Earthly messiahs come and go.

Posted on November 8, 2012 by theoldadam

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John 2:23-25

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“23 Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs which he did; 24 but Jesus did not trust himself to them, 25 because he knew all men and needed no one to bear witness of man; for he himself knew what was in man.”

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November 7, 2012

 

It was every politicians dream come true. The groundswell of support was rising. People were abuzz with admiration for Him. The benefits He provided suggested a bright future. If only he were king. He would distribute prosperity to all. They were ripe for the picking.

Sound familiar? Some things never change. Later, John’s gospel reports the incident of the feeding of several thousand people. They came back the next day for more of what they saw as a free lunch program. Jesus was not impressed. “You are only here”, he said, “because you ate your fill.” There is no deeper biblical insight into human nature.

At one point during His earthly ministry the people actually wanted to take Him by force and make Him king. They saw in Him the one who would really deliver the goods. Jesus, sensing the threat to His mission, eluded them.

Have you ever wondered why Jesus consistently refused the adulation of the crowd? After all, wasn’t that what He was after? All he had to do was keep giving away the goodies and they would follow Him anywhere.

If Jesus had given in to the appetites of the herd everything would have been lost. But Jesus knew what is in us. That’s what John observed. Jesus knew that we will seek to make anyone king who promises to keep the free lunch programs going. For what is in us, Jesus knew, is the insatiable appetite of the self – sin. And the sinful self will happily, willingly enslave itself to the highest bidder.

So Jesus rejected the chronically restless masses and the invitation to fulfill their utopian dreams. Instead He went to the Cross.That is why He alone is worthy of our love and faith. For knowing the sin that is in us, knowing our deepest need, our sickness unto death – He did not pander to our grievances and grudges like some scheming power seeker. He did not give us want we want. He gave us what we need. He gave His life for us.

So to all those who think the latest version of the messiah will bring heaven on earth and the flowering of peace and justice, here is the hard truth; the dreams of the politician will not save you. They may, in fact, impose a nightmare of utopian tyranny. And when they die all we are left with is the burdensome residue of their plans and schemes. The ancient psalmist recognized this truth ages ago when he wrote,

 “Do not put your trust in princes, in mortal men, who cannot save. When their spirit departs, they return to the ground; on that very day their plans come to nothing.”

The authentic work of peace and justice that Jesus and His Father accomplished happened on a bloody Cross two thousand years ago. That peace comes even now through a living faith in the Crucified One; and the justice of God is fulfilled when sinners are reconciled to God, declared righteous, forgiven and free, by grace through faith, in a life of trust that begins now but will only be perfected in the life to come. 

 

 

“May the peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

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( from  Pastor Mark Anderson’s Daily Devotional blog site )

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Thank you, Pastor Mark.

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And thanks to flickr and jambox998, for the photo.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Filed under: Earthly messiahs, Pastor Mark Anderson's blog | 3 Comments »

Luke 19

Posted on November 4, 2012 by theoldadam

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“The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

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The text above is from the story Zacchaeus, the little man from Jericho who climbed a tree to see Jesus. It’s a good story and you may remember the children’s song based on the incident; “Zacchaeus was a wee little man, a wee little man was he”, etc. 

Zacchaeus was a rich man as a result of his legalized plundering of the people. He was a tax agent of the hated Romans and despised by his fellow Jews. His name must have seemed to them the ultimate irony. In Hebrew Zacchaeus means ‘pure and righteous one.’

As Jesus made His way through Jericho, accompanied by the good citizens of the city, he came upon the little man in the tree. Without hesitation Jesus invited Himself to lunch at the home of Zacchaeus. This would have been a bit like your pastor sitting down to lunch with a member of the mafia. You just don’t associate with these people, let alone break bread with them.

Years ago, when I first came to Newport Beach, my guitar and I showed up every week at a local roadhouse for a blues jam. I played there off and on for a couple of years until the place closed down. One Sunday morning I was approached by a member of my congregation (who has since gone to the Lord) who expressed grave concern that I would inhabit such a place. It didn’t look good and it didn’t reflect well on the congregation, I was told. On the contrary, I replied. What better reputation could you possibly have than the very reputation your Lord acquired? 

Jesus got Himself into all kinds of trouble because He worked the margins. Read the gospels. See for yourself.  He sought out all kinds of disreputable, grungy people who were easy for the respectable folks to forget. It was scandalous that a man who claimed to speak for God inhabited the lives of sinners with such ease. It is important, even crucial to notice that the marginalized and despised ones were the very ones who responded most eagerly to Jesus. All they had known from the ‘religious’ among them was scorn and rejection. In Jesus they found a friend and a love that made possible an authentic renewal of life.

 

Postscript: On one of my last visits to the roadhouse two of us were sitting at a table nursing a beer and talking about how much we were going to miss the place. My new friend, who I had been jamming with off and on for months said, “You know, if I had known you were a pastor before we had played together a few times, I wouldn’t be sitting here with you.”  Then, for the next hour or so I listened as he spoke of an abusive childhood, run ins with the law, two failed marriages and a young daughter who he had never seen. For my part, I told him about Jesus. How he never gives up on us no matter how busted up our lives may be and that we may always begin again. As we left that night we embraced. Tears were in his eyes.

About six months later I received a note in the mail. My friend had moved to be near his child, was working at a good job and for the first time in his life, was attending a church. He had also found a local blues bar where he and one of the associate pastors were playing regularly…and taking every opportunity to speak with others about Jesus. You gotta love it!

 

“May the peace of Gods that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

 

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From Pastor Mark’s blog.

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Thank you, Pastor Mark.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Filed under: Jesus seeks the lost, Pastor Mark Anderson's blog | 2 Comments »

Luther still matters

Posted on November 2, 2012 by theoldadam

From Pastor Mark Anderson’s blog on Tuesday Oct. 31, 2012

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On this day in 1517, the Augustinian monk Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany.  The theses that Luther penned and posted that day set in motion events that reverberate into our own time. It is not an overstatement to say that Martin Luther has been among the most influencial historical figures of the last 500 years. There was a time when throughout the western world  the Bible was the only book read more widely than Luther’s writings. Think about that.

Luther used the door of the Wittenberg church to post his theses along with an invitation to debate because it was a well-known community bulletin board.  Wittenberg was also full of pilgrims that day who were gathering for the All Saints Day observances and a monk posting a notice would have been unremarkable. As he came and went it is likely that he went largely unnoticed. Unfortunately, unnoticed can also describe Luther in our time.

 

Fast forward.

 

The year was 1988. I had just arrived at a Lutheran congregation here in California to begin my work as associate pastor for youth and parish education. On the first day of 7th grade confirmation class I distributed a brief, one page set of questions to the kids in order to get a sense of their knowledge of the Bible and their Lutheran faith. One of the questions was, ‘Who was Martin Luther?’ Well over half the class identified Martin Luther as a black man who was killed or had something to do with civil rights. A number of the kids answered that they did not know. Of that group of over twenty kids, three were able to identify Luther as the reformer.

At about the same time I was asked to address a Sunday morning adult class of over 50 people on the subject of Luther. To begin I described the theology of the cross and the theology of glory and asked the group for a show of hands regarding which they thought represented Martin Luther’s theology. Nearly every person went with the theology of glory. Wrong. No wonder the kids were clueless. I went home that morning in a blue funk. Not because I was surprised but precisely because after having already served three congregations in two other states, I had come to expect this.

Now, I am all for dusting off the 16th century once in a while and re-visiting the events of Luther’s life and time. It is important to do so. At the same time, I am more concerned that people today who inhabit the corridors of Lutheran churches, or any church for that matter, have some inkling as to why Luther matters. Because he does.

 

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Thank you, Pastor Mark Anderson.

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And he matters not because Martin Luther got everything right but because he points us to what is essential, he points us to the Cross, to Christ where our true salvation is found. Luther read his Bible and there discovered that we have no right or need to say anything or do anything for our salvation. As far as God is concerned, we have nothing to offer. Rather, as beggars in the bread line we can do no other than hold out our empty hands and receive the salvation that God gives on His terms, by grace alone, in the crucified and risen Jesus. 

 

 

Filed under: Luther, Pastor Mark Anderson's blog, Reformation Day | Leave a comment »

“When the Son sets you free, you are free indeed.”

Posted on October 12, 2012 by theoldadam

From Pastor Mark’s blog     http://www.lightofthemaster.net/apps/blog/t

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by Pastor Mark Anderson

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From time to time I flip through the television channels to watch various T.V. preachers, just to see what they’re up to. Not long ago I came across a woman who was speaking to a packed auditorium of several thousand people. I listened in for a few minutes and the message was clear; if you expect anything from God, if you want success, you had better get your life in order.

It didn’t seem to occur to the preacher that these folks had spent the last week doing just that in any number of ways, mostly with limited or no success, and that some relief might be in order. It’s hard to understand why she would simply remind them of their wounds and then put the verbal whip on them to try harder. It’s also hard to understand why people would return week after week and subject themselves to reminders, couched in omnipotent terms, of their inadequacy. Well, actually, it’s not hard to understand at all.

Preying on people’s fears, inadequacies and brokenness works. And it works precisely because we are so terribly vulnerable in this life. Once we get our wits about us in this world it becomes quite obvious that to get along we have to be good for something. We must demonstrate our value in tangible ways. Some are more or less up to the challenge, some fail miserably, and most people wobble along in fits and starts anxious for security, looking for shelter from the storm. They are suckers for bootstraps religion. Nothing else in life is free, why should God be free?

Well, based on the generally lackluster performance most of us produce in this life I can fully appreciate the question. I’ve asked it myself. And the answer, surprisingly enough, has been given by God Himself.

 “When the Son sets you free, you are free indeed.“

We call that the Good News. It is what I was hoping the T.V. preacher would get around to but she never did. So, here, in an unvarnished quote from that late purveyor of God’s glorious grace, Gerhard Forde, is the word of irrepressible freedom delivered to you this day; it is a word of pure gift. 

“We are justified freely, for Christ’s sake, by faith, without the exertion of our own strength, gaining of merit, or doing of works.  To the age-old question, ‘What shall I do to be saved?’ the confessional answer is shocking: ‘Nothing!  Just be still; shut up and listen for once in your life to what God the Almighty, creator and redeemer, is saying to his world and to you in the death and resurrection of his Son!  Listen and believe!’”

(Gerhard O. Forde, Justification by Faith (Philadelphia, 1983), page 22.)

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Isn’t it great?  There is nothing left to do.  Christ Jesus has done it all!  Let go of your bootstraps, sit back, relax and take a deep breath of the free air.  The Son has set you free!

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Filed under: Freedom, Gerhard Forde, Pastor Mark Anderson's blog | 4 Comments »

“I believe in the Holy Spirit…”

Posted on October 8, 2012 by theoldadam

 

From Pastor Mark’s blog:

http://www.lightofthemaster.net/apps/blog

 

 

 

I am currently commenting on the articles of the Apostle’s Creed. This is for my benefit as much as anything. These remarks are organized only because they are following the outline of the creed. So while they are not systematic, I hope they are not rambling either! I’m giving myself a refresher course and you’re invited to come along. And as you do I trust these few words may contribute something to your understanding of what it is to have faith in the God of Jesus.

 

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For centuries all kinds of efforts have been made to intellectually storm the castle of the Holy Spirit. What happens? We run up against the limits of logic, fall into the dreams and speculations of Gnosticism or throw up our hands in derision and mockery. But to confess faith in the Holy Spirit, as the Bible bears witness, does not bring us into the vague realm of the ‘spiritual’ but to the mystery of the revealed trinitarian God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. To put a finer point on it, to confess the trinitarian God is to confess that this God is for me and with me. This would seem indulgent and prideful were not for the fact that Holy Scriptures really allow us no other principle of understanding. 

Christians speak of the gift of the Holy Spirit. We believe the Spirit is given in baptism. The Holy Spirit is not God in a different appearance, a different aspect of God, an alternate mode of appearing. What we are really saying is that the indivisible God is within us, is given to us.

Two points here are worth exploring. First, since the Holy Spirit is within us it is difficult to distinguish the presence of the Spirit from ourselves. I still experience myself as the principal subject. From here it is an easy step to interpret my thoughts, words and actions as those of the Holy Spirit. It is what lead Martin Luther to say of the radical reformers of the 16th century, “They have swallowed the Holy Spirit feathers and all!” The radicals believed that the Spirit was in them but they could not experience God as Someone apart from them.

This brings me to my second point. Does God want us to experience Him or encounter Him? It may seem like an odd question but bear with me. The experience of the inner life and its’ emotions may be interpreted wildly and often are. If I equate the Holy Spirit with these feelings, emotions, etc. I collapse God utterly into myself and anything goes.

But when I encounter the Spirit through Christ I am drawn outward to the Word and the sacraments and to the neighbor as events, promises of God outside myself that I may rely upon and live for. Then the presence of the Spirit, which the Word and the sacraments guarantee and bring on God’s terms, become indistinguishable from faith’s power. And that power, which is really just another way saying God’s power, turns us back into life so that we encounter the ordinary business of living for its’ own sake and not as the occasion for experiencing the God who, for now, is hidden from us.

 

“May the peace of Christ that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

 

 

Tomorrow: “The holy catholic (christian) church, The communion of saints…”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Politics in the pulpit

Posted on September 15, 2012 by theoldadam

Want your pastor or priest to discuss politics with you on Sunday morning in the sermon?

Then please read this:

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http://1minutedailyword.com/2012/09/15/1-corinthians-153/

on this site > 1 Minute Daily Word

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Thanks to Pastor Mark Anderson for this one.

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And thanks to flickr and  j a thorpe, for the photo.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Filed under: Pastor Mark Anderson's blog, Political Gospels | Leave a comment »

So called, “free-will”…chopped off at the root.

Posted on September 1, 2012 by theoldadam

Ephesians 2:8

“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,”

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Martin Luther’s attack on free will, where salvation is concerned, has dismayed Lutherans and enfuriated critics ever since. The cry continually goes up, “We have to do something, don’t we?” Luther might respond like this; ‘And just what are you planning on doing? is there something regarding your salvation that Christ has not done for you?’

 Here, in his own words, Martin lays the axe to our free-will pretensions.

 

 “For my own part, I frankly confess that even if it were possible, I should not wish to have free choice given to me, or to have anything left in my own hands by which I might strive toward salvation. For, on the one hand, I should be unable to stand firm and keep hold of it amid so many adversities and perils and so many assaults of demons, seeing that even one demon is mightier than all men, and no man at all could be saved; and on the other hand, even if there were no perils or adversities or demons, I should nevertheless have to labor under perpetual uncertainty and to fight as one beating the air [1 Cor 9.26], since even if I lived and worked to eternity, my conscience would never be assured and certain how much it ought to do to satisfy God.

 For whatever work might be accomplished, there would always remain an anxious doubt whether it pleased God or whether he required something more, as the experience of all self-justifiers proves, and as I myself learned to my bitter cost through so many years. But now, since God has taken my salvation out of my hands into his, making it depend on his choice and not mine, and has promised to save me, not by my own work or exertion but by his grace and mercy, I am assured and certain both that he is faithful and will not lie to me, and also that he is too great and powerful for any demons or any adversities to be able to break him or to snatch me from him. “No one,” he says, “shall snatch them out of my hand, because my Father who has given them to me is greater than all” [John 10:28 f.]. 

 So it comes about that, if not all, some and indeed many are saved, whereas by the power of free choice none at all would be saved, but all would perish together. Moreover, we are also certain and sure that we please God, not by the merit of our own working, but by the favor of his mercy promised to us, and that if we do less than we should or do it badly, he does not hold this against us, but in a fatherly way pardons and corrects us.” (Luther’s Works, vol. 33, pgs. 288-289“.

  

TIMBER!

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“May the peace of God that passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

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Thank you, Pastor Mark.

Pastor Mark Anderson’s Daily Devotional blog site

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‘A Church for Enemies’

Posted on August 29, 2012 by theoldadam

_John 15

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”

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The sign that stood in front of a church building carried the name of the congregation and this slogan: ‘A Church for Families‘. I took it to mean that families are welcome there. That appeared to be the target market, as we say. But are families more welcome than say, the elderly or single people? Or maybe the slogan was referring to a kind of familial closeness that exists there. That might be OK but if a certain level of intimacy is expected of church members, what about those for whom familial intimacy and affection are problematic for a host of understandable reasons? 

Close, interpersonal relationships are among the highest values in any society. Human affection is capable of monumental things, to be sure. Direct affection can be powerful and the basis for real friendship, care, even a certain degree of healing. At the same time being a ‘family church’ may mean nothing more than a bunch of friendly folks have settled on a comfortable status quo and are happy to leave it at that. Human affection is a lousy basis for Christian community. In fact, it is no basis at all.

Let me suggest an alternative slogan. How about this;  ‘A Church for Enemies‘.  ‘Gasp!  You can’t be serious!’ Well, actually I’m not and neither are you…when it comes to loving enemies that is. And neither are churches whose deepest roots are family values and deep, human intimacy and relationships. That’s why it’s such an awesome slogan. It points beyond us to a love greater and more enduring than ours. It points to the love of Jesus who gave His life on the cross for people who through their sinfulness reveal themselves to be enemies of innocence, righteousness and holiness, unworthy of being a part of God’s family, people who apart from Him are do nothings – people like you and me.

 

“May the peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

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From Pastor Mark Anderson’s Daily Devotional blog site

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Filed under: Pastor Mark Anderson's blog | 2 Comments »

1 Minute Daily Word.com

Posted on July 12, 2012 by theoldadam

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My goal is to get up in the neighborhood of 4 million hits a day on

 http://1minutedailyword.com/ 

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Pastor Mark  (it’s a mirror blog of his blog – link on site)  isn’t into numbers, and rightfully so, but I’d like to get 4 million people a day to read these Christ-centered daily devotionals, because the gospel is there. Christ is there.  And where the gospel is, faith can be born… or kept burning.

We are ‘well’ short of a million hits a day.  But we’re going to keep them coming as long as Pastor Mark will write them, and there are ears to hear (eyes to read).   More people are learning about them everyday.

So, send them to friends and family…and even the occasional enemy. And keep Romans 1:16 close to heart.

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Thanks, and God bless you.

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Thank you to Chris Yarzab, for his great photo.

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Filed under: 1 Minute Daily Word.com, Pastor Mark Anderson's blog | 1 Comment »

Assurance, Baptism

Posted on June 25, 2012 by theoldadam

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“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;”   – Ephesians 2:8

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The young man called out of the blue and wanted to talk. The next morning found him in my study, wringing his hands, full of doubt. He had been baptized and grew up in a Lutheran congregation. During his college years, a friend convinced him that his baptism meant nothing and that he must make a free-will decision to accept Christ. The next few years found him in a so-called non-denominational church.

He went on to describe a Christian life, as it had been presented to him, that was a source of chronic uncertainty. It began with the demand that he make a free-will decision. Then, the message he heard continually prodded the will to keep choosing, setting up Biblical principles for living, ladders of spiritual achievement, rules for godly living. The questions poured out of him. Am I doing what God wants? Am I praying often enough? Am I loving enough? Do I have enough faith? Am I sincere in wanting to love God or am I just afraid of judgment? When I die will I have done enough to escape God’s judgment? Am I really a sincere Christian? He had reached his limits. “If the Gospel is Good news”, he remarked, “why do I always feel so unsettled and uncertain?”

After listening to his litany of questions, I replied; “I don’t know you, but I can say with certainty that the answer to all your questions is ‘no’. At the same time, I can say with even more certainty that the answer to your doubts is Christ and what He has done for you. Basing faith on your decision for Christ is a formula for uncertainty. Basing faith on Christ’s decision for you in your baptism plants you firmly in the Gospel.”

What the young man who came to me was discovering is that when we look to ourselves, to what we have done, to our willing, all God will show us is our unwillingness. God deliberately drives us to uncertainty, doubt, despair, or, even worse, to pride. What I hoped he would see is that when we begin with baptism, with God’s decision for us, God shows us the righteousness that is His gift to us by faith, deliberately leading us away from ourselves to the foot of the cross, to the forgiveness that flows from His merciful heart.

 

“May the peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

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From Pastor Mark’s blogsite:

http://www.lightofthemaster.net/apps/blog

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Filed under: Assurance, Baptism, Pastor Mark Anderson's blog | 6 Comments »

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