Ephesians 5

Paul quickly goes from chapter 2 (2: 8-9 "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this is not of yourselves, it is a gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast.") to this: 5: 5 "For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure, or greedy person - such a person is an idolater - has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God."

Well which is it? Are we saved by grace or are we saved because we aren't immoral, impure, or greedy? Paul needs to make up his mind.

Have you made up your mind? Do you know why you're saved? Is it because you're a good person or because of God's grace?

I think we all know the right words to say, but do we really believe it?

Is it possible to really believe that God loves us so much that it doesn't matter how immoral, impure, or greedy we are that we are still forgiven?

Grace is is easy to understand but impossible to comprehend because God is so much better at loving than we are.

Ephesians 4

Verses 4-6 "There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all."

Sometimes I forget that was actually a time when Christians agreed and all journeyed together on the same mission. That was a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...

Paul is calling for unity in this chapter, calling for the Ephesians to remember that there one sole purpose and mission for their community.

I wish Paul would write the same letter to the Lutherans and every other Christian church in the world. Christians have divided and split thousands of times over the most trivial of matters. (Although some matters are not trivial.)

I recently heard that another Lutheran denomination is going to break their partnership with ELCA in worldwide missions because of a decision they disagree with. Apparently we are no longer worthy to spread the good news with. (Not to say that the ELCA is perfect, we are far from it, but come on, it's not about us.)

It is sad when politics and theology overshadow what's important. We all share one hope in one Lord, Jesus the Christ. That's all we need.

Can't that be enough?

Obviously not.

I can't believe God left the church in human hands. We need the Spirit to guide us now more than ever.

Ephesians 3

Verse 1 "For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles..."

Verse 7 "I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God's grace..."

The language Paul uses leave no doubt to what his purpose in life is. He considers himself a prisoner and a slave to Jesus. He must do all that Jesus tells him to do, no matter what trouble it may cause him.

A prisoner and a slave.

I think that we have misunderstood what it means to be a disciple, what it means to be a Christian.

I think that we have taken the stance that God is our servant and should do all that we ask. But the truth is God answers no one.

But God serves everyone, because service comes from love.

Want to act like God? Want to imitate Jesus? Don't tell someone what to do but tell them how much you love them. Don't point out their faults but ask how you can help. Don't think anyone serves you but serve everyone.

Be a prisoner of love.

Ephesians 2

Verse 8-9 "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this is not of yourselves, it is a gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast."

Much of Luther's theology came from Ephesians. Especially this chapter.

A few years ago I had a conversation with an Amish man about this verse and how it compared to the book of James, which states "faith without workes is dead."

Paul seems to be arguing that salvation has nothing to do with our actions, but James argues that we can't claim to be faithful without doing good works.

I think they are both right. We are saved by God's grace. Period.

But if we claim to believe that Jesus is the Messiah then we should act like we have read the bible and at least attempt to live like Jesus wants us to.

We do good works not to earn God's love, but because God first loved us. We follow the Ten Commandments not because they are a set of rules we must follow but because it is a privilege to be God's children and that is how God's children behave.

We love because we have been loved.

Ephesians 1

Verse 5 "He predestined us for adoption to sonship through Christ Jesus, in accordance with with his pleasure and will..."

Martin Luther argued that we are justified by grace through faith and that no one can earn their own salvation. Faith is a gift from the Holy Spirit, it is not a decision we make. Therefore our salvation is fully dependent on God... nothing we can do.

John Calvin took it a step further and argued that people are predestined by God as to whether they will be saved or not; God decides before we were born who goes to hell and who goes to heaven. This text supports his claim.

But I have a problem with predestination. I can't imagine God condemns anyone before they are born; how can God not give them a chance and be loving?

Instead, I think God wants each and every person ever created to seek a relationship with him, to be open to the possibilities of faith. Yet God gives us all the freedom to deny him.

If we are condemned, it's our choice not God's.

Actually it is God's choice. But I think he gives us what we want.

If we want heaven we can have it.

If we want hell we can have that too.

God's love is in the freedom of choice.

Ruth 4

Boaz talks to the other relative who has a claim to Ruth but he is not interested. So Boaz does what any good man would do... he buys Elimelek's property. He buys his land and the women are thrown in, so Ruth is now his wife.





If you're reading along, did you read verse 7? "Now in earlier times in Israel, for the redemption and transfer of property to become final, one party took off his sandal and gave it to the other. This is was the method of legalizing transactions in Israel."





They must have had a lot of sandals. Imagine if you had to give a sandal everytime you bought something on eBay.





So he gives his sandal and gets a wife. Sandals are so much cheaper than rings!





Then they have a son, Obed, who goes on to be David's grandfather, and a descendent of Joseph, Jesus' father.





I wonder if David ever asked how his great grandparents met? Then again he did steal Bathsheba, so maybe he wasn't the romantic type.





So what does this all mean? What's the point of this story?





Be careful where you get drunk, you might lose a sandal.

Ruth 3

The story takes an interesting turn. Naomi talks Ruth into taking advantage of a drunk Boaz, so that she might have a home.

Ruth waits until Boaz is drunk and lies down to sleep, then she lies next to him and uncovers his feet, which is often another word for genitalia in the Old Testament. Did Ruth uncover his... you know what, or was it really his feet? I don't know, but either way it was a marriage proposal from Ruth to Boaz. A proposal to a drunk man. This whole scene was orchestrated by a scheming mother in-law. It reminds me of a Shrek movie, as long as it was really his feet.

Boaz praises her for not going after a younger man but can not agree to taker as his wife yet. There is another man that has a legal right to her first, someone who is a closer relative to her dead husband. If he wants to have Ruth has his wife, Boaz can't do anything about it.

What happened to love?

What kind of a story is this?

This marriage would have been one of dependence, not romance. She needs him and he agrees to care for her.

I'm so glad marriages today are of two equals. I'm so glad we have stories of how we fell in love and had butterflies in our stomachs.

But I'm glad that we have a God we can depend on. A God who doesn't have to be drunk to take care of us.

A God whose feet were uncovered and nailed to a cross.

Ruth 2

Ruth goes to the field of Boaz to pick up the grains left after the harvesters came through... she was picking up the scraps for food.

Boaz, a close family member to Naomi meets her and and is kind to her. He has heard of Ruth's loyalty to her mother in-law Naomi, which caused her to leave her homeland and family to come to live in a foreign land. Boaz said to Ruth: "May the Lord repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge."

Ruth has been on a long journey. She lost her husband and moved to a foreign land. All she has in the world is her mother in-law, whom she is taking care of. She has no one to support her, she has no where to take refuge, except under God's wings.

The good news is that God's wings are pretty big. There are hurts in life that no one else can fix... like the death of a spouse, the death of a dream. All the hopes for the future are gone, the visions of growing old together all of a sudden disappear. The love of your life is gone.

How can one recover from that? Especially when it happens at such a young age.

I would lock myself in my house and not come out for months.

Only faith in God can overcome the power that death has on us. Because only God is bigger than death. God offers live that is everlasting... death is not the end.

Only under God's wings can we find shelter when death attacks. And only on God's wings can we soar for all eternity.

Ruth 1

I asked my friend Kenn where we should go next and he suggested Ruth... so here we go. Ruth is only 4 chapters long, so I will be looking for another suggestion for newt Friday!

Ruth 1 is the story of Naomi and her family. They moved to the country of Moab, where her two sons married Moabite women, Orpah and Ruth. Then tragedy struck. Her husband Elimelek dies, then both of her sons. Naomi has no family left in Moab except her two daughter in-laws.

Naomi decides to go back home to Judah and tells her daughters to go back to live with their families and find new husbands. Orpah goes but Ruth stays, and commits to spend the rest of her life with Naomi.

So they travel back to Judah, to the town of Bethlehem. When they return, the town saw Naomi and said "can this be Naomi?" She replies, "Call me Mara." Which means bitter.

Naomi was bitter because her husband and two sons died. She goes on to say that the Lord has brought her back empty.

I think we all have felt empty at points in our lives. Times when we lose something that we hold dear, times when we have no direction or purpose, or times when we are alone. Thomas Moore calls these times "the dark night of the soul."

The thing about being empty is that it is easy to lose hope that life will ever be full again; we begin to think we will be lonely, sad, and lacking purpose for the rest of our lives.

Ruth had a chance to get out, to go home and see her parents and look for a new husband. She must have been mourning the death of her husband, but she was still young enough that she could remarry and have children. But she stays with Naomi.

Sometimes, when life is at its darkest, the thing we need more anything is a friend. Someone to journey with us and to love us back to the light.

My parents have a picture hanging in a bathroom at their house, I have read the thing probably a thousand times, and to be honest think it's a little corny. It's a young girl holding a flower and it reads "A single rose can be my garden and a single friend can be my world."

One person can truly make all the difference in the world. Just one friend can save us from our dark night and bring us back to life.

Just like one person saved us from the darkness of sin and into the light of grace.

Matthew 28

Well we are finished with Matthew... what a story!

This man Jesus lived an incredible life. His wisdom and compassion will live on forever... but what about his body? Could he really have been resurrected? Or was his body stolen like the Jews said it was in verse 13?

The end is what is so hard to believe. Miracles are one thing, but to be dead, and then to be alive again is impossible. Even HIS disciples doubted, while they were in his presence in verse 17.

It's almost impossible to believe. Death is permanent.

But that's why this story is so beatiful.

God is able to take the darkest day in human history (Good Friday) and turn it in to the most beautiful day in human history (Easter Sunday).

God is able to take the permanent (death) and make it temporary.

And this is not just for Jesus, but for everyone that believes. Our deaths are not permanent, they are just a passing through to a better life.

Believe in the resurrection... believe that Jesus was resurrected... believe that you will be resurrected.

But until then hear the words in verse 20, what I believe to be the most comforting words in all the bible...

"And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

Matthew 27

I looked up the definition of forsaken this morning. To forsake means "to leave someone who needs or counts on you."To be in a time of desparate of need and have everybody your counting on abandon you.

That is how Jesus felt while the nails were tearing his body and he was struggling to breathe. This was something Jesus had to do on his own... no help was coming from anyone.

Have you ever felt abandoned? Ever felt alone? It's a terrible feeling... it makes every challenge more daunting, it strips us of hope.

But an important thing happened when Jesus died... the curtain of the temple was torn in 2.

That curtain served as a baririer, dividing the place where we live and where God lives. In his lonely, painful death, Jesus opened the door for God to come out of the temple and be with us wherever we are.

The promise then is this, we are never forsaken. Although we may feel that way sometimes, God promises to be with us at all times, from now until eternity.

Somedays it is hard to see God though.

I grew up in Michigan, where the winter is really winter... not this pretend winter we have in Texas. It would get cold and cloudy, and it would stay that way for months. We would forget what the sun felt like.

God is like the sun, always there, always providing light and warmth. But sometimes our lives are so clouded with junk that we can not see the sun, we can not feel it's warmth or see it's light.

In those times we need to pray for better weather... or go to where the sun is shining brightest.

And the Son shines brightest on the cross.

Matthew 26

Chapter 26 is full of important stories and theology, but there is one thing that stands out to me this morning. Love is defined in chapter 26.

We are told of Jesus' time of prayer in the garden. In his prayer time he asks for there to be another way. Jesus does not want to be whipped and nailed to a cross. Jesus does not want to die for you and I. Jesus wants to go to plan B.

But love wins.

Jesus loved his Father and Jesus loved you and I enough to do that which he did not want to. He gave his life out of love.That is what love is.

We can tell people that we love them, but we do not show them love until we do something that we don't want to do... for them.

I know my parents love my sisters and I because of all the time they dedicated to our interests growing up. They coached baseball, basketball, soccer, dance and softball. Time wasn't all they sacrificed, and they are still sacrificing.

I know my grandmother loved me because whenever we spent time together we did what I wanted to do. Sometimes she would sit at the driving range and watch me hit golf balls... poorly! And then she'd lie and tell me that I was great.

I know my wife loves me because of a thousand things, I know my sisters love me, I know my cousins, aunts and uncles love me, I know my friends love me, and I know God loves me. They have each done things they haven't wanted to do for me.

I am blessed.

I only hope that I can learn to love as God loves.

Matthew 25

To me, there is no greater biblical challenge to Lutheran theology than Matthew 25 and Jesus talking about the sheep and the goats.

Jesus says that those who do good deeds will be saved... They will be saved because they fed the hungry, gave the thirsty something to eat and clothed the naked.

Where does justification by grace through faith enter into this chapter?

It doesn't, if we are reading it through the theological lenses that we have today... the lenses of privileged people that have cars to drive and food to eat.

In Jesus' time the disciples left everything behind to follow him, they left their jobs and their families. They had nothing. They were the poor, they were the least of these.

Jesus is saying that anyone who gives you (the disciples) food, or gives you something to drink will inherit the kingdom, because without even realizing it they will have worked on behalf of the kingdom.

My favorite part of the chapter is that they won't even realize they are doing it.

How many people are saved and don't realize it?

How many people are loved and don't realize it?

How much better would our world be if they knew they were saved and loved?

Matthew 24

In Matthew 24 Jesus says a lot of things that we aren't excited to read. Jesus talks about the end of the world.

At least he is talking about the end of the world as the disciples and Jews knew it. In verse 2 he said "truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another, every one will be thrown down."

Jesus is talking about the temple, which was destroyed 30 years after Jesus said this. Not only was the temple destroyed but Israel was wiped off the map by the Romans, the world that they knew had ended. Israel ceased to exist politically until the 1940's... it was gone.

The world ends all the time.

Life as we know it is radically different than it was 10, 2o, 50 years ago. It's not the world I grew up in and I'm sure it's not close to the world my parents grew up in.

I preached a funeral in November for a woman that lived 95 years. She grew up without electricity, her family didn't have a car. Imagine how much the world changed around her. The world she grew up in was gone, the world she raised her children in was gone, the world she raised her grandchildren in was gone. She saw more change than I could imagine... and understand this, change means something ended, something is gone, something is replaced.

Change is hard. No one is sure what the future holds, and as hard as it is to admit, we all fear what we don't know. What will happen to my family? What will happen to our church? What will happen to our country? Our economy?

The only reason I know that the future will be ok is becuase I know Jesus will be there, just like he was in the past and he is here now.

So let the world as I know it come to an end. As long as I have Jesus, I'll be fine.