Good Morning. It has been a week of worry and concern at our home. Karen’s brother Steve was in a very bad accident last weekend while on his motorcycle. He has multiple injuries, a great deal of pain, and after 6 days is still on a respirator. As is so often the case when you’re 500 miles away, it has been difficult getting a clear picture of the situation, and so we concluded that Karen should go to Kansas and see for herself, provide whatever support to Steve’s family that she can, and pray. Our son James will drive with her. Please keep Karen and James in your prayers as well as Steve and his family.
In today’s lessons we see that from the days of Moses through the time of Jesus and his disciples, people just didn’t understand. Has anything really changed even today? The Lord provided so many blessings for the Israelites in the wilderness. He performed so many miracles, and yet they always needed one more. Despite all the displays of His power that they had seen, they still tested the Lord’s love and patience with their behavior and their arrogance.
In the Gospel, in a scene late in Jesus’ ministry and life, the disciples are still trying to jockey for political prominence in God’s kingdom. Jesus tried to gently let them know that they just didn’t understand: “You do not know what you are asking.” He tries again – for the umpteenth time – to explain to them that he came to serve and to die in the service of others, and that if you want to follow Him then you too need to become a servant not a ruler. “Whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave; just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”
Paul, in Romans, reminds us that what we have been given through the life and sacrifice of Jesus NOT ONE OF US DESERVES! “We are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God.” The only thing that we have to boast about is not anything that we have done, but simply all that Jesus has done for us.
One of the confessional statements in the PC(USA) Book of Confessions (part of our constitution) is the Heidelberg Catechism. It says: “I am righteous by faith alone because the satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ alone are my righteousness before God, and because I can accept it and make it mine in no other way than by faith alone.” Heidelberg has what I think is an interesting twist on the unnecessary debate about faith vs. works. It argues that our ability to carry out works of love and kindness is a confirmation for us of the certainty of our faith: “… so that we ourselves may be assured of our faith by its fruits….”
Everything that the Lord has brought to us is an undeserved gift that allows us to be in the presence of God. Our faith-filled response is to live witnessing to the glory of God through acts of praise and worship and lives that reflect the fruits of our faith, the life that Jesus led for our sakes. Your faith cannot be hidden for its certainty is seen in our acts of humility, kindness and love.
Thanks be to God.
Prayer: Lord lead us in faith and courage so that we will show the world the life of Christ through the manner in which we live. To You be the glory. Amen.
Today’s readings are Numbers 17:1-11; Romans 5:1-11; Matthew 20:17-28; Psalm 105:1- 45.
Blessings.
Pastor Jim
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