Tag: Good News of Jesus Christ

THE DIVINE MIRROR RESTORED

It’s true that we Lutherans certainly believe that the Lutheran branch of the Christian Faith has many wonderful gifts to offer to the whole of Christianity and indeed to the entire world, but we Lutherans also recognize that we do not have a monopoly on all theological and spiritual truths. And it’s true that we as Christians proclaim that the good news of Jesus Christ provides direct access to the fullness of God’s grace and truth, but we do not say that we have a monopoly on God’s eternal grace and truth. So if members of the Church of Jesus Christ consider those of other religions to be completely ignorant of all theological and spiritual truths, then this is just plain wrong. And if non-Christians assume that we Christians claim to be the sole purveyors of truth, then they’re wrong too.

Nevertheless, we Christians do profess and confess that Christ is “the Way and the Truth and the Life” (John 14:6), and so we earnestly proclaim the good news of his redeeming life, death and resurrection for the sake of the world. In fact, the Holy Scriptures exhort us to always be ready to share the grace and truth of Jesus Christ with our neighbors:

“So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth [of Christ] to our neighbors, for we are members of one another.” – (Ephesians 4:25)

“But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have, but do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.” – (First Peter 3:15-16)

However, we do this proclamation of Jesus’ good news within the multicultural context of human civilization. For we see throughout the history of salvation (from ancient times unto today) that there is a certain universal pattern we sinful human beings (of all times and places) seem to follow. It’s the pattern of faithfulness and apostasy, and it should be very familiar to us within the Christian Faith because the Holy Bible is filled with this pattern.

The cycle of faithfulness and apostasy is the historical pattern of civilization all over the world throughout the ages. From the very genesis of humanity, over and over again, God calls us, gathers us, instructs us and blesses us. But over and over again, people begin to reject and fall away from God’s revealed truth and grace. Therefore, God decided to send us the exact reflection of the glory of the fullness of himself — Christ Jesus our Lord, the Eternal Son of God and Bread of Heaven.

Let’s imagine that the revelation of God is one great Divine Mirror. And let’s imagine that the pattern of faithfulness and apostasy within human civilization is that Mirror breaking into a thousand pieces and scattering throughout the world. And then, after each shattering of this Mirror, a faithful remnant of believers were left to salvage as many pieces of God’s grace and truth as they could, resulting in a great diversity of faiths and spiritual traditions over time. So each time this shattering would happen in history, a group of like-minded believers would gather their particular shards of the Divine Mirror, and they would follow God’s Light reflected in these shards as best they knew how. And thousands of other groups did the same thing with the shards of truth they had collected.

But then, at the right time in human history, God revealed the fullness of his truth and grace for all people through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, who is the entire Divine Mirror restored to humanity — for he is the clear-as-glass Living Mirror of Heaven. And it might sound presumptuous to claim that the faith, hope and love of Jesus constitute the complete Divine Mirror reflecting the fullness of God’s Heart for humanity, but that is indeed what we have been granted in Jesus Christ our Lord. Thanks be to God!

However, while we have amazing access to the entire Divine Mirror of God (in all its clarity) through Jesus our Savior, this should not by any means negate the importance of the shards of God’s grace and truth that other religions have access to. In fact, the shards of Divine Truth within non-Christian religions (although incomplete) are nevertheless reflective of God’s saving truth. Consequently, the great non-Christian religious leaders of the world such as Buddha, Krishna, Muhammad, Confucius, and Lao-Tzu (as well as philosophers such as Socrates, Plato, and others) have all received pieces of God’s complete Mirror. They all have received a portion of God’s True Light — morsels of the Bread of Heaven (so to speak). So let’s genuinely appreciate the Truth of God from whichever direction it’s coming at us, even from non-Christian sources.

As we Christians share with others the fullness of God’s grace and truth in Christ Jesus our Lord, let’s remember the great Divine Mirror that every compassionate religion has pieces of — precious pieces of the universal reality and saving grace of God. Yet, our evangelical mission is to always uplift how all those shards of God’s Truth fit into the wholeness of God’s pure reflection in Jesus, the only begotten Son of God. And even if a certain non-Christian belief seems to be contrary to the gospel of Jesus, it just might be that this belief is still somehow based upon an eternal principle of God (if we look deeply enough). So maybe that shard of belief that seems to contradict Jesus simply needs a little ‘gospel windex’ to clarify it a bit.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, we’re not here to trash the pieces of the Mirror (or the portions of the Bread of Heaven) that people of other belief systems possess. We are simply here to do as it says in Ephesians 4 and First Peter 3, where it says: “let all of us speak the truth [of Christ] to our neighbors, for we are members of one another” and “be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have, but do this with gentleness and respect…”

Together in Christ, Pastor Tim

A HOLY TEMPLE IN THE LORD

When Hilary and I visited England recently for our 30th wedding anniversary vacation, we were blessed to attend a Sunday morning worship service at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. And interestingly, while we were assembled for worship in that massive sacred space, engulfed by grand Christian architecture all around, the Bible reading from Acts 17 appointed for that Sunday included the following text…

Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus [in Athens, Greece] and said, “Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things.” – (Acts 17:22-25)

Wow, what an amazingly ironic juxtaposition of worship setting and Holy Scripture!

Now I don’t want to sound like I’m saying that holy places and sacred spaces are unimportant. For indeed, it’s true that great cathedrals, temples, shrines, basilicas, chapels, and even neighborhood church buildings like ours, really do serve a wonderful God-given purpose in the lives of believers. In fact, such structures as these are designed and built by the faithful (according to sacred geometry and symbolism) precisely for the purpose of helping us to set our minds on divine things, as well as to help support us in fellowship and help energize our mission to share the good news of Jesus Christ.

Of course, sometimes we can be lulled into a false sense of stability and security by sacred buildings and structures. And for Jesus’ fellow Israelites at the time of his earthly ministry in the Holy Land, there was very much a false sense of security centered upon one particular building: the Jerusalem Temple.

Whether they lived close to it in Israel or far away from it in Babylon, the Temple in Jerusalem was the sacred magnet that continued to draw the Jewish People back. And the Temple that Jesus visited in Jerusalem was built by King Herod “the Great” in an attempt to gain favor with his subjects, and to have something to brag about to his friend Caesar in Rome. It was the Second Jerusalem Temple, and it stood on the very site of the First Jerusalem Temple built by King Solomon (which had been destroyed centuries before). Herod’s Temple was much more massive and ornate than Solomon’s Temple, and its existence symbolized not only religious revival, but also the continuity of the nation of Israel itself.

Sadly, the Second Temple, which was supposed to be dedicated to holiness and righteousness and charity, was corrupted. So this is why Jesus was upset as he entered (with whip in hand) this enormous symbol of Israel’s identity, driving out those who had turned the Temple into a market of trade merchants. The sacred activity of the Temple had become a profiteering business. As a result, something meant to be prayerful and sacred had been turned into a commercial transaction run by an elite monopoly.

In today’s day and age, we hear about the monopoly of elites over mass media, communication and information, but this was a monopoly of religious elites. Therefore, with great zeal, Jesus put together a whip of cords, and he turned over the tables of the money changers, driving them out with his whip. Of course, I don’t think Jesus actually hurt anyone, but he also wasn’t the meek and mild Jesus of Sunday school imagination either. So in righteous zeal, Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament Prophecy of chapter 14 of Zechariah, that there shall no longer be marketeers (or trade merchants) corrupting the House of the Lord (see Zechariah 14:21).

Consequently, Yeshua (Jesus), a faithful Jew of the First Century, hit at the very heart of First Century Jewish identity and security. He declared that the Temple will be destroyed, and to his listeners that announcement seemed incredible and unthinkable. It struck at their personal and national faith. And even though some Jews believed that God’s Holy Presence had not returned to the Holy Sanctuary of the Second Jerusalem Temple anyway, this didn’t change the fact that Herod’s Temple was still a great symbol of national faith and life.

However, Jesus was simultaneously speaking about both the Jerusalem Temple and the Most Holy Living Temple of his own mortal body, the very Living Temple of God’s New Covenant for the sake of the whole world. So Jesus knew beforehand that he would suffer, die and rise again; that the Temple of his body would be destroyed and renewed for our eternal sake.

And this New Covenant miracle of all miracles grants to us an everlasting identity and an eternal security, built entirely upon God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. For as the Apostle Paul states in the Epistle to the Ephesians…

“You are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the Household of God, built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the Cornerstone. In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a Holy Temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling-place for God.” – (Ephesians 2:19-22)

Together in Christ, Pastor Tim

CROSSES OF ASHES

The Church Season of Lent starts with the words “Remember that you are dust…”

On the day we call Ash Wednesday, we hear this annual reminder of our mortality in order to encourage us to turn toward God in self-reflection and repentance. In addition, this special day begins our annual spiritual journey of increased devotion in preparation for the coming of Holy Week and Easter. And of course, the seventh Sunday following Ash Wednesday is Easter Sunday, which celebrates the glorious good news of the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I have to say that there’s something truly amazing about Ash Wednesday; something deeply compelling that draws us together for a special midweek service every single year. It’s more than just religious observance, and somehow more than just the beginning of Lent, because what we do and say on this special Wednesday has power. There’s gospel power for our souls when we receive the imposition of ashes on our foreheads and the proclamation of those solemn words, “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

With this simple phrase on Ash Wednesday, we are reminded that we are mortal. Or as a very matter-of-fact social media post I’ve seen states, “We all came here by birth and we all will leave here by death.” Or in traditional poetic terms, we say we are “Ashes to ashes and dust to dust.” And as if hearing this were not enough, these words are literally rubbed into our faces! With an ashen cross upon our foreheads, our mortality is strangely visible for all to see, including for ourselves in the mirror — and all of this seems like bad news. So how is there gospel power for us on Ash Wednesday? How is there good news in all of this?

Firstly, we need to begin with the ancient past, with the Christian theology that we and the entire universe are intelligently designed and created by Almighty God. In other words, the universal scrambled eggs of the Big Bang did not just unscramble themselves without the cosmic fine-tuning of God over the eons. In fact, every fundamental constant of our universe (from the very first moment of the Big Bang) needed to be exactly tuned for all matter and life to exist. If anything was off by even the smallest infinitesimal degree, then we and all life would not exist. Therefore, the “dust” of our ancient beginnings is not a cosmic fluke. It was and is orchestrated, and fine-tuned on a razor’s edge, to produce the beautifully complex universe in which all life can flourish. So our lives are 100% wonderfully-made gifts from God, nothing less.

As the late Pope Benedict XVI famously wrote: “We are not some casual and meaningless product of evolution. Each of us is the result of a thought of God. Each of us is willed, each of us is loved, each of us is necessary.”

Because the energy, matter, space and time of the universe are continually shaped and molded by God our Supreme Maker, this means that our ancient evolutionary dust is a sacred and holy dust. And God’s grace and love from before the beginning of this universal creation shall carry us through our physical disintegration and death unto an immortal embodiment beyond this present life.

Secondly, these ashes on Ash Wednesday are not just randomly smeared on our foreheads without design. They are intentionally placed on us in the form of a cross. Therefore, with the symbol of the cross on our flesh, we mortals are connected with the eternal love of God expressed on Good Friday and the eternal life of God revealed on Easter Sunday. On Ash Wednesday we remember the promise that, just as we have come from cosmic stardust to occupy this mortal life, we shall also arise from the dust of death unto glorious immortality with Jesus our Savior and Lord! Yes, to dust we shall return, but THROUGH this dust and ashes we shall rise up to life everlasting in Jesus Christ!

Consequently, crosses of ashes on our foreheads are actually good news for us. Crosses of ashes point us toward the love and life of God, both at the beginning of all things and at the end of all things — from the Alpha to the Omega, from everlasting to everlasting. And crosses of ashes remind us that, because of this wonderful good news, we are called to self-reflect, repent, and to turn toward the Lord more fully in our daily lives.

The good news of Ash Wednesday centers on God’s love that is at the very heart of the entire cosmos itself, and that is most fully revealed through the cross and empty tomb of Jesus our Savior. So as an ashen cross is smeared upon your forehead, let this be a sacred occasion to return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful.

Blessed Lent to all of you!  Pastor Tim

ROW YOUR BOAT GENTLY DOWN THE STREAM

My dad died in 2003, then later my mom died in 2014, and so, at these very difficult times of great loss and grief, I found myself spending a lot of time and energy looking back. Naturally, this is a normal response when we experience the greatest losses in life, such as the death of a parent or a longtime spouse. Indeed, dwelling on the past with enormous amounts of mental and emotional energy like this is very much a part of the grieving process for up to a couple of years afterward.

Sadly, we can sometimes become stuck in the past — year after year, and even decade after decade — and this imprisonment in the past drains and robs us of being fully present right here and now. However, thanks be to God we can become unstuck by the good news of Jesus Christ our Savior and Lord! By God’s great mercy, we have been reborn into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. And this great hope lifts us up and rescues us from being hopelessly and endlessly stuck in the past and in our grief. As St. Paul the Apostle of Christ writes in his second letter to the Christians of the City of Corinth:

“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is achieving for us an eternal glory beyond all measure. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

(Second Corinthians 4: 16-18)

Similarly, we can be tempted into the trap of being overly focused (to the point of obsession) on the future. We can exhaust ourselves with worrying about what the future might hold for us. Yet again, we can find ourselves drained and robbed of being fully present right here and now, except this time the culprit is our anxiety about the future. However, the cure for this is the same cure that saves us from being stuck in the past. The cure is the good news and eternal hope of Christ! For our Lord Jesus teaches us with his immortal words in chapter 6 of the Gospel of Matthew and in chapter 14 of the Gospel of John:

“Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life… But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for today is its own trouble.”

(from Matthew 6: 25-34)

“In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also… I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

(from John 14: 2-7)

In other words, we should not obsess about what the future might hold for us, because we know The One who holds our future in his hands — our Heavenly Father. And because our Heavenly Father has provided his only begotten Son to bring us atonement, forgiveness and renewal of life, we have an all-surpassing future hope. Christ has died, yes, but Christ is now risen and we shall arise too. He is the Lord of all life and light and love, and this wonderful Lord is also the Lord of our everlasting future together.

Therefore, we need not fret over the impermanent nature of this temporary earthly existence that we all must journey through. It is a temporary condition during which we experience all sorts of tests and trials, but it is only momentary compared to the eternal glory that awaits us through Christ. For again as the Apostle Paul writes, “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

The gospel of Christ empowers us to more gently row our boats through this life. Not futilely rowing backward against the flow of time, stuck in the past. Not frantically and exhaustingly rowing forward with great anxiety about the future. Rather, we are enabled to row gently down the stream — mentally and emotionally present in the here and now — by the power of the faith, hope and love of our Lord Jesus Christ.

During our Lenten Season and on into Eastertime, and indeed for the rest of our lives, may we continually learn to row our boats more gently down the stream of this life — “merrily, merrily,” as the old song goes — for we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.

Blessed Season of Lent! Pastor Tim

SIGNAL BEACONS FOR CHRIST

It’s the Third Day of Christmastime as I write this article and New Year’s Eve is several days away. Many people still have most of their Christmas decorations out in observance of the Twelve Days, and I recently noticed a front yard Nativity display with an illuminated set of Holy Family figurines. And, interestingly, the light coming from the Baby Jesus was flashing on and off. So I had a quick chuckle about it, but the image of that flashing-light Baby Jesus has stayed with me.

Our Lord Jesus taught us, “Let your light so shine before others, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16). And in the context of Matthew chapter 5, Jesus was talking about shining the light of gospel mercy and gospel faithfulness for the sake of all people, including for the sake of our adversaries and enemies. So, considering the blinking-light Baby Jesus I saw, I wonder if we need to shine his gospel light more like a signal beacon these days, rather than like an oil lamp.

A signal beacon is an intentionally conspicuous light that is designed to attract attention to a specific location or for a specific purpose. For example, signal fires were lit in ancient times to call for aid. Lighthouse beacons (both ancient and modern) are used to alert ships. And electric signal lights are used within all the various modes of transportation: automotive, locomotive, nautical, aerial and astronautical. Therefore, similar to the flashing-light Baby Jesus figurine I saw, we Christians sometimes (maybe even oftentimes) need to shine our light for Christ like an attention-getting signal beacon. Maybe more often than not, we should be conspicuous about our Christian faith and hope in order to draw attention to the good news of Jesus Christ that has the power to change lives. For the Apostle Paul states in Romans chapter 1, “I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for our life of faith” (Romans 1:16-17).

As Christians, we profess that the grace and truth of Jesus Christ is the answer to all of our spiritual and relational ills. When hearts are changed by the love of God revealed in Christ, then the elderly are respected more, children are cared for more, racial bigotry is reduced within people of all ethnicities, the hungry are fed, and so on. This is the reign of God among us. Hearts and minds are changed, lovingkindness flourishes, society is improved, and there’s a multiplication of the people of faith. And this, in fact, is how Christianity first expanded out into our world, and it’s how it best grows even today.

Block by block, person by person, neighbor by neighbor, relative by relative, the signal beacon Light of Jesus Christ shining through our gospel testimony and good works (imperfect though we be at this) will guide people home to the salvation, peace and joy of Christ. And this also has the wonderful side effect of benefitting all of society as well. When people have their hearts changed by the grace of God in Christ, they tend to take more personal responsibility for their lives, while, at the same time, they tend to be drawn together to take more social responsibility for the sake of others.

So throughout 2022, may we become signal beacons for Christ more and more. May we let the light of the gospel shine (and even blink and flash) before others, for the glory of God and for the redemption of our world.

Happy New Year!!! Pastor Tim

MISSIONARIES FOR CHRIST

In select theaters on March 17-18, 2020, Fathom Events is bringing to the big screen a new inspirational movie about the life and ministry of Saint Patrick, entitled “I Am Patrick.” It is a feature-length docudrama that peels back centuries of legend and myth to tell the story of the historical St. Patrick. Through re-enactments, expert interviews, and Patrick’s own writings, we can experience his remarkable journey of faith and transformation. It also stars John Rhys-Davies (best known for his role as Gimli in The Lord of the Rings saga) who plays St. Patrick in his elder years.  For us in our area, this movie will show on these two days at 6:30pm at AMC Burbank 16.

During the Season of Lent, the Christian Church has an annual observance on March 17th in commemoration of this great Fifth Century missionary bishop to Ireland. He was born at the end of the Fourth Century to a Roman family on the Isle of Great Britain. Patrick was raised in the Christian Faith, but at the age of sixteen he was abducted by Pagan Irish pirates who were raiding communities in and around Great Britain. Patrick was then enslaved by them, and during his captivity, he prayed often and his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ grew stronger. Patrick also learned the Irish Celtic language and customs. In addition, he learned about Druidism, which was the Pagan religion of the Celtic peoples of Western Europe. In fact, his slave master was a Druid high priest. After six years of captivity, he received guidance from an angel of God to flee his cruel master, and he escaped back to Britain.

As a result of this experience, Patrick’s heart was set toward serving God, so he went to France for his seminary education. After seminary, he served in pastoral ministry for approximately seventeen years until he was commissioned as a missionary bishop to Ireland. Patrick arrived in Ireland around 433 AD, and he shared the good news of Jesus Christ with the native people of Ireland for decades to follow. Because of his evangelistic ministry, Patrick is largely responsible for the establishment of Christianity in Ireland. Besides his famous use of the three-leafed shamrock to symbolize the Holy Trinity of God, he is also credited with driving the Druid priesthood (a.k.a. the “serpents”) from Ireland.

It is appropriate during Lent that we commemorate Saint Patrick, because he is a model of faithful and dedicated evangelism within a cultural context that’s largely unfriendly to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work. Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest?’ I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see how the fields are already ripe for harvest.”

John 4: 34-35

Yes, according to Jesus, the fields of evangelism are already ripe for the harvest. However, these fields of evangelism in our society today often do not feel very ripe for harvesting. This is because we live in a time where many people who were raised in the Christian Faith are not living according to their baptismal covenant with God: “to live among God’s faithful people, to regularly hear the Word of God and share in the Lord’s Supper, to proclaim the good news of God in Christ Jesus through word and deed, to serve all people, following the example of Jesus, and to strive for justice and peace in all the earth.” And many of these are neglecting to nurture their children into the faith, hope and love of the Lord Jesus. Furthermore, as it was at the time of Saint Patrick in Ireland, our work of Christian evangelism is increasingly to those who at first find the gospel to be completely foreign to them.

Thanks be to God for the example of Saint Patrick, whose devotion and dedication to God gives us inspiration to do the work of evangelism within our daily lives. May we continue to share the good news of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ with others, even though it might not initially be received too well, or even if our evangelical outreach in the name of Christ is completely rejected.

Let us remember Jesus’ words of promise, saying, “See how the fields are already ripe for harvest.” And, when sharing the good news and joy of our Lord with others, let us continually pray for direction with the words of the great missionary bishop, Saint Patrick, who wrote: “May the strength of God pilot me, the power of God uphold me, the wisdom of God guide me.”

Good Lent & Blessed Saint Patrick’s Day! Pastor Tim