Month: May 2021

God Calls Me to Love and Serve My Neighbor

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(Luke 10:25-37)

It’s a modern re-telling of the story Jesus told, but without the happy ending. About ten years ago now, Hugo, a young homeless man from Guatemala, was stabbed on the streets of Queens, NY.  He had intervened to help a woman escape from an angry man and was stabbed in the process. After stumbling for a bit, Hugo fell to the ground bleeding. Tragic as that was, the account which was all caught on camera, gets more troubling when it reveals what happened over the next hour. One individual came upon Hugo, bent down on the sidewalk to shake him, and even moved him enough to see the pool of blood beneath him. He then walked away. Another two men saw him, talked about him for a bit, and even took a picture of him. Then they walked away, too. One passerby after another walked past, glanced his way, and kept right on walking. Hugo laid their dying for an hour before anyone called the police, at which point it was too late. Experts and psychologists have attempted to offer rational explanations for why no one helped a stabbed man, but they all seem to fall short, leaving us with the ugly reality of how easily mankind is inclined to avoid his vocation, his calling, to love and serve his neighbor. 

It’s interesting, isn’t it, that this is the type of story Jesus told to convict an expert in the law that his take on God’s call to love God and neighbor missed the mark. This story from Jesus, perhaps as much as any others he tells, makes us uneasy. We’d feel a lot better if Jesus had told a story about a cheating husband or a murderer or a liar or any number of other bad things that bad people do, because it’s easier for us to pretend we don’t belong lumped together with those kinds of people. But this one leaves us uncomfortable. This one doesn’t really leave us any easy loopholes by which to escape. It’s pretty clear when Jesus illustrates what it looks like to love and serve my neighbor, that I have neglected my neighbor often. 

And it’s not that we disagree that it’s important to help others. I don’t know too many people – believer or not – who would disagree that we ought to love and serve our neighbor. Most would agree that we’d all be better off as a society following this approach. So if so many people agree about it, then why isn’t it happening? The reason is profoundly simple, and I want to challenge you not just to hear it – don’t just listen for the reason – but take the lead in addressing the problem. You want to know what the problem is? We all agree that our vocation, our calling, is to love and serve our neighbor. In fact, we’re so much in agreement with the statement, that we spend most of our time monitoring how well everyone is doing it.

That’s the problem. How do we address it? Do it yourself, rather than living as if your life is a permanent stakeout, observing the lives of others while overlooking the neighbor you could be loving and serving right next to you. The world doesn’t need more arm-chair quarterback Christians, making it their business to assess how well the world is neighboring; the world needs more Christians – the world needs you – to step up your game in carrying out your calling to love and serve your neighbor. 

Admittedly, there is a HUGE obstacle that gets in the way of our serving our neighbor. The challenge with this obstacle is that we carry it with us everywhere we go: it’s our heart. Proverbs 20:9 asks, “Who can say, ‘I have kept my heart pure; I am clean and without sin?’”  Since the Fall, our hearts have been hijacked by the prince of this world, and even though we belong to God by faith, our hearts still betray us and commit treason, serving the prince of this world instead of the Prince of Peace. Frankly, it shouldn’t surprise us when we struggle to love and serve our neighbor if our hearts, the very source of that love, are sour. Here are three ways that sour hearts stain loving service to our neighbor.

One: we prequalify those we are willing to help. When it comes to credit cards, no one likes to have to take the extra step of prequalifying. Credit card companies know this. It’s why you get all the junk mail for new credit cards that advertise that you’ve been prequalified for their latest, greatest card. Yet we prequalify those who need our help all the time. We have certain standards or expectations or opinions on those we’re willing to help. If we decide someone is taking advantage of unemployment, shame on them – they’ll get no help from me. The homeless drifter I am convinced is probably just going to use anything he gets to support his addiction will get nothing from me. The single mom who had children outside of marriage made that choice and now has to accept the consequences – don’t look to me for help. We prequalify all the time. We determine whose need is worth our time, when the better way is to see any neighbor in need, and take advantage of the time God has given us to meet that need.

A second way our sour hearts stain loving service to our neighbor: the motivation behind our service. What is prompting me to serve my neighbor? Is it genuine love for my neighbor, to meet her need at that specific time and place? Or, is it love for self, to feel better about doing something nice for someone? Or, is it a greater concern of other people’s opinion of me – that others take note of my kind actions? Is it a matter of quickly addressing what is perceived as merely an inconvenience for me? How often is my motivation so pure that it is nothing but genuine loving compassion for my neighbor that prompts me to love and serve him? Not very often.

This has a direct impact on the third way our sour hearts stain loving service to our neighbor: the extent to which we help. This deals with the wrestling match between helping to actually meet someone else’s need or to meet my need to feel good about helping someone. I’ll help meet someone’s needs… to the extent that it’s convenient for me. When that is the case, I am less concerned about whether or not what I offered actually helped the person, and more concerned with feeling good about having done anything at all. But real sacrifice, when it puts me out, when it takes more time than I have, when I have to return to square up the bill like the Samaritan? That is rare.

Then, in addition to these three heart issues, we Christians also have an escape clause that acts as a catch-all to get out of meeting my neighbor’s needs: we justify our neglect of others’ needs by reminding ourselves that Jesus is more concerned about people’s salvation and souls than he is their temporary needs. But why do we pit one against the other when Jesus clearly calls us to care about both? Did Jesus ever take anyone to task for feeding the hungry, telling them, “Stop that – they need spiritual food more than physical food. Don’t waste their time with silly things like hunger”? Or on the flip side, did he ever take anyone to task for talking about sin and grace and faith and forgiveness, saying, “Stop that – they don’t need all that religious talk; what they need is a hot meal”? No, Jesus says to do both, so why do we pit one against the other instead of looking for the countless opportunities he gives us to do both? 

Don’t be so shocked by any of the above – it’s all just a reflection of how corrupt our hearts are in a fallen world – so much for “people are basically good!” Yes, we’re pretty good at making sure our exteriors are nice and polished… as long as you don’t dig beneath the surface! No, don’t be shocked by the ugliness of what’s in here; be shocked by something else – that Jesus came to love and serve hearts like that! 

Wouldn’t it be something if the Samaritan did something else? Wouldn’t it be something if he tracked down the Levite and the priest and offered them some random act of kindness? How would we feel about the Samaritan if he reached out and helped those schmucks? It might make us bristle a bit. We’d cringe.

Until we connect the dots and realize that is our situation. Jesus was much more than a Good Samaritan; he is a perfect Savior. He didn’t just come for the left-for-dead on the side of the road; he came for those who heartlessly passed by the left-for-dead on the side of the road. He came to save sour hearts and souls. He came for you and me. Jesus is the solution David begged for in Psalm 51:10, “Create in me a pure heart, O God.”  Through Jesus, he did! No more sour hearts; our hearts are pure! Take up the invitation extended in Hebrews, “let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience…” (10:22)!

Friends, if that doesn’t change your heart, I am at a loss as to what possibly can. If the reality of the absolute best – Jesus – giving himself for you at your absolute worst doesn’t soothe your sour heart and cause it to start beating with an unyielding and relentless desire to pour yourself into loving service for others, then I am out of ideas. That’s all I have. I can’t drum up some inspirational, moving story that can ever pull at your heart strings like holy Jesus giving himself for heartless us. Rather than desert or ignore us, he mercifully rescued us. And we weren’t even his neighbor; we were his enemies! 

But not anymore! Now we are his friends. For eternity. Forever. What do friends do? They love and serve each other. Jesus continues to love and serve us with his Word and Sacrament to provide us with peace and forgiveness and gush over us with grace. How do we love and serve him? By loving and serving our neighbor. By loving and serving his other friends, the other souls precious and dear to him, the other souls for whom he died, the other souls with whom he longs to spend eternity. And no, you don’t need to wait until someone is left-for-dead to love and serve him; just look for someone who has a need – any need at all – and lovingly meet it as you’re able. THAT is your calling. 

God Calls Me a Dedicated Mom

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(1 Samuel 1:21-28)

What is “my calling.” That might be a good Jeopardy response if a contestant chose “Vocation for $500.” Simply put, your vocation is your calling. Today we begin a series that will clarify what our calling is and guide us in carrying out. While some talk about discovering their calling or feeling a calling from God, it’s actually much simpler than that. Your calling is the role God has given you to carry out right now where you’re at in life, and to carry it out in a way that serves God and others to the best of your ability with the unique gifts and responsibilities that God has given you. Are you a student – that is your calling. Employee? So is that. Single? Coach? Church member? Community volunteer? Instrumentalist? Sibling? Yes – each of these, all of these, some of these – any combination of these and so many other stations in life are what make up our calling. This morning we focus especially on one vocation: motherhood. And one doesn’t have to have children for this vocation to be worth our consideration, because none of us would be here today if not for mothers. So we appreciate the calling of motherhood from God.  

Hannah isn’t a bad mother to look at. Sadly, part of the reason she appears especially godly is because the men in the account don’t! Her own husband, well-intentioned as he might have been, comes off looking rather insensitive in his poor attempt to console her at her inability to have children. He points out that she shouldn’t be taking it so hard, because he should mean more to her than not being able to be a mother. Husbands, that’s how not to do it! Then the priest Eli, when he witnesses Hannah pouring out her soul in prayer to the Lord for the gift of a child, wrongly presumes she’s been drinking. Eli, who fails miserably at managing his own sons, assumes the worst of godly Hannah praying for a son of her own! So in stark contrast to the less than stellar examples provided by others in the account, Hannah’s godliness stands out. Her relationship with the Lord was not an afterthought. It wasn’t a means to an end. It was a priority, and it showed itself especially in the realm of motherhood.

It’s rare to see anyone with that kind of a dedicated faith-focused relationship with God. Moreover, mothers especially have the unique challenge of Satan pitting the blessing of children against God. One of the most subtle idols in our culture today is the devil’s elevation of children. While not a shock in the world, do not be naive and suppose that only the world struggles with such an idol as a child. Do not presume it is such a large leap for a child to jump from being a gift from God to becoming a gift over God. Now none of us would be terribly quick to admit that we can allow our children to become idols in our lives, but then, are we terribly quick to admit any idols in our lives? Isn’t that often the criteria that applies to something being a dangerous idol – we aren’t even aware that it is crowding out or already has crowded God out of our hearts as our first love? Or, we’re very aware of it, and will guard it tenaciously!

Children become our idols when our worlds either intentionally or unintentionally revolve around our kids. It happens when we are concerned more about their friends, finances, and future, than we are their faith. It happens when we allow their sports and their social schedules to push aside our Savior and our own spiritual growth. It happens when we spend more time worrying about their temporal life than we do praying for their eternal life. 

That’s a real danger, mind you – the idolatry of allowing our children to hold the primary place of importance in our lives. It’s one that God helped Abraham be aware of. Remember how God finally granted Abraham his own son with Sarah? That promise was a long time coming! All of God’s future promises hinged on that one child, and God finally granted him Isaac. Then, in a demand that knots up our hearts, God commanded Abraham to slay his own son and kill him. Why such a gut-wrenching request? God knew how easily a parent’s love for a child can replace a parent’s love for the Lord. That experience not only made it clear to Abraham, but it also was an opportunity to put his faith into action and demonstrate that Isaac had not replaced God as number one in Abraham’s heart.

How did Hannah – whose desire for a child was no small thing! – guard against her child, young Samuel, replacing God in her heart? She gave him away. How does a mother do that? She realizes her child is not hers; her child is His. Like absolutely everything else in this world, children belong to God first and foremost, and like everything else with which God blesses us, they are gifts on loan to be managed well. Her dedication to the Lord first and foremost was evident by her willingness to dedicate her own son in service to the Lord. She was so filled with gratitude at the gift of a son God had given her that in thanksgiving, she gave him back. It is not an easy thing to send a son or daughter away to high school like CLHS or MLS or LPS or college like MLC for possible service to the Lord in ministry, but it is one way to reflect that children are God’s gift on loan to us, and to dedicate them to possible future ministry is no small sacrifice. Hannah would have agreed.

But it isn’t just idolatry that mothers have to worry about. There’s another struggle that goes on in a mother’s heart, one that may not be so obvious to others: guilt. There is constant comparison to every other mother with children, and a natural tendency to zero in on the one other mother in the store or at the park who seems to effortlessly execute her mothering skills and ought to be teaching a “Momming 101” class somewhere. Or, when a mom thinks she may just be getting the hang of the motherhood thing, her own mom or mother-in-law deflates her with an observation or offers a “helpful” suggestion on how to handle something differently. Or, if she feels like a rockstar mothering and managing the children, feelings of failure in the marriage or neglecting her husband or not getting a job or some other perceived deficiency settles in. Guilt for mothers, whether self-imposed or brought on by others, can be crippling. So it isn’t the weight of a stroller, a diaper bag, or her child’s backpack that is the heaviest burden a mom often bears, but rather guilt. Guilt can easily outweigh them all.

Want a real solution to the danger of idolatry and the dread of guilt? Let’s talk about identity on Mother’s Day. If you are a mom, it’s easy to see that as your identity. It’s who you are. It’s where your focus is. It’s what you do around the clock. You care for your kids. You meet their needs. You schedule their appointments. You drive them around. You bandaid their scrapes. You grab their snacks. You wash their clothes and fold their laundry. You pack their suitcase. You make their bed. You do it all – you’re their mom!

But all moms are something else before they are mothers: they are daughters. And I am not talking about daughters to your own father and mother; I mean you aredaughters of the Lord. You are children of the heavenly Father. You are his. Before even the first thought of a name for your child crossed your mind, the Lord knew your name from eternity as his. Before God ever blessed you with the joy of holding a nursing infant in your arms, he held you in his heart. He chose you to be his long before ever blessing you with the status of motherhood. In Isaiah 43 he says as much: “But now, this is what the LORD says – ‘Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine’” (v.1). 

And he went to the greatest of lengths to solidify your relationship with him! He himself was born of a woman so that he might redeem women, mothers included. He perfectly honored and respected his own mother in a way no one else ever has or could, so that his keeping of the Fourth Commandment might count as our perfect track record. He loved his Heavenly Father with a holy, perfect love. He never allowed another idol to displace that love in his heart, so that his pure heart would count in the place of our own idolatry, whether a mother’s disordered love for her children before God or any other idolatry that takes root in our heart. Finally, he bore all the sin, and all the shame and guilt along with it, when he was pierced for us, crucified, and gave his life not just for his own mother, but for every mother – to guarantee that every failed mother would be first and foremost his prized daughter.

And oh, how he cared! Even in the midst of unbearable suffering and pain, his heart went out to his own mother, as we were reminded in the Gospel for today. Even then he cared for Mary, not just as his mother, but as a daughter of the Lord. He looked after her. He cared for her. He cares for you, mother. Even when your own children do not appreciate you. Even when your husband doesn’t support you. The Lord cares for you and always will, for you are his daughter. 

The right relationship with the Lord allows mothers – and all of us – to have a right relationship with others. When the Lord is our first love, we are freed to be more concerned about our child’s faith than our child’s future. My child doesn’t need me to make sure that he’s never bored by ensuring around-the-clock entertainment – my child needs Jesus. Planning birthday parties and play dates aren’t priorities – Jesus is. Coordinating amazing experiences and unforgettable family vacations for my kids right now does nothing for my child in eternity the way Jesus does. The best thing a mom can do for a child is repeatedly point that child to Jesus and Jesus’ love for their child. That way everyone wins. The child will come to love Jesus more and more, which will in turn result in the best kind of love a child can give to a mother. Mom, help your child love Jesus more than your child loves you. They’ll love you for it. They’ll get a sample in you of the dedication the Lord has for them. And they’ll see you the way Jesus’ perfect life and payment for your sin has made you to be – as a dedicated mom. Happy Mother’s Day.

“Help Me See… that God Keeps His Promises”

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(Luke 24:13-35)

The most memorable movies almost always have a great ending. What makes for a great ending? While there are a lot of factors that contribute to a great ending, the one that I think stands out the most is when something completely unexpected happens. We recently had this experience in the Grand Canyon. One of the most spectacular hikes was because it was unexpected. While it was impressive to finish the first part of the hike that involved a significant descent, once we got to the first lower section, everything sort of started looking the same. It was as if the hike could have been in any number of other National Parks – it wasn’t too special or unique. But then when we shot off on another trail, almost out of nowhere, an unexpected view caught us by surprise: the steep walls that had surrounded us cracked open and revealed miles of canyon upon canyon, all splitting right from where we were. It was completely unexpected and breathtaking. A good movie ending is like that, leaving the viewer completely caught off guard by a twist that didn’t feel at all forced, leaving him almost speechless. We love those kinds of endings. They’re the ones that make for the most memorable movies. 

So one might expect that we’d also love those kinds of endings in real life, right? Wrong. A movie is one thing; our life is another. No, in life we prefer to know exactly what is happening next. We like to have control. We like to see how we’ll be getting from where we are right now to where we want to be or need to be. We don’t particularly care for the twists or the turns, but would rather see the road ahead of us maintain the straight trajectory that we’re currently on. Keep your twists and turns, thank you very much. 

The problem is, have you noticed by now that the twists and turns are often how God tends to keep his promises? We confuse the path of God’s promises for God passing on his promises. We conclude that God is overlooking his promises when he is in fact overseeing them. A recent devotion used the picture of a detour, which is really a great illustration of how God keeps his promises. We’ve driven a familiar route long enough and expect to get there a certain way. A detour throws everything off. It throws us off. It frustrates us. It leads us to conclude that God has checked out and is no longer interested in keeping his promises, when in reality the detour is God keeping his promise. Just not using the means, methods, or map that we had in mind! 

Wasn’t that how the disciples on the way to Emmaus were seeing things? They recounted all of the details that had happened. “The things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet powerful in action and speech before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him. But we were hoping that he was the one who was about to redeem Israel. Besides all this, it’s the third day since these things happened. Moreover, some women from our group astounded us. They arrived early at the tomb, and when they didn’t find his body, they came and reported that they had seen a vision of angels who said he was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they didn’t see him” (v.19-24). They had just captured everything that had happened, just as it was supposed to happen – as Jesus had said it would happen – but they concluded that something was wrong. Something was out of place. Something hadn’t played out the way it was supposed to. In fact, everything had played out just as it was supposed to, but they didn’t see it that way. God was in fact doing just what he has always done – carrying out his promise. Yet they drew the entirely wrong conclusion – that it wasn’t happening the way it was supposed to. 

Since Jesus knew better, it doesn’t surprise us to hear the response that he gives – “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken!” (v.25). As if Jesus was saying, “Guys, how are you missing that everything you just explained was like a movie that perfectly followed the script from beginning to end, not ad-libbing or changing things on the fly, but playing out according to the script God had revealed through his prophets from day 1? It’s happening just as it was written, yet you’re somehow befuddled by the reality of what it looks like. How can this be?”

Indeed, how can it be that we would ever conclude that the events in our life not playing out exactly as we expected must mean God isn’t keeping his promises? We can’t relate to that at all, can we… except on an almost daily basis! God is busy keeping his promises to his people day in and day out, yet as we track the way by which he chooses to do it, we conclude that God must be overlooking his promises instead of overseeing them, as he actually is. Take a brief waltz through the significant events in your life and make a mental list of how they played out. Did you get through school the way you planned to? Did you find your spouse the way you planned to? Did you come by your current job the way you planned to? Are you current living where you planned to? Not too much of our lives plays out the way we planned, but our altered plans are not God’s altered promises – they are rather the means by which he was carrying out his promises all along!

Now it’s one thing to look back and see this play out in hindsight, but it’s not so easy when we’re in the middle of it. It doesn’t look like God is keeping his promises to provide when I’m in a season of unemployment. It doesn’t feel like God is keeping his promise of peace and unity in the middle of so much division. God promises that he’s always with us, but that’s hard to experience when those closest to me have abandoned or forgotten me.

Sometimes the issue in these cases is because God has just begun the detour in keeping his promise; other times it’s simply my disobedience. What I mean by disobedience is that we fail to act on the direction he provides that allows us to see him carry out his promise. He promises peace when we place our trust in him. But we don’t have peace because we don’t trust. He promises relief from anxiety when we cast our cares on him. But we’re anxious because don’t cast our cares on him. He promises freedom from bitterness and anger when we forgive. But we’re bitter and angry because we refuse to forgive. So our disobedience doubles the damage – it is not only sin against God, which is wretched enough in its own right, but on top of that it is also debilitating to us! It’s not that God isn’t keeping his promise; it’s that we rob him of the opportunity to do so by our disobedience! When God says “Do this” and we don’t, is it reasonable for us to expect the promised blessings he attached to that act of obedience? Not really!

The good news is that whether our struggle to see God keeping his promises is due to our impatience with the detour he has chosen to take, or because of our disobedience, the solution to both is found in the same place. How did Jesus help the disciples see that God was simply carrying out his promises? He explained the Scriptures to them. “‘Wasn’t it necessary for the Messiah to suffer these things and enter into his glory?’ Then beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted for them the things concerning himself in all the Scriptures” (v.26-27). Jesus, the incarnate God, the One who breathed everything into existence, who has no beginning and no end, is right there with the two disciples, and how does he open their eyes? He uses the Bible. Jesus used the Bible to unfold for the two exactly how God was overseeing – not overlooking – his promises. Jesus’ go-to was the Word of God. And that in-depth search of the Scriptures pointed them more clearly to Jesus. The Word was how they saw God keeping his promises.

So detour or disobedience – it doesn’t matter; the Word will always help us see that God keeps his promises. It will always be the necessary first step in reminding us of this because it is always the first step in finding forgiveness. Why do we begin every service with confession and absolution? Because that comes from the Word, where alone and more than anything else we find the forgiveness we need. Oh, the day we stop sinning we won’t need to hear that assurance of forgiveness again… but I don’t see that happening anytime soon. So forgiveness is the first aid we need most for our disobedience and our doubts about God keeping his promises. 

And it is the same Word that records for us promise after promise that God has made and delivered. Hang on to this worship folder just for the Lessons, if nothing else. Keep it accessible so that when you next question God’s promise-keeping, you can go back to these Scriptures and be reminded that the issue is NEVER going to be one of God’s failed promises. That will never happen. But we need to be reminded of that truth again and again. We need to hear the refrain in our heads. We need to meditate in our minds over they myriad ways God has always kept his promises. Promise-keeping is what he does. He’s the best in the business – no one else even comes close to delivering on promises the way God does! His Word is his diary of kept promises for you.

And is there greater proof of those kept promises than the vacant tomb? Talk about unexpected twists and great endings! It appeared as if the credits were ready to roll when he breathed his last on Good Friday, but in the greatest ending ever, he didn’t stay dead! Let Jesus’ resurrection help us see that God keeps his promises. And let it help us see that it really isn’t the end of the story, but our lives are a continuation of God’s perfect promise-keeping record. We hold on to that until this chapter of the story concludes and the final twist takes place: Jesus returns and fulfill his final promise. Come, Lord Jesus!