Tag: christ’s teaching

The Model Prayer (Matthew 6:7-15)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment
The Lord’s Prayer, by He Qi

And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words.

“Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him. In this manner, therefore, pray:

Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

“For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. (New King James Version)

God knows what we need before we even ask, which means the Creator of the universe has the divine ear inclined to listen to us. The Lord desires, even longs for us to pray to him.

Since this is God’s daily disposition, Jesus communicated for us a model way of prayer which exemplifies the values of Christ’s Beatitudes and reflects the priorities of God’s kingdom.

The Lord’s Prayer is meant to be prayed often, mindfully, and with flavor.

Jesus gave us six petitions to guide us in our prayers: The first three petitions are priorities of God that set the tone for the next three petitions, which are centered in our problems of living in this fallen world.

Addressing God

Jesus gave us instruction of how to address God: “Our Father in heaven.” All the pronouns in the Lord’s Prayer are plural, not singular. We are to be concerned for both our own individual issues, and for the needs of the community, and of the problems of the world.

“Father” is an endearing and relational word. “In heaven” balances the closeness and nearness of our heavenly Father with his sovereign and transcendent nature. Our God is both near and far – a close friend as well as a holy king. So, we address our prayers with a proper understanding of who God is.

First Petition: “Hallowed be your name.”

“Hallow” comes from the root word for holiness; it is to sanctify and set apart. God is concerned that we know the distinction between the Creator is holy, and so, the creatures are also to be holy. 

As He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.” (1 Peter 1:15-16, NKJV)

Notice the use of the verb: not hallowed “is” your name, but hallowed, or holy “be” your name. Jesus guides us to pray that God’s name would be shown as holy through us by the way we live. The world sees a holy God when God’s people walk in holiness, reflecting the Lord’s benevolent nature. 

Second Petition: “Your kingdom come.”

We live in a fallen world that has come under the domain of dark forces. The unfolding drama of Holy Scripture is that God is on a mission to restore creation to a benevolent rule.

Jesus is the King, we are the subjects, and God’s realm exists wherever his subjects go.  And where his subjects go, they are to pierce the darkness by embodying the good news that King Jesus has overcome the demonic realm and brought us into God’s kingdom. The prayer and proclamation of this good news is of utmost priority to God.

Third Petition: “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

God’s ethical will has been revealed to us by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount; the Beatitudes are the cornerstone of his teaching (Matthew 5-7). God’s will is that Christ’s followers be humble; grieve over sin in the world; act with gentleness instead of prideful condescension; hunger for true righteousness instead of legalistic self-righteousness; show mercy; be pure in heart; pursue peace; and, rejoice when persecuted. All of this results in being salt and light in this dark world. (Matthew 5:3-16)

Jesus spells out God’s will in his sermon. Christ’s followers are to:

  1. reconcile with others instead of hold grudges
  2. deal with lust through accountability instead of making excuses for mental adultery
  3. cherish our spouse instead of taking the easy way out when problems arise in marriage
  4. tell the truth at all times instead of shading it
  5. love, not retaliate when personally hurt or insulted.

If God’s will seems an impossible task, that’s because we need divine resources to live a Christian ethic; we need to pray!

The first three petitions are priorities for God. They are asking the same thing – that the full manifestation of God’s reign on earth be realized. 

Therefore, our prayers are not primarily to receive goods and services from God, but for us to render service to God. These prioritized petitions are a desire to see God honored on earth as God is already honored in heaven.

Fourth Petition: “Give us today our daily bread.”

Our bodies enable us to do God’s will, and so we must be concerned for them. Daily, we must have the basic necessities of life to carry out God’s priorities for the church and the world.

In the ancient world, people were paid at the end of each day. Folks also shopped every day at the marketplace for their food because there was no refrigeration. Whenever there was a flood or a drought, it meant much more than high grocery prices; people faced starvation and death.

They needed to trust God for today, and not worry about tomorrow. Even though contemporary people may not always readily perceive their great dependence on God, we still are in divine hands and need faith.

Fifth Petition: “Forgive our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.”

Sin is pictured as a debt. If someone has sinned (trespassed) against us, we must forgive them, thus releasing them from their debt. To forgive does not mean to forget. Rather, we do not hold the debt (the sin) over someone’s head for the rest of their life. 

The person who is forgiven by God is a forgiving person. Our own forgiveness implies that we have done the hard work of repentance through identifying our sin and renouncing it. So, if we fail to forgive, it demonstrates a lack of change on our part. We cannot be forgiven if we spurn God’s freely offered grace. 

Forgiveness is important to Jesus. Thus, we are to squarely face our bitterness. Simply sweeping our hurt under the rug and not extending forgiveness only gives the darkness a foothold into our lives – which is why we are to pray the final petition:

Sixth Petition: “And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.”

Just as we must trust God for our physical necessities, we also must trust God for our spiritual needs – which hinge on the issue of forgiveness – our forgiveness from God through Christ, and the forgiveness we extend to others who have hurt or offended us. 

An unforgiving heart is a major temptation to hate, seek revenge, and retaliate. If we have spent days, weeks, months, years, or even decades harboring an unforgiving spirit through anger, bitterness, and avoidance of facing our past trauma, we have embraced the dark side and need deliverance from evil. 

Freedom comes through acknowledging the offense, receiving grace and forgiveness from God, and passing that same forgiveness and grace to those who hurt us. This is not about whether they deserve it or not; it’s a matter of what I need to do.

Conclusion

The truth sets us free; telling our secrets brings freedom. Apart from naming our shame, we will remain bound and in need of liberation. Tell your secrets to God in the prayer closet, and then tell them to a trusted friend(s). We pray, and we act on what God tells us in prayer.  

The Lord’s Prayer is a model prayer. That means we use the six petitions of Jesus to frame our prayers in our own words, as well as say the words in our favorite translation of the Bible.

Praying this prayer daily shapes our everyday lives, serves as a guide for how to live, and provides discernment in making life’s many decisions. So, let us daily and in every way make use of our Lord’s Prayer.

Our Father in heaven, the One who is both near and far,

May your Name be shown as holy through us, your people.

May others submit to your lordship and become holy, too.

Help us to know your will and to do it.

We need you God, so provide our necessities for today.

Forgive us of our great and many sins, just as we forgive those who have sinned egregiously against us.

Lead us in paths of righteousness, which shoo the devil away.

For you are the Ruler, the Mighty One, forever full of glory and grace. Amen!

Whoever Is Not with Me Is Against Me (Matthew 12:22-32)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment
Jesus casts out the devils, by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld (1794-1872)

Then they brought him a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute, and Jesus healed him, so that he could both talk and see. All the people were astonished and said, “Could this be the Son of David?”

But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, “It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this fellow drives out demons.”

Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand. If Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then can his kingdom stand? And if I drive out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your people drive them out? So then, they will be your judges. But if it is by the Spirit of God that I drive out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

“Or again, how can anyone enter a strong man’s house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man? Then he can plunder his house.

“Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters. And so I tell you, every kind of sin and slander can be forgiven, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come. (New International Version)

Binary thinking is rife in today’s world. It is a simplified mindset in which a person sees issues in one of two opposite and mutually separate ways. In other words, binary thinking reduces complex situations into a simplified either/or view that sees everything from a good versus bad, right versus wrong, and us versus them mentality.

Engaging in binary thinking elicits a tendency towards oversimplification where groups and sides are pitted against each other. And this is precisely what the religious leaders of Christ’s day wanted.

They engaged in a logical fallacy by attributing Christ’s ability to heal and drive out demons as itself demonic. Oversimplification is when someone does not look at a circumstance or situation with any understanding, but instead assigns it either a good or bad label. In this case, the religious leaders were simply saying Jesus was doing bad work because he himself is bad, and in league with the devil.

There is a big difference between the ability to take complex issues and explain them in terms that most people can understand, and refusing to know the complexity by immediately boiling it down to a right or wrong label. The religious leaders did not seek to know and understand Jesus; and in their ignorance, they simply called Christ’s work satanic.

It could be that the religious leaders wanted to create a polarization between Christ and the people. After all, their own authority, power, and hegemony were being threatened by this upstart healer. Jesus was gaining the affection of the people, and so, the leaders perhaps felt they were losing their influence. At the least, they certainly felt jealous.

I am always impressed by the way Jesus responded to people of all kinds. Christ generally entered the world of those in front of him and handled matters according to the way they thought and did things. In the case of the religious leaders, Jesus entered into their binary thinking world and took them on from that point of view.

Christ argued logically from the leaders’ own illogic. If black and white thinking is what they understood, then Jesus gave them that in a way they would grasp it. Jesus counters the accusations by simply stating that Satan undoing his own work is ridiculous. If Satan is wanting more and more control over people (like the religious leaders want!) then there is no way he is going to give Christ the power to set them free from that control.

Therefore, in binary terms the leaders could understand, Jesus declared that whoever is not with him is against him; whoever is not gathering with him is actually scattering. The tables are turned. Jesus is doing good work, of which the religious leaders are calling bad. Thus, they are bad.

And Jesus was not finished with them quite yet. He further stated a grim warning, aimed directly at the leaders. By seeing up close and personal the work of God’s Spirit, then declaring that work to be the devil’s doing, you cannot be forgiven.

What’s more, not only are such people not forgiven, but they also cannot be forgiven – because they have cut themselves off from the very power that could forgive them. Once a person declares in their binary thinking that the only remaining source of life is poisoned, then they just condemned themselves to death.

Cutting off oneself from God altogether cannot possibly bring forgiveness and grace to that same self. If we are mad at God and rage at him, we are still engaging and communicating with him – we are not cut off. Any sort of communication with God is still having some sort of connection with the divine. But if we sever the connection altogether, then there is not a way to receive any grace.

So, if we are concerned about committing the unpardonable sin, we most certainly have not – because we still are seeking connection with God. Hell is the place of separation from God – the very place where people who want nothing to do with God are. It isn’t that God put them there; they put themselves there.

Let us not, therefore, pit people against each other, but instead, foster relational connections, wholeness, integrity, and a just spirit of right relationships. We need not condemn others or assign to them demonic labels. If they truly are condemned, they have already done so to themselves.

O God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, we ask that you mercifully hear our prayers and spare all those who confess their sins to you; and may they be absolved by your gracious pardon of their guilty conscience and of any shameful deeds, through Jesus Christ your Son, our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit are one God, now and forever. Amen.

The Church that Makes a Difference (Matthew 16:13-20)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Exploring Church Ministry Blog, Year ALeave a comment
Photo by Felix Mittermeier on Pexels.com

When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”

They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”

“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”

Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah. (New International Version)

A lot of research studies have come out in the past 20 years demonstrating that legions of adults, especially between the ages of 18-29, are leaving the Church in droves. This confirms my own anecdotal evidence over the years that about 80% of twenty-somethings drop out of church altogether. So, why are people leaving? Can anything be done about it?

Most of the studies can be boiled down to three major reasons: 

  1. The Church is irrelevant to my life and doesn’t talk about things important to me
  2. The Church is judgmental toward others not like themselves
  3. The Church is hypocritical by saying one thing and yet living another way

A good, right, and real confession of Jesus will speak a relevant word into the culture and into various generations, will proclaim the gospel of grace (not judgment), and will live what it believes.

The church that makes a difference is made up of people who confess Jesus

In today’s Gospel lesson, Jesus and his disciples are in the Gentile (non-Jewish) territory of Caesarea Philippi, a city 25 miles north of the Sea of Galilee. Up to this point, the disciples encountered a lot of people and heard a lot of things said. So, Jesus asked them two questions: 

Who do people say the Son of Man is?

The disciples gave a variety of answers, which is to be expected, with some of them being a bit esoteric. John the Baptist raised from the dead is a stretch. Elijah was a man who never died, but was just taken to heaven; maybe he’s back. Maybe Jeremiah or one of the other prophets got sent back. 

When asking this question to folks today, you will also get a variety of answers as to whom Jesus is – a good teacher, a model humanitarian, a myth or a legend who didn’t really exist. A few times I have been told that Jesus was an alien from another planet. My personal favorite when I asked who Jesus, a guy answered that he was a nudist, and that if we all just took off our clothes, there would be peace in the world.

Who do you say I am?

Peter acted as the spokesperson for the group. Given the disciples’ track record of scratching their heads over nearly everything Jesus said or did, one might expect to hear another crazy answer. But Peter got it right by confessing, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” 

“Christ” is another way of saying “Messiah,” or “Savior.” It literally means, in the Greek language, “Answer.”  Peter confessed Jesus as being The Answer, the person for whom everything comes down to. Peter may not have fully understood what he was saying, but he said it.

The church that makes a difference is made up of people who have been called by God

The reason that craziness didn’t come out of Peter’s mouth is that “The Answer” was divinely revealed to him.  Faith in Jesus Christ is a gift given to us by God. 

“All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” Jesus (Matthew 11:27, NIV)

Peter was blessed – not necessarily because of sincerity, openness, or deserving it – but because of God’s grace which revealed to him that Jesus is the “Answer.”

The Apostle Peter put himself in a position to know by obeying the voice of Jesus to follow him. It took him and the other disciples a while to “get it,” but eventually they did. And if it took years of being with Jesus for the disciples to make a right and good confession of faith, then it’s important that we have a great deal of patience for our friends and relatives.

The church that makes a difference is made up of people who call others to confess Jesus

Jesus proclaimed Peter (which means “rock”) the immovable object from which the Church would be built.  The Apostle Paul framed it this way:

You are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. (Ephesians 2:19-21, NIV)

Christ is the one who builds the Church – and not me,  nor you. This reality is encouraging and comforting to me. If it was up to me to build the Church, I would screw it up so badly that it would actually be overcome by hell. But I can’t screw it up, because it’s Christ’s Church, not mine. 

So, we can move forward and storm the gates of hell, we can move and work and act and call others to confess, all with the confidence and security of knowing that Jesus is building his Church. There’s no need to worry whether we’re getting it right, or not, because we aren’t the ones in control of the project.

However, I admit what Jesus says next isn’t very comforting to me. Christ told Peter that he will give him the “keys of the kingdom of heaven,” and that whatever he binds on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever he lets loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

Giving Peter the keys of the kingdom seems akin to giving an 8 year old the keys to the car and saying, “Go ahead, take it for a spin, you can drive it!” 

What are the keys of the kingdom? 

The preaching of the holy gospel and Christian discipline toward repentance. Both preaching and discipline open the kingdom of heaven to believers and close it to unbelievers. 

How does the preaching of the gospel open and close the kingdom of heaven? 

The kingdom of heaven is opened by proclaiming and publicly declaring to all believers, each and every one, that, as often as they accept the gospel promise in true faith, God, because of what Christ has done, truly forgives all their sins. The kingdom of heaven is closed, however, by proclaiming and publicly declaring to unbelievers and hypocrites that, as long as they do not repent, the anger of God and eternal condemnation rest on them. (The Heidelberg Catechism, Q&A 83, 84 )

The Church is true to its mission when it proclaims the good news of God’s grace in Christ. We possess the keys of the kingdom. Jesus knew exactly what he was doing, that is, the risks and the problems of letting people do the task of proclaiming the gospel. Yet, Christ still tossed us the keys to his Mercedes.

Conclusion

A Church that makes a difference is made up of people who confess Jesus, are called by God, and call others to confess Jesus, too. The de-churched and the disaffected want to see a Church that seeks to understand the world, to provide relevant ministry to others, and to tackle the injustice that exists everywhere.

We must use the power given us with the keys of the kingdom to bestow mercy to the weak, the oppressed, and the lost. We need to live what we believe with a passionate heart and an unashamed faith.

Together, as God’s people, we can extend the hospitality and the kindness to make a difference in the church and the world. 

May our confession of Christ shape our words and our actions. And may it give us the confidence and boldness to live as Jesus did, and to enjoy him forever. Amen.

The Parable of the Mustard Seed (Mark 4:30-34)

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

Again he [Jesus] said, “What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it?It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest of all seeds on earth. Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds can perch in its shade.”

With many similar parables Jesus spoke the word to them, as much as they could understand. He did not say anything to them without using a parable. But when he was alone with his own disciples, he explained everything. (New International Version)

Working with Seeds

I grew up on a rural Mid-West America farm. Working with seeds was our livelihood. Even though my farming father worried incessantly about the weather, there was one thing he was never anxious about: seeds.

My dad knew that when we planted seeds in the Spring, there would be a harvest in the Fall. That’s because he knew the seed already has within itself everything it needs to germinate, take root, grow, and produce a harvest. His role was simply to tend to it all by keeping the fields free of weeds, worms, and critters.

Since I was the youngest, I typically got the grunt work of our massive family garden. I was always excited when we planted things because I knew what was coming in a few months: some delicious veggies on my dinner plate which were fresh from the garden that I myself tended. I never wondered whether there would be food on the table, or not.

Seeds are, of course, small. If you think about it, they appear quite unimpressive. Yet, we know better. We understand that when planted, watered, and cultivated, those seeds turn into amazing plants. 

But it takes time. Even as dumb little kid, I clearly knew that my planting seeds would not result in seeing anything above ground the next day. I understood it would take a few weeks before new growth would break the ground.

Seeds and the Kingdom of God

The kingdom of God, Jesus told us, is like a mustard seed – a very small seed which can grow into a tree big enough for birds to nest. Unlike the mighty Roman Empire, or contemporary powerful national governments, the kingdom of God had humble beginnings. It grows, over a long period of time, to become a force greater than anything the world can produce.

While our world races forcefully on with the speed of the hare, Jesus is carefully and patiently building his Church at the pace of a tortoise. In the end, the kingdom of God will rule over all creation, while the kingdoms of this world shall no longer exist. 

Even though many of us now live in a society where quicker, faster, better, and stronger dominate everything, still the best things in life come as a result of tedious perseverance over an extended period of time. 

We are in such a hurry to accomplish our goals, make as much money as we can, and keep constant vigilance over our work. And for what purpose?

When we forget to slow down, or worse yet, believe slowness to be laziness and/or stupidity, there is a price to pay.

Lessons of the Seed

In graduate school, I typically read an average of 200 books per semester. Yes, you read that right. I had to keep up. I was on the clock with deadlines for papers and projects. In the factory, where I did a stent as a worker, I did piece work at the rate of 100 per hour for 8-10 hours. I had to go fast to survive and keep my job, let alone thrive. All of this, of course, impacted my mind, body, and emotions – in very uncaring ways. It was all done at the cost of my physical and mental health.

Indeed, our modern capitalist societies generate an unparalleled level of wealth and standard of living. But this has been achieved at the cost of devouring our planet faster than she can replenish herself. The stress we have put on mother earth we would never think of putting on our own mothers.

Even our attempts at leisure and self-care are anything but. We often end up racing to have as much fun and relaxation as we can cram into a few days or weeks of our “time off.” A return to the normal rat race has us telling each other, “I need a vacation from my vacation.”

There is such a thing as death by overwork. So, we desperately need to come back to the words and ways of Christ – to embrace the slow developing rhythms of grace. We need to age like a fine wine or an expensive bourbon, getting wiser as we get older.

Time is a precious gift given to us by a good and wise God. And that gift must be stewarded well. All the things that bind people together and make our lives worth living – family, faith, friendship, and community – all thrive on having copious amounts of time with each other (and God) in relational connection.

We are, I believe, in a pandemic of having no one to listen, of profound loneliness, and of incredible lostness of soul. The only real prescription for these debilitating maladies is slowing down and taking the time to be, and to be with each other.

Seeds are Slow

Instant gratification will not do the trick. We need to plant small seeds, and then take the time to nurture them and watch over them. While the rest of the world rages and roars on with their disease of speed, believers must carefully cultivate spiritual practices which foster healthy growth and development.

Whether we like it, or not, we serve a slow God. And what’s more, because slowness is built into the very nature of the world, decelerating our lives actually works. Life eventually becomes better, not worse.

You and I have the God-given right to determine our own pace and tempo – without anxious systems of power squeezing every ounce of speed and activity out of us, sucking our souls to serve a worthless idol.

I, for one, would not be opposed to creating a society known as “The Royal Order of Sloths,” or joining a group of slow walkers who label themselves as “Sauntering for Sanity,” or simply be straightforward with an organization known as “The Society for the Propagation of Slowness.”

That’s because the best things in life take time; and those things need us to slow ourselves enough to notice and enjoy them. Eventually, we shall find that the world is blessed because of our commitment to embracing the small and the slow.

Let us pray for all the world, and also for ourselves, knowing that what we ask in the name of the Lord, will be heard according to God’s mercy and patience.

Almighty God, we pray for faith, even as small as a mustard-seed, and for the love to nourish and nurture it, so that it may grow and flourish. We pray for the church throughout the world – that people of faith may work together in unity and in prayer to overcome evil and to promote true love among all people.

O Lord, you are the beginning of all our good, the wellspring of all our love and the source of all our freedom. Let your grace continue to work in us, that your will may be done through us, and that we may always rejoice in your presence. Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer. Amen.