by faith in the Son of God who loved us and gave himself for us (Galatians 2:20). It doesn’t require much faith to pray that Aunt Mable’s bunions will feel better. It only requires a little faith to give a dollar when you have ten dollars. It takes no faith to discuss the weather and steer clear of hard conversations.

But it does require faith:

  • to pray for a miraculous healing every day without giving up for a little boy who is racked by epilepsy, and trust God to spare his life
  • to write a check for $100 to someone in need when you have exactly $100 in your checking account, and trust God to provide for you own necessities. 
  • to go off the grid of the routine schedule to have a difficult discussion about social justice, and trust God to act on Christ’s teachings. 
  • to live as though the mission of God in this world is the most important thing we could ever do, and trust God to step out and do it.

It would be great if we could pray and act without ever doubting or failing, yet the only way to do that is to never step out of the boat. Instead, live life. Trust God. And see what happens.

Holy God, help us, your people, to embrace the life that is truly life by stepping out of the boat.  May Jesus define our lives instead of letting failure define us. May we accept the grace that is ours in Jesus Christ our Lord, in whose name we are bold to pray. Amen.

Imitate the Right Use of Power (1 Corinthians 4:14-20)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment

I am writing this not to shame you but to warn you as my dear children. Even if you had ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. Therefore I urge you to imitate me. For this reason I have sent to you Timothy, my son whom I love, who is faithful in the Lord. He will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus, which agrees with what I teach everywhere in every church.

Some of you have become arrogant, as if I were not coming to you. But I will come to you very soon, if the Lord is willing, and then I will find out not only how these arrogant people are talking, but what power they have. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power. (New International Version)

We need to talk about power.

And we need solid sacred examples of how to wield power rightly and justly.

Power is a lot like sex. Everyone wants it, but not everyone respects it and uses it well.

Humanity was created by God to exercise power. True human power has always been intended by our Creator as a means of giving love to others. Wherever you find love being extended by people in power to the powerless, there you will see that it works.

Yet, here’s the rub for many of us: This godly use of power may not (and likely will not) achieve instant results. That’s probably why we so often associate humanity’s possession of power with threats, bullying, and violence – because they usually work to get the immediate results of obtaining power and keeping others in subservience to that power.

The right use of power rarely gets rolled out smoothy without any wrinkles to it. Instead, wielding power through love makes its way by means of suffering. It comes from the humble servants like Mother Teresa, and from those who could throw their weight around, but instead choose to use their influence for self-giving love.

This sort of just and right authority is realized when we are aware of our own weaknesses and failures. Believing that “might=right” is merely a prescription for working out our own complexes on other people; it will only result in extending hate, not love, when others resist our authority.

The ones who hold true power are those who know they are unworthy of it, and incapable of using it without humility and divine help. Real power is like a shepherd looking after a flock of sheep – and not like pulling out a sword to kill the bad guys when they come to challenge authority.

Believers everywhere need awareness that the Christian message offers a profound reversal of what we think we know about power. All signs of real power lead us to the foot of the cross. National governments seems to think that power must be both achieved and sustained by the threat of violence. But the power of God’s kingdom is exercised through giving, serving, and loving.

And it is that sort of power which transforms the world in ways that probably won’t make headlines on the nightly news. The power of Christ is passed on throughout the generations of believers – learned by imitating people, like the Apostle Paul, who demonstrated humble service, instead of arrogant authority.

Faith is passed from person to person; and not just handed down from individuals reading their bibles in seclusion. Power and authority are given to those who are capable of handling it with justice and righteousness.

“You have heard me teach things that have been confirmed by many reliable witnesses. Now teach these truths to other trustworthy people who will be able to pass them on to others.”

The Apostle Paul to his protégé Timothy (2 Timothy 2:2, NLT)

Christians learn from leaders how the faith is lived out, and how power is used, by imitating what they see and hear. Therefore, an important question is this: Who do I imitate?

“Dear brothers and sisters, pattern your lives after mine, and learn from those who follow our example.”

The Apostle Paul to the Philippian Church (Philippians 3:17, NLT)

Our great desire is that you will keep on loving others as long as life lasts, in order to make certain that what you hope for will come true. Then you will not become spiritually dull and indifferent. Instead, you will follow the example of those who are going to inherit God’s promises because of their faith and endurance. (Hebrews 6:11-12, NLT)

Remember your leaders who taught you the word of God. Think of all the good that has come from their lives, and follow the example of their faith. (Hebrews 13:7, NLT)

Those who hold authority and power in the Christian Church must exemplify a proven character of persevering love in the face of pain and suffering. Such persons, having shown humility through it all, are worthy to imitate.

This does not necessarily mean that we emulate those who eruditely speak the Word of God, have superior gifts and abilities, and enjoy success in ministry. It does mean that we ought to imitate, and have as mentors, those persons who imitate Christ and are not self-promoting peacocks who go after being admired and praised.

A cocky Christian leader who has not focused on suffering love, and who has not experienced the purgative fiery trials of this life, may easily become seduced by their own importance. However, leaders who have seen their share of hard circumstances, pain, and suffering, and have come through it loving God and serving others out of grace and humility, are leaders worth imitating. 

Character shapes power, and never the other way around.

God of unchangeable and unending power: Look with mercy on your Church everywhere, and carry out your good and loving purposes through us your people. We trust that your power and love will have it’s way in this old fallen world – and that your plan of salvation shall be carried out, through Jesus Christ our Lord, in the strength of the Holy Spirit. Amen.