Tag: new life

Luke 9:28-43 – Transfiguration Sunday: Listen to Jesus

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year CLeave a comment
Transfiguration by Laura James

Jesus took Peter, John and James with him and went up onto a mountain to pray. As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning. Two men, Moses and Elijah, appeared in glorious splendor, talking with Jesus. They spoke about his departure, which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem. Peter and his companions were very sleepy, but when they became fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men standing with him. As the men were leaving Jesus, Peter said to him, “Master, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” (He did not know what he was saying.)

While he was speaking, a cloud appeared and covered them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. A voice came from the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him.” When the voice had spoken, they found that Jesus was alone. The disciples kept this to themselves and did not tell anyone at that time what they had seen.

The next day, when they came down from the mountain, a large crowd met him. A man in the crowd called out, “Teacher, I beg you to look at my son, for he is my only child. A spirit seizes him, and he suddenly screams; it throws him into convulsions so that he foams at the mouth. It scarcely ever leaves him and is destroying him. I begged your disciples to drive it out, but they could not.”

“You unbelieving and perverse generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you and put up with you? Bring your son here.”

Even while the boy was coming, the demon threw him to the ground in a convulsion. But Jesus rebuked the impure spirit, healed the boy and gave him back to his father. And they were all amazed at the greatness of God. (New International Version)

When Jesus is around, extraordinary things happen. And yet, sometimes we just don’t perceive it. The three disciples of Jesus – Peter, James, and John – experienced something incredible, yet they were not really aware of what it meant, at the time. The Transfiguration of Jesus on the mountain was unimaginable and awesome. The disciples, however, were confused, sleepy, and walked away silent about the whole affair. 

Woodcut of the Transfiguration by Sister Mary Grace Thul

Coming down from the mountain, the other disciples were found scratching their heads about a boy in need of healing. Jesus seemed rather perturbed about the all-around lack of faith. After curing the boy, everyone was amazed, as if they did not expect such a thing to occur.

We are not always told in the Gospels why Christ’s disciples often did not understand or perceive the significance of the miraculous, supernatural, or extraordinary events that took place right in front of them. Maybe their minds were somewhere else.

It could be that Peter had ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) and was having trouble focusing.

Perhaps James trying to do some sort of ancient multi-tasking. 

Maybe John had some road rage on his way to the meeting on the mountain and was having a hard time thinking straight.

It could be that the three disciples were caught up in the anxiety of wondering where their next shekel was coming from.

Perhaps they were just up too late the night before binge watching the fishermen on the lake. But whatever was going on with the disciples, they were distracted.

So, we actually have God the Father step into the scene at the Transfiguration of Jesus on the mountain and speak. God isn’t typically in the business of exhorting people to listen unless they are not paying attention. The heavenly Father is clear, succinct, and to the point:

“This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him.”

We are to listen to Jesus because he is God’s Son. Everything centers round him. 

Jesus is the full bodily and human representation of God on earth. Jesus is Savior, Lord and Master, Teacher and Healer.

Jesus is the complete fulfillment of all the Old Testament promises, and the one who will come again to judge the living and the dead.

Jesus is the mid-point of history, the hinge upon which all the universe swings. Jesus is the one whom we must listen to when he speaks and acts.

Therefore, our identity is to be fully bent, molded, and shaped in Jesus Christ. This spiritual formation of our lives happens as we intentionally seek to be with Jesus, listen to him, and do what he says. 

Transfiguration by Macha Chmakoff 

Jesus took Peter, James, and John up the mountain to experience his Transfiguration in a prayer meeting. Extraordinary things happen in prayer meetings. The early church gathered often in prayer meetings, following the example of their Lord Jesus. As the church listened to God and responded (in a rhythm of revelation and response) they saw Peter miraculously delivered from jail; ordinary people delivered from empty lives and demonic influence; and guidance in how to proceed as followers of Christ. 

Prayer is as much or more about listening to God as it is talking to him. It is in listening to God that we are filled with God’s Spirit and empowered to come down from the mountain and engage in God’s mission.

Jesus wanted the disciples to learn and discern something on the mountain. Jesus was changed in front of them. Moses and Elijah showed up and talked with him about his “departure,” that is, his “exodus.”

Moses was the one who listened to God and led the people in a mass exodus from slavery in Egypt to the freedom of the Promised Land.

Elijah was a prophet who listened to God and led the people out of centuries of idol worship and dead religion into the freedom of spiritual and national revival in Israel. 

And Jesus came to lead people in an exodus out of sin, death, and hell so that they can experience a new life of freedom, hope, peace, and joy.

Changed lives are God’s goal for us.  And a changed life will occur when we listen to God’s Son, Jesus, learn from him, and lean into faith in him – all of which takes humility.

Eventually, Jesus and his disciples came down from the mountain. Prayer meetings are great, but there is a time to descend the mountain and engage in God’s mission.

We are to participate with God in seeing changed lives through the work of Jesus.

We must bear witness to the redemptive saving events of Jesus to a world which desperately needs him – his healing work of both body and spirit.

The glory of God is presently here among us. We need to perceive it and be aware of it.  But to do so, we must listen well. 

Erik Weihenmayer is blind, yet on May 25, 2001, he reached the peak of Mount Everest. Suffering from a degenerative eye disease, he lost his sight when he was thirteen years old. But that did not stop him from mountain climbing. On a mountain where 90% of climbers never make it to the top—and 165 have died trying since 1953—Erik succeeded in large measure because he listened well. 

He listened to the little bell tied to the back of the climber in front of him, so he would know what direction to go. He listened to the voice of teammates who would shout back to him, “Death-fall two feet to your right!” so he would know what direction not to go. He listened to the sound of his pick jabbing the ice, so he would know whether the ice was safe to cross. 

When we journey through this life, listening well makes all the difference. So, how might we listen well to Jesus?  Here are some basic principles of active listening:

  1. Stop talking.  It was Mark Twain who said: “If we were supposed to talk more than we listen, we would have two tongues and one ear.” Proverbs 12:15 says, “The way of a fool seems right to him (therefore he has no need to listen) but a wise person listens to advice.”
  2. Prepare yourself to listen to God.  One of the ways I do this is by sitting in a quiet spot, free of distraction, and repeat several times to God, “Speak Lord, for your servant is listening” (1 Samuel 3:10). Then, I am quiet… and listen….  If this practice is way off your radar then I would recommend, at first, being quiet for only a few minutes. Then, after a few weeks, be quiet in longer stretches so that you can go 20-30 minutes or even an hour. We might even consider a silent retreat in which the sole purpose is to listen to what God is saying to us.
  3. Slowly and carefully read God’s Word. Scripture is meant to be digested in small bites and thoroughly savored. Slow down and be quiet enough to hear God speak through the Word. A contemplative and meditative readings of Holy Scripture will always yield spiritual health and vitality.
  4. Pray back to God what you hear him saying to you. This is active listening – a genuine dialogue between us and God. “Come, now, let us reason together,” the Lord has said (Isaiah 1:18). God wants a conversation with us.

God speaks, if we have ears to hear, through so much more than an audible voice.

The Lord’s Supper is a tangible proclamation of the person and work of Jesus Christ. It speaks to us, and, so, we must listen well. The Table proclaims Christ’s identity as God’s Son, the one who came to live a holy life, teaches us the way to live, and how Jesus died a cruel death so that we might be born again and experience new life. 

We Are All One in Jesus Christ by Soichi Watanabe, 2009

The Table proclaims our mission, that as often as we share in communion, we proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes again. That is, we witness to the reality of Christ’s redemption in our own lives. We share our own changed lives with others. We pray for them so that they will experience new life, as well. 

The Table proclaims our spiritual formation in Christ. At the Table, we are lifted and joined with Christ through the Holy Spirit. It is a mysterious joining that defies description, just as the disciples had a mysterious encounter that they could not fully explain. Yet they experienced it, nonetheless.

May we listen well, without distraction, to God’s Son. May we know God’s purpose for our life. And may we encounter Jesus at the Table, and in all of life, so that we experience new life. 

O God, teach us to listen to those nearest to us, our family, our friends, our co-workers. Caring God, teach us to listen to those far from us – the whisper of the hopeless, the plea of the forgotten, and the cry of the anguished. Holy Spirit of God, teach us to listen for your voice — in busyness and in boredom, in certainty and doubt, in noise and in silence. Gracious God, teach us to listen well to the message of your Table. May you change and transform us to be like Jesus. Teach us, Lord, to listen. Amen.

Colossians 2:6-15 – Our Identity in Christ

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
Death, Burial, and Resurrection of Christ by Guy Roddon (1919-2006)

So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.

See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.

For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority. In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self, ruled by the flesh, was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.

When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. (New International Version)

I like kids. Since I believe them to be closer to God’s kingdom than most adults, I respect them by bending down to talk with them on their level. I take an interest in what they have to say and what’s going on with them. And I pay attention in ways that helps solidify their sense of worth, identity, and belonging. Indeed, how we treat children within the family, the church, and in public can make a significant difference in the trajectory of how they grow up and think of themselves.

One of the most fundamental of all Christian truths is that we belong to Christ. We are God’s children. God has given us everything we need for a solid awareness of our true identity. 

The follower of Jesus is a person who has moved from the realm of being in the world to the sphere of being in Christ. The Christian’s knowledge, understanding, and sense of identity are vitally important because we tend to live up to how we view ourselves.  

Today’s New Testament lesson is dense with the teaching of who we are in Christ. We are to live our lives in Christ. We are rooted and built up in Christ. We have been filled in Christ. We have a spiritual circumcision in Christ. We have been raised in Christ to new life. We are triumphant in Christ.  All this is meant to saturate us with the richness and security of being in the realm of Jesus Christ.

In Jesus Christ:

I am God’s child (John 1:12)

I have been justified (Romans 5:1)

I am Christ’s friend (John 15:15)

I belong to God (1 Corinthians 6:20)

I am a member of Christ’s Body (1 Corinthians 12:27)

I am assured all things work together for good (Romans 8:28)

I am confident that God will perfect the work begun in me (Philippians 1:6)

I am a citizen of heaven (Philippians 3:20)

I am hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3)

I am brave, strong, and self-disciplined (2 Timothy 1:7)

I am born of God and the evil one cannot touch me (1 John 5:18)

I am blessed in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing (Ephesians 1:3)

I am chosen before the creation of the world (Ephesians 1:4, 11)

I am holy and blameless (Ephesians 1:4)

I am adopted as God’s child (Ephesians 1:5)

I am lavishly given God’s glorious grace (Ephesians 1:5,8)

I am redeemed (Ephesians 1:8)

I am forgiven (Ephesians 1:8; Colossians 1:14)

I am hopeful (Ephesians 1:12)

I am included (Ephesians 1:13)

I am sealed with the promised Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13)

I am a saint (Ephesians 1:18)

I am the salt and light of the earth (Matthew 5:13-14)

I am God’s coworker (2 Corinthians 6:1)

I am a minister of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:17-20)

I am alive with Christ (Ephesians 2:5)

I am raised up with Christ (Ephesians 2:6; Colossians 2:12)

I am seated with Christ in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 2:6)

I am rich with God’s grace (Ephesians 2:7)

I am a recipient of God’s kindness (Ephesians 2:7)

I am God’s workmanship (Ephesians 2:10)

I am close to God (Ephesians 2:13)

I am peaceful (Ephesians 2:14)

I am a member of God’s household (Ephesians 2:19)

I am secure (Ephesians 2:20)

I am a holy temple (Ephesians 2:21; 1 Corinthians 6:19)

I am a dwelling for the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 2:22)

I am a friend of God (Ephesians 3:6)

I am free and confident (Ephesians 3:12)

I am joyful in my sufferings (Ephesians 3:13)

I am loved and can love others (Ephesians 3:18)

I am called (Ephesians 4:1; 2 Timothy 1:9)

I am humble, gentle, patient, and tolerant of others (Ephesians 4:2)

I am truthful (Ephesians 4:17)

I am living a new life (Ephesians 4:21-32)

I am kind and compassionate to others (Ephesians 4:32)

I am forgiving of others (Ephesians 4:32)

I am good (Ephesians 5:8-9)

I am grateful (Ephesians 5:20)

I am secure (Ephesians 6:13)

I am dead to sin (Romans 1:12)

I am not alone (Hebrews 13:5)

I am growing (Colossians 2:7)

I am united with other believers (John 17:20-23)

I am victorious (I John 5:4)

I am chosen and dearly loved (Colossians 3:12)

I am blameless (I Corinthians 1:8)

I am more than a conqueror (Romans 8:37)

I am safe (I John 5:18)

I am healed (I Peter 2:24)

I am no longer condemned (Romans 8:1, 2)

I am not helpless (Philippians 4:13)

I am overcoming (I John 4:4)

I am persevering (Philippians 3:14)

I am protected (John 10:28)

I am born again (I Peter 1:23)

I am a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17)

I am delivered (Colossians 1:13)

I am redeemed from the curse of the Law (Galatians 3:13)

I am qualified to share in Christ’s inheritance (Colossians 1:12)

I am victorious (1 Corinthians 15:57)

Take ten minutes today and focus on one of the phrases or words from these verses. Think about its meaning. Ponder how it makes a difference in your Christian life. Then decide what you will do with the insight God gives you. Finally, share it with a friend. In all these ways we can press the truth of our identity firmly into our souls and live into the reality that we belong to Christ.

Gracious God, you have brought me from death to life, from being of the world to being in Christ. Solidify my sense of identity with Jesus and release that self-knowledge into loving practice toward others. Amen.

Psalm 144:9-15 – Rescued from Evil

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
Rescued by Rodney J. Parrott

O God, let me sing a new song to you,
    let me play it on a twelve-string guitar—
A song to the God who saved the king,
    the God who rescued David, his servant.

Rescue me from the enemy sword,
    release me from the grip of those barbarians
Who lie through their teeth,
    who shake your hand
    then knife you in the back.

Make our sons in their prime
    like sturdy oak trees,
Our daughters as shapely and bright
    as fields of wildflowers.
Fill our barns with great harvest,
    fill our fields with huge flocks;
Protect us from invasion and exile—
    eliminate the crime in our streets.

How blessed the people who have all this!
How blessed the people who have God for God! (The Message)

Evil lurks everywhere. It resides in the human heart, hidden in the dark shadows, coming out sideways through shameful lies and guilty actions. Evil is also found throughout the world in every institution, organization, and group, ensconced as systemic injustice – hoarding resources for the powerful at the expense of the powerless.

Since there is wickedness found in all places and with all people, evil needs to be dealt with and expunged from both heinous hearts as well as the hoarding habitations of injustice. Part of the solution is to do away with all obstacles which stand in the way of human flourishing.

To be sure, the heart of humanity must be dealt with and be the focus of change. Yet, if we only focus one-dimensionally on evil, it will persist, and even grow into monstrous proportions, unless we equally direct our right and just efforts on institutional and systemic evil.

People and their institutions need deliverance from the power of evil in the world. And for that to happen, the hindrances and handicaps to human thriving must be eliminated.

Our entire concept of salvation needs a fuller scope. Not only do individuals need personal deliverance from sin, death, and hell, so do entire societies. Complete systemic rescue from oppressive obstacles is a must. Far too many people in this fallen world are weighed down from institutional sin.

Christ obeyed God our Father and gave himself as a sacrifice for our sins to rescue us from this evil world.

Galatians 1:4, CEV

To place this in a different context, the genius of the American experiment was that the founding fathers (and mothers!) of the United States created a political and societal system which sought to eliminate class distinctions and allowed people of lower means to achieve land ownership and business acumen simply through hard work and thrift.

Unfortunately, the experiment only extended largely to white men. Native American and African American people still had huge systemic obstacles to overcome. And the new republic had different expectations for it’s women. It took a Civil War and decades of grueling work to address political and social change (not to mention religious). We are still laboring to truly give liberty and justice to all and achieve the ideal of an egalitarian nation.

We, as both individuals and citizens, need divine intervention through deliverance. Like Gilligan and the crew of the Minnow stranded on a deserted island, we seek to be rescued – knowing we need help beyond ourselves for salvation.

Rescue us from the evil one.

Matthew 6:13, NRSV

The psalmist looked ahead in hope, convinced that a good God will deliver and provide good people with everything they need to thrive and flourish in this life, and in the life to come.

If God doesn’t fight our overwhelming battles for us, we are lost. This present darkness, this ancient and contemporary evil, is an extremely powerful foe. However, the Lord is greater and will have the last word.

Christianity asserts that Jesus is the pioneer of our salvation and the once for all answer to the problem of evil for both the world and the human heart. Christ, in other words, is the fulfillment of the psalmist’s prayers for deliverance, health, and hope.

In his earthly ministry, Jesus did not give explanations for our pain and sorrow. Instead, Jesus comes where our pain is most acute and takes it upon himself – bringing healing and hope. The Lord tackles evil, not by having a Zoom conference on the subject of wickedness, but by allowing evil to do its worst to him. Christ exhausts evil by draining it of its power, emerging resurrected with new life for all.

The good news is this: Jesus is Lord and has defeated the powers of evil. Now, reform can occur. Hearts can change. Systems can be revamped. God’s new world has begun.

God rescued us from the control of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son he loves. He set us free through the Son and forgave our sins.

Colossians 1:13-14, CEB

I, personally, am a Christian because I believe God is the one who satisfies the passion for justice, the longing for spirituality, the hunger for relationship, and the yearning for beauty. I see God in Jesus of Nazareth, the world’s true Lord.

Hope, like the psalmist expressed, is what you get when you realize a different worldview is possible. Hope springs to life when those experiencing and feeling the brunt of evil in the world become acutely aware that the rich, the powerful, and the unscrupulous are not the ones really in charge.

“Our task as image-bearing, God-loving, Christ-shaped, Spirit-filled Christians, following Christ and shaping our world, is to announce redemption to a world that has discovered its fallenness, to announce healing to a world that has discovered its brokenness, to proclaim love and trust to a world that knows only exploitation, fear and suspicion…”

N. T. Wright

May you know the place and the person of rescue from evil. And may you be buoyant in faith, confident in hope, and overflowing with love.

Ephesians 4:17-24 – Stop Being Stupid

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year B1 Comment

As a follower of the Lord, I order you to stop living like stupid, godless people. Their minds are in the dark, and they are stubborn and ignorant and have missed out on the life that comes from God. They no longer have any feelings about what is right, and they are so greedy that they do all kinds of indecent things.

But that isn’t what you were taught about Jesus Christ. He is the truth, and you heard about him and learned about him. You were told that your foolish desires will destroy you and that you must give up your old way of life with all its bad habits. Let the Spirit change your way of thinking and make you into a new person. You were created to be like God, and so you must please him and be truly holy. (Contemporary English Version)

“Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Why in the world are some people stupid and godless?

I’m sure if you asked that question to a dozen people you might get a dozen different responses.

According to the Apostle Paul, it comes from a disconnection from truth. And biblically, since the very character of G-d is truth, then ignorance and a closed heart also result from estrangement from G-d.

The Christian tradition teaches that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. Life together is to be shaped around the person and work of Christ. Since Christians share a common confession of Jesus, we are to share a common life together. That life is to revolve around the truth of Jesus. That means we will put off non-Christian ways of relating to each other and put on a Christian way of relating to each other. 

We will, then, speak truthfully and live honestly, because we belong to each other – we are responsible for one another. Just as Jesus so closely identified with us in his life, death, and resurrection, so we are to so closely identify with each other that we take responsibility for each other. My problems are your problems – your issues are my issues. This is a stance of connection, not division.

When believers are firmly moored to Christ and to Christian community, then, with the enablement of the Holy Spirit, they are able to forsake the old life with its unhealthy routines of living and embrace a new life with good healthy habits of daily life.

Some people continually struggle to overcome bad habits. In part, it’s because they are living a half-truth life. They might be connected to Jesus as Truth yet remain stubborn about staying disconnected from Christ’s Church.

One never realizes sustainable holiness over time apart from Christian community. In other words, real lasting change comes from both the truth of Christ and the truth of Christ’s Church.

“No one can have God as his father who does not have the Church as his mother.”

St. Cyprian (c.210-258 C.E.) and St. Augustine (354-430 C.E)

The magisterial Reformer, John Calvin, upheld the ancient teaching of the Church:

“The Church is our mother, inasmuch as God has committed to her the kind office of bringing us up in the faith. This method of education is not to be despised…. She has the milk and the food by which she continually nourishes her offspring. This is why the Church is called the mother of believers. And certainly, the one who refuses to be a child of the Church desires in vain to have God as Father.”

John Calvin

This is a consistent understanding throughout Christian history. That’s because the ancient church fathers (and mothers!) knew people are hard-wired for community and, what is more, truth is located not only in the Head of Christ but also in the Body of Christ. Decapitating head from body is to sever the truth in half. They have always been meant to go together as one.

To know the truth intellectually and cerebrally is only half of personal transformation. There also must be a bodily living of the truth – and to do that takes the Body of Christ. Life in Christ is life together as Christians.

Just as it was not our choice to be born into our biological family, so we are born again into a spiritual family, the Church. And just as that crazy uncle, obnoxious cousin, bossy big sister, as well as the entire family system can be difficult in our biological family, so it is the same in our spiritual family. We can choose to be estranged from them, but this in no way diminishes the truth that we need family and community.

Yes, both biological family and spiritual family can be (and are) toxic for many people. I am not suggesting we passively submit to abuse and allow ourselves to remain in abusive relationships. What I am saying is that doing away with community altogether is an awfully bad idea.

As much as I, in the past, have wished to run away and live alone in the woods with only bears and raccoons as my friends, I didn’t do it, mainly because I knew better. I knew I needed a supportive community of redeemed people if I was every going to truly honor G-d and experience becoming holy as G-d is holy.

If we want to participate in the life of G-d, it comes with community.

It is, therefore, necessary to hold one another accountable, as well as help each other to be truly holy. We need to embrace the teachings of the New Testament toward one another: Love one another (John 13:34); Be devoted to one another (Romans 12:10); Encourage one another (1 Thessalonians 5:11); Exhort one another (Hebrews 3:13); Confess your sins to one another (James 5:16); along with dozens of other “one another” references.

A lack of self-awareness, empathy, and understanding comes from being disconnected from community. Yet, when we wise up to embrace the truth of Christ and Christ’s Church, we aren’t fooled by evil, and we discover the strength of life together in the Spirit.

Grant, Almighty God, that all who confess your Name may be united in your truth, live together in your love, and reveal your glory in the world. Guide the people of all nations in the ways of justice and peace; that we may honor one another and serve the common good. And guide us to live together as countercultural models of goodness and reconciliation, in our neighborhoods and beyond, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.