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“Ephesians: Honor Christ in Everything” by Rev Cody Sandahl – May 8, 2016

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Rev. Cody Sandahl
Rev. Cody Sandahl
"Ephesians: Honor Christ in Everything" by Rev Cody Sandahl - May 8, 2016
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Introduction

Well we are still in our series looking at the book of Ephesians. We’re in the final chapter this week and next week. Last week we looked at the controversial section from Ephesians 5 that talks to husbands and wives, and we saw the bookends for that section were “submit to one another out of reverence for Christ,” and then Paul’s summary at the end: “husbands love your wives and wives respect your husbands.”

This week we’re continuing in the controversy as Paul deals with children and parents and slaves and masters.

Ephesians 6:1-9

1Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2 “Honor your father and mother”—this is the first commandment with a promise: 3 “so that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.” 4 And, fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. 5 Slaves, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, in singleness of heart, as you obey Christ; 6 not only while being watched, and in order to please them, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart. 7 Render service with enthusiasm, as to the Lord and not to men and women, 8 knowing that whatever good we do, we will receive the same again from the Lord, whether we are slaves or free. 9 And, masters, do the same to them. Stop threatening them, for you know that both of you have the same Master in heaven, and with him there is no partiality.

Mothers’ Day

Well this is our Mothers’ Day celebration, and I have two gifts for moms. The first was last week when husbands were reminded of their immense responsibilities from the Lord. Hopefully we did better at showing love this week. The second gift is maybe even better. In our text today, Paul has instructions for children. He has instructions for fathers. He has instructions for slaves, and masters. But guess who needs no instruction from Paul? Mothers. You get off scot free today! Apparently moms were already doing what they needed to do – pat on the back, moms. Here’s a high five from 2000 years ago! I’m going to give you a spiritual day off – celebrate what you do, celebrate what you’ve done, put your feet up on the pew, and let the kids and the dads hear how they’re supposed to support you today. In fact the only time moms get mentioned in this text is to point out how children are supposed to honor you. Happy Mothers’ Day.

Same Under the Lord = CHOOSE

But speaking of those children, what Paul is doing here with this instruction to children is a bit surprising for the ancient world. If this were any other writing addressing children, if another writer deigned to address kids at all, it would have stopped with, “Children, obey your parents.” But Paul doesn’t stop there, he says, “obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.” No other writer would have given reasons for a child to obey their parents. But here Paul gives several reasons. Why is that important?

Well by way of contrast, here’s what the Salt Lake County sheriff’s office says about their prisoner handbook: “Prisoners must read this handbook and follow the rules.  This handbook cannot cover every situation that may arise, but being familiar with its contents will help prisoners know what services are available and what is expected of them… Prisoners are expected to follow all orders and instructions from staff.”

Where’s the why? Why should a prisoner follow the rules? Because they MUST. End of story. That’s how most ancient writers would have thought about children obeying their parents – they MUST. But Paul gives motivation – it’s part of your faith in Christ, it’s actually helpful to you, God mentioned it in the Ten Commandments. By giving reasons, Paul assumes that children have the ability to choose. They don’t obey their parents because they MUST like prisoners. They obey their parents because they CHOOSE to. Big difference.

If you remember last week, we started our framing with “submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.” With that, husbands and wives were assumed to be equal in the eyes of the Lord. The same thought is carried forward here for children. Children and parents are equal in the eyes of the Lord.

Here’s the point – all of us are children of someone. Paul says here that we are equal to our parents in the eyes of the Lord. That means we can choose to honor our parents or not. But, he reminds us that doing so is part of our faith growth.

And so on Mothers’ Day, how do you CHOOSE to honor your mom? How is it a choice, not just a HAVE TO because Hallmark decided we needed another holiday to boost their revenue from cards and flowers? How do you honor your mother, not just today, but throughout the year? You can ask the same question with Fathers’ Day coming up, too.

The word “honor” means “to find value.” Where can you find value in your mom and your dad? If they are still with us, how can you let them know that you find some value in them? Today especially, how do you let your mom know you find value in her?

When I was a teenager I was blessed with ultimate knowledge and understanding of everything. It was quite a burden to carry. And the only thing I HAD TO do with my parents was remind them of how much smarter I was than them. Luckily that was a pretty easy job. One day my mom said to me, “If I were truly as mentally handicapped as you assume me to be, wouldn’t you treat me with a little measure of dignity? That’s all I’m asking for!” She reports that I did actually treat her better after that. I’m sure that won’t come back to bite me with Charlie or Caleb someday. I don’t think any amount of flowers or cards one day a year would make up for me not finding value in her throughout the year. Now that I’ve seemingly forgotten all that knowledge I had when I was 17 – I assume there was a head trauma that I don’t remember – now that I no longer know everything I actually call her for advice on things – I even got her advice on part of this sermon. I value her opinion.

How can you CHOOSE to find value in your parents, and let them know?

Graduates

Since we have graduating students with us today, a brief word for you. Verse 4 says, “fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.” Here Paul is making the point that the goal of parenting is to raise children who follow Christ on their own. It’s not about blind obedience, but raising Christ-following children.

This is your challenge. Throughout your teenage years you have probably increasingly figured out that you don’t HAVE TO obey your parents in everything. You can pick and choose. Whatever comes next after graduating from high school, there will come a point where you realize there’s almost no area of your life that you HAVE TO do things your parents’ way. I knew a set of twins who were homeschooled, and when they went to college they had opposite reactions. One had blindly followed their parents’ rules, but without those rules she had no direction of her own. Her brother hadn’t always obeyed their parents, but he knew who he was. He did OK because he already knew who he was.

So graduates, the challenge for you is to decide who you are before your life’s events try to make you into someone else. You don’t HAVE TO become anyone else. You can CHOOSE who you are and what you stand for. What will you value moving forward?

Slaves = Honor Christ in Everything

Lastly let’s talk about slaves and masters. Paul gets one mark to his credit and one mark to his discredit in my book on slavery. The discredit is that he didn’t make an overt attack on the practice of slavery in Roman times. It wasn’t as bad as slavery in the Americas, but it was still a bad practice.

To his credit, however, Paul undermines the very concept of slavery by once again assuming that slaves and masters are equal under the eyes of the Lord. As with wives and husbands, as with children and parents, so too with slaves and masters – all are equal in the eyes of the Lord. He even reminds masters that they have a master in heaven!

My call to worship last week was from Chrysostom, the bishop of Constantinople in the 4th century, and here’s what he wrote about slavery after reading Paul’s letters – “It is an avarice that brought about slavery. It is acquisitiveness, which is insatiable. This is not the original human condition. Remember that Noah had no slave, nor Abel nor Seth nor those after them. This horrid thing was begotten by sin.” In the Americas slaveowners were originally afraid to teach Christianity because of Paul’s letter to Philemon where he asks for a slave’s freedom because he had committed to Christ. Eventually slaveowners created a truncated version of Christianity that left out key parts and they were OK teaching that. Some of the worst ideas in human history have come from taking the parts of the Bible that forward your agenda and throwing out the rest.

I think the main point, the one that applies to us today, is in v7-8 – “Render service with enthusiasm, as to the Lord and not to men and women, 8 knowing that whatever good we do, we will receive the same again from the Lord, whether we are slaves or free.”

Whatever your situation, you can CHOOSE to honor Christ in it. Whatever your station, you can CHOOSE to honor Christ in it. Whatever your role, you can CHOOSE to honor Christ in it. As with Mothers’ Day – how can we find value in Christ in our everyday lives and show that with our choices? The point isn’t blind obedience but a Christ-like life.

Summary

Sisters and brothers, we are all equal in the eyes of the Lord. That means we don’t HAVE TO honor our parents. We can CHOOSE TO find value in them. We don’t HAVE TO honor Christ regardless of our role, regardless of our situation, but we can CHOOSE TO show how we value Christ in everything. So the question I posed to the graduates I pose to us all – we can CHOOSE who we are and what we stand for regardless of what’s happening in our lives. What will we value? Who will we be, and how will we show it?

“Ephesians: The Christian Family” by Rev. Cody Sandahl – May 1, 2016

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Rev. Cody Sandahl
Rev. Cody Sandahl
"Ephesians: The Christian Family" by Rev. Cody Sandahl - May 1, 2016
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Introduction

We are still in our series looking at the book of Ephesians. Last week we talked about how we have unity in Christ, but that doesn’t mean we have uniformity. Our oneness is based on our faith in Christ, not agreeing on everything. This week we are going into one of the most controversial parts of the Bible, because it has been used and misused so many times to justify a certain agenda. Hopefully together, though, we can set the record straight on this passage.

Ephesians 5:21-33

21 Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ. 22 Wives, be subject to your husbands as you are to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife just as Christ is the head of the church, the body of which he is the Savior. 24 Just as the church is subject to Christ, so also wives ought to be, in everything, to their husbands. 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 in order to make her holy by cleansing her with the washing of water by the word, 27 so as to present the church to himself in splendor, without a spot or wrinkle or anything of the kind—yes, so that she may be holy and without blemish. 28 In the same way, husbands should love their wives as they do their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hates his own body, but he nourishes and tenderly cares for it, just as Christ does for the church, 30 because we are members of his body. 31 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” 32 This is a great mystery, and I am applying it to Christ and the church. 33 Each of you, however, should love his wife as himself, and a wife should respect her husband.

Framing

In photo journalism, reporters are taught that there are different ways to frame a story. Maybe they’ll zoom in on the conflict by capturing the damage being done. Or maybe they’ll capture a shot of enemies working together and try to highlight bridge-building.

Now framing is all about choosing what you’re looking at AND what you’re ignoring. When we read our Bibles, we inherit the framing of the translators who put whichever version we’re reading together. So if you were reading Ephesians 5 in the New King James Version, you’d see a heading the breaks verse 21 and verse 22 apart. The framing for our section starts with, “wives, be subject to your husbands.”

But if you’re in the New Revised Standard Version, the heading expands the frame to include verse 21, “be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ.”

These headings aren’t there in the ancient manuscripts and scrolls, and neither are the verse numbers – those were added later to help us literally get on the same page. But as with photography and journalism, how you frame what’s in and what’s out of your immediate focus matters. And as we just saw, different versions frame our text today differently – does it start with “be subject to one another” or does it start with “wives be subject to your husbands?”

I’ve heard it said that the best way to understand something in the Bible is to first understand what the hard words mean. And so when we look to the word “be subject to” in verse 22 it’s…not there. There is no verb. It’s actually a continuation of the same sentence from verse 21. It seems strange to me to split a sentence in half and put a new heading, a new framing, in between the two halves of that sentence. That’s why I agree that our framing, our focus, should start with, “be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ.”

OK, that’s where our frame starts, but where does it end? Now I’m going out on a limb here, and I’m going to guess that if you’ve heard this Bible passage quoted by someone, I bet they only quoted, “wives be subject to your husbands.” I bet they didn’t quote anything else in this section. And that’s strange for many reasons, not the least of which is that Paul gives us a summary of what he’s talking about. If you want to know the main point, Paul gives it to us in sound-bite form at the close of our chapter – “each of you, however, should love his wife as himself, and a wife should respect her husband.” That’s his point. That’s what he means when talking about Christian marriages.

So our frame starts with, “be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ,” and we’ll unpack that in a second. And it ends with, “husbands love your wives as yourselves, and wives respect your husbands.” That’s our frame. That’s our context. Everything else is unpacking those two statements. If your interpretation of this section of Scripture doesn’t square with those two statements, you’re missing something.

Be Subject

OK now let’s back up and talk about this hard word – “be subject.” This is a military term that essentially means “get in formation.” The Roman Army had different formations depending on the need. The Tortoise was used when they were worried about archers – the front row kept their shields in front of their face while the second row of men placed their shields up high, covering the head of the man in front of them and themselves. If there was rough terrain, they couldn’t be tightly packed so they used the Orb, which allowed them more mobility. But the key was that each row was staggered in a checkerboard pattern, meaning the row behind you always had your back.

That’s the point of a formation – a good unit is one where you can trust the others to have your back, and they can trust you to have their back. If one person runs out ahead of the formation, everything breaks down.

If you remember the movie Top Gun, one of the pivotal scenes is where Ice Man (Val Kilmer) is out in front of Maverick’s plane (Tom Cruise). And Ice Man wants the points in their competition even though Maverick is in a better position. So he won’t split off and let Maverick get the points. The end result of the selfish flying rather than team flying is that Maverick and Goose wind up crashing, and Goose dies. Everyone loses when someone is looking out for themselves rather than the formation.

So the image here, “be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ,” is that we are supposed to look out for the team, not ourselves. We are supposed to be part of the same formation, having each other’s backs. We are supposed to be pointing in the same direction, which is Christ. This passage is pointing out that one of the biggest problems in marriage is an alphabetical one: “big I, little u.”

And then when Paul goes on to say, “wives be subject to your husbands as you are to the Lord,” he’s saying, “wives, go to battle for Christ with your husband, not against your husband.” Get on the same page. And so, in your own relationships, are you on the same page? Do you have each other’s backs? Or is there sniping at each other’s backs? Is there a good formation aligned with Christ, or is it individuals looking out for themselves?

Head

Now there’s another hard word coming up in the next verse, “the husband is the head of the wife just as Christ is the head of the church, the body of which he is the Savior.” First off, a quick side note. That last part isn’t saying that the husband is the savior of the wife. It matches with Christ – Christ is the savior, not the husband. But what about that part about the head?

Well this continues the military analogy. The image is kind of like the tip of a spear. It’s the first part to enter the battle. If you’ve seen the movie Saving Private Ryan, one of the early scenes takes place on D-Day as the Allies storm the beaches of Normandy. And it’s pretty gruesome. The first troops in the battle – the “head” of the invasion – faced withering enemy fire. They literally took the bullets for the ones who came after them. Depending on where the units landed, some lost two-thirds of their men before even getting to the beach. And that’s what it means to be the head. You have to be willing to wade in first, in the hardest part of the battle. Being the head isn’t a privilege, it’s an obligation.

If you’re not convinced, let’s look at the instructions to husbands starting with verse 25: “husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.” The standard of behavior for husbands toward their wives is Christ’s self-sacrifice on the cross. That’s how Christ was head of the church – sacrifice – and that’s how husbands are to act toward their wives.

And if you still aren’t convinced that this passage is largely about the obligations of husbands toward their wives, let’s just count the verses. Wives get two or three verses of instruction, depending on how you count, and husbands get seven or eight verses of instructions.

So why do people quote one of the few verses to wives and leave out all that stuff addressed to the husbands? Why do people quote that one part to wives and leave out the framing verses that talk about mutual submission and respect and love? It seems strange. In fact, rather than using that one verse out of context against my wife, I hope Becca doesn’t read this chapter of the Bible. She’ll see where I’m not living up to these lofty obligations as a Christian husband. Don’t tell her about this chapter!

Marriages Today

But what are we supposed to DO about this?

If you aren’t married, I think the first verse still gives a pattern for all healthy human relationships: “be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ.” Don’t fall into the trap of “Big I, little u,” but instead find people with whom you can be in formation pointed toward Christ.

If you are married or in a relationship that points in that direction, Paul gives us more specifics. Remember our last verse: “Each of you, however, should love his wife as himself, and a wife should respect her husband.”

For wives, respect means finding ways to have your husband’s back, to support rather than snipe. My mom once said that she could write a whole page filled with all the things my dad has done wrong. But she could write a hundred pages of all that he’s done right. Don’t get stuck on page one.

For husbands, loving your wife as yourself means taking the initiative. One of my friends was concerned because his wife was much further along in her spiritual growth than he was. So I told him that being “head” didn’t mean he was to suddenly instruct her in her faith. It meant that he was to take initiative – don’t wait for her to ask him to pray. Just pray. Don’t wait for her to talk about reading the Bible together, propose it yourself. Take some initiative in the spiritual growth of your family!

And showing love is another area to take initiative. I knew a guy who explained why he didn’t tell his wife he loved her, “I told my wife I loved her on our wedding day. I’ll let her know if that ever changes.” That’s not up to snuff, guys! We’ve gotta do better, myself included!

Summary

Sisters and brothers, we are encouraged to take our cues for our relationships from the self-sacrificial love of Christ toward us. Maybe Warren Barfield said it best in the chorus of his song – “Love is not a fight, but it’s something worth fighting for.”

Let’s get in the right formation – pointed toward Christ – and fight for the right things together. Amen.

“Ephesians: Blessed to be a Blessing” by Rev. Cody Sandahl – April 24, 2016

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Rev. Cody Sandahl
Rev. Cody Sandahl
"Ephesians: Blessed to be a Blessing" by Rev. Cody Sandahl - April 24, 2016
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Introduction

We are still in our series looking at the book of Ephesians. This week we are looking at the passage in scripture that I take as my overarching job description. It was on my resume. It’s on my website. When the Presbytery asked me to state my goal as a pastor, these verses were my answer. On my list of life verses – scriptures that have shaped my life – this one is close to the top.

Ephesians 4:1-7, 11-16

1I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, 5one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all. 7But each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift.

11The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, 12to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ. 14We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming. 15But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.

Unity

What’s your favorite number? My favorite number is ten. Or more specifically the number one followed by the number zero. I love it because it looks so complete and simple. But I also love it because it’s slippery. I’m a computer programmer, so I’ve worked plenty in binary. In binary, which is base 2 math, “1-0” is how you represent 2. Computer programmers also use octal, where “1-0” equals 8. And we also use hexadecimal, where “1-0” equals 16. It’s only in base 10 math that “1-0” equals 10. That’s what we normally use, but it’s not the only way to do things. So I love that “1-0” looks simple but it adapts to its context. That’s kind of a short-hand version of how I try to lead – simple but adaptive. What’s your favorite number?

My son Charlie is very into counting. If he’s in the mood – which is no guarantee – if you say “one,” he’ll give you “two, three, seven, eight, eleven!” There are a few gaps as a result of his numerical excitement. But one of the hardest numbers to get him to say? “One.” He doesn’t like to start at the beginning. It’s not “1-2-3-go!” It’s “2-3-go!” Why stay at one when you could get to eleven?!?

I tell you this because I think the Ephesians were also struggling with that number. Paul uses the word “one” seven times as he “begs them” to lead their lives in a Christ-like way. Apparently the number one is important. And apparently the Ephesians were, like Charlie, focusing on other numbers. One was NOT their favorite number.

What other numbers might they have been focused on? Well we know they liked the number two, as in there are two camps in the church: the Jews and the Gentiles. The last three chapters of this letter were spent reminding them that God broke down that divide. The two are one.

They also may have liked the number seven, as in the seven churches of Asia Minor. That’s a good number for the Ephesians, because they took pride in being the most important of those seven churches.

But Paul gives them the number one. “ONE body…ONE Spirit, ONE hope, ONE Lord, ONE faith, ONE baptism, ONE God and Father of all.” And so, Paul tells them, regardless of your differences, you are one in Christ. Regardless of your ethnicity, you are one in Christ. Regardless of your gender, you are one in Christ. Regardless of your background, you are one in Christ.

But it sure doesn’t look that way, does it? Wikipedia lists 30 different Presbyterian denominations in the United States. Regardless of our particular theologies, Paul would say, we are one in Christ. Almost every income level is represented in our church. Regardless of wealth, we are one in Christ. Born in Colorado, moved to Colorado, from another country. Regardless of birthplace, Paul would say, we are one in Christ. Church worship has been called the most segregated hour of the week in America. Regardless of race, Paul would say, we are one in Christ.

Paul’s favorite number appears to be ONE. For we are one in Christ.

NOT Uniformity

But does being ONE in Christ mean we are all the same? Is our oneness shown by looking the same? Is our oneness shown by singing the same? Is our oneness shown by believing the exact same things? Is our oneness shown by being for or against the same things? No! Our oneness is shown by having faith in the one Jesus who died and rose again for us.

After spending six verses telling the Ephesians how they are one in Christ, Paul then tells them how they’re each different. Verse 7: “each of us [not all of us – EACH of us individually] was given grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift.”

This verse reminds me of when I was in seminary. I was deeply troubled because it seemed like all those denominations were being a bad example of our unity in Christ. Were we sinning by separating ourselves like that? But then my time in non-denominational churches showed me that, by and large, those churches are also being a bad example of our unity in Christ. Instead of only affiliating with their denomination, they’re often affiliating just with themselves or people who agree even more narrowly than a denomination.

Finally toward the end of seminary I found a measure of peace as a result of this verse. Instead of seeing our various denominations and conferences and conventions and affiliations as just evidence of our splits, I started to see them as ways for different gifts to emerge. For example, if you go to a Pentecostal church, you’re going to see people expressing their faith very differently than in this sanctuary. For that to emerge and thrive, it needed a different structure than what we have. Now if we are sinfully proud to be Presbyterian, if we look down on others for not being like us, that’s a bad witness to the unity of Christ. But if we’re able to celebrate when other Christian groups succeed, maybe we can still show our ONE-ness without having to be in the same building.

And it’s the same in our own church. If everyone were like me, we would have wonderful computer systems. But our quilting group would be duct-taping sheets of paper with stick figures on it. If everyone in our church thought like me, we would be able to move really quickly and renew our ministry areas and start new ministries, too. But there wouldn’t be anyone to keep those ideas rolling after the initial burst.

We are ONE in Christ. We have unity. But that doesn’t mean we have uniformity. We aren’t clones.

If everyone in our church were like you or thought like you, what would we be great at? But what would we be duct-taping together if everyone were like you?

Using Your Gifts for Others

The ways we would be great if everyone were like you – those are your gifts. Those are the areas that Christ has given you a measure of his grace. Those are the ways you aren’t just like everyone else – God has something special in mind for you. And Paul says this is true for each and every one of us, not just the select few. Not just the staff. Not just the elders or deacons. Not just the committee members. Not just the youth. Not just the seniors. Not just the working-age people. Not just the healthy. Each and every one of us – just as we are – have been given a measure of Christ’s grace – abilities, insights, wisdom, compassion, peace, love, something.

Do you know some of the ways Christ has built you for a purpose? Do you know some of the ways Christ can use you? If not we’re happy to help you figure it out, but start off by asking God to reveal it.

And once you have some idea of your gifts, Paul says that Christ directs them in a particular way. Paul says in v12 that all of our gifts are to used “for the building up of the body of Christ.” That’s the goal. They aren’t just for yourself. Your gifts and abilities are for building up others. You’ve been blessed SO THAT you can be a blessing.

For some that will be found in v12, “doing the work of ministry.” Maybe that’s ushering, or bringing hospitality, or being a youth leader, or driving people to church who can’t anymore. Doing the work of ministry.

Now for church leaders, he says some are apostles, some are prophets, some are evangelists, some are pastors and teachers – I’m a little perturbed that my job is listed last, but I’ll get over it – all of those church leaders are supposed to do everything themselves so others don’t have to. Oh wait, no, the job of a church leader is to “equip the SAINTS for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.” My job as your pastor, the job of Carol and Anne and Allie and Karen and Susan and Mary and every other staff member, our jobs are to make sure you know how Christ wants to use you and that you are able to follow through. I mean, do you want your choir director to just be singing solos every week, or do you want them to build up a choir to use their voices to worship God?

So maybe God wants to use your gifts to do the work of ministry. And maybe God wants to use your gifts to equip others to do the work of ministry. Either way, the goal is to build up the body of Christ. We are blessed, not to hoard what we have, but to bless others. How does God want to use your gifts for others?

Mature Attitudes for Unity

So we are ONE in Christ. We have unity. But we don’t need uniformity. God created us differently for a reason. But that’s not an easy balance to keep.

And so Paul ends this section of the letter by describing what it looks like when we are able to be the kind of people who can celebrate unity in diversity. People who can be a witness to our common bond while also encouraging others to be different. People who can know and use our own gifts while also making space for others to be a blessing in their way. People who can have good relationships with each other even if *GASP* the other person only watches CNN, or only watches Fox News, or only watches MSNBC, or doesn’t even care about the news.

And the image Paul uses for this, in verses 14-16, is growing up. Maturing. Going from children to adults spiritually. The image of a child being tossed around by the wind reminds me of Caleb, who’s just getting his crawl together and he’s trying to pull up and stand. Sometimes he gets it all together and he moves toward his goal. Other times he accidentally goes backwards (which is quite distressful apparently). When he gets too frustrated, he reverts to rolling toward his goal. There’s no guarantee that his efforts will result in forward progress. In fact, sometimes when he’s sitting and playing he just plops over for no apparent reason. That’s the image of the infant in verse 14 – someone who is easily thrown off and often not making progress toward the goal.

The antidote to spiritual infanthood is to continue growing in both truth and love (v15). The evidence of spiritual adulthood is found in the humble spirit that promotes unity, ONE-ness (v1-6), and using your spiritual gifts and disciplines to help others in Christ’s name (v7-13).

Summary

So sisters and brothers, let us be spiritual adults together. I pray that we continue to speak the truth – no need to hide our opinions – but speak the truth in love. I pray that we will have the attitudes, the humility required to promote our ONE-ness even in the midst of our uniqueness. I pray that we will know how God has gifted us and use those gifts for others. And I pray that I wouldn’t get distracted, but that I will equip the saints – that’s you – for the work of ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ. I hope you pray the same thing. Amen.

Amazing Grace Art (by Collections Etc)

“Ephesians: Amazing Grace” by Rev. Cody Sandahl – April 10, 2016

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Rev. Cody Sandahl
Rev. Cody Sandahl
"Ephesians: Amazing Grace" by Rev. Cody Sandahl - April 10, 2016
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Introduction

We are still in our series looking at the letter to the church in Ephesus. Last week we heard about Christ’s kingdom, and how we as citizens can go to battle in prayer on behalf of the king. This week we are going to one of the most famous passages in the Bible. Interestingly, it doesn’t really go with the rest of the flow. It’s like a side comment or if you remember in college textbooks they had those sidebars for more information, it’s like that. So this is one of the most famous asides, one of the most famous “oh by the ways” in history.

Ephesians 2:1-10

1You were dead through the trespasses and sins  2in which you once lived, following the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient. 3All of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of flesh and senses, and we were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else. 4 But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us 5even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,7so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— 9not the result of works, so that no one may boast. 10For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.

Belonging

One day a computer programmer was searching on Google for some help on an advanced topic and, just like every other search, the familiar list of links and summaries appeared on the page. But then something strange happened. The searches peeled back to reveal something new on the page. It said, “You’re speaking our language. Up for a challenge?” And there were three options: “I want to play,” “No thanks,” and “Don’t show me this again.” Curious, he clicked, “I want to play.” From there he continued to follow a trail of strange clues that culminated in six progressively more difficult computer programming challenges. After two weeks of work chasing this rabbit trail to the end, the strange website asked for his contact info and then disappeared. Two days later, a recruiter for Google called and invited him to interview for a job. He had passed the test. He was worthy.

Or maybe you know someone who was a part of a fraternity or sorority. To receive the benefits of membership you usually have to go through some kind of initiation ritual. First off, people already in the group have to like you and think you’ll be fun. Maybe you have to memorize the Greek alphabet or some silly rhyme or story. Maybe you’ll have to walk a straight line – oh wait, no, that’s a field sobriety test and they definitely won’t do that in a fraternity! Whatever it is, you have to pass the test. They have to deem you worthy.

Or maybe you’ve got certifications for work. Or midterms or finals coming up. Everywhere we look we have to prove what we know, prove what we can do, prove we belong. Now if you’re a civil engineer, I want you to have to pass a test before building the bridge I’m going to drive over. That’s a good thing.

In the ancient world, they had much of the same thing. For instance, you couldn’t just declare yourself to be a convert to Judaism. There was a long process that culminated for men in circumcision before you could convert. Unsurprisingly, there wasn’t a big line for that.

Similarly, there were groups of people who followed certain philosophers – certain ways of living. So, for example, to become a Stoic, you had to commit to four virtues: wisdom, courage, justice, and temperance. And you also had to commit to a certain way of thinking about the world. In fact there are debates even today about whether certain leaders were, “Stoic enough” to be considered “proper Stoics.”

But think about how strange that would be for Christians. Do you look back and debate whether leaders who claimed to be Christian actually were Christian-enough to count? There are maybe a few instances where that happens, but it’s exceedingly rare. Or what about today? What if I told you to look to the person on the left, to consider deeply, pray even, and then write down 1-10 how Christian they are? If you don’t score at least a 6, I’m sorry you don’t count in worship today.

Wouldn’t that be absolutely bizarre?!? If you’re rating a candidate in a job interview, that’s what you do. If you’re being scored on a test, that’s what they do. If you’re trying to get into a group or a club, that’s what they do. But that’s NOT what we do as Christians.

Why? Verses 8-9: “8For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— 9not the result of works, so that no one may boast.”

Let me read that again: “8For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— 9not the result of works, so that no one may boast.”

That means you belong here. That means you belong in Christ’s family. You belong.

But you don’t belong because you’re a good person. You don’t belong because you’re a changed man or woman. You don’t belong because you’ve learned all the rituals. You don’t belong because your Bible isn’t dusty. You don’t belong because of anything you’ve said or thought or done or not done.

You belong because, in Jesus, God said you belong. End of story. The end. Roll the credits. Nothing more to see here. No special scene at the end for those who stick around to the very end. Leave the theater but as someone who used to clean up afterward, please don’t forget to take your popcorn with you. You belong because, in Jesus, God said you belong. [LONG PAUSE]

Am I Good Enough?

I’ve known this for a long time, but I still sometimes wonder, “am I good enough.” Do you ever wonder that? If you were going to stand at the pearly gates tomorrow and say why you should get in, what would you say? What credit have you gained?

I think deep down we think that God’s judgment is kind of like when two people go hiking in bear country. And one person says, “I’m worried that we’re going to be attacked by a grizzly. I’ve heard they’re pretty fast. Are you worried?” And the other person says, “Nope. Not worried at all.” “Why’s that? Do you think you’re faster than the bear?” “No, but I KNOW I’m faster than you.”

Does this happen to you? Do you ever find yourself thinking, “as long as I’m a little better than the next guy,” or “as long as I make better decisions than that girl?” We tend to think that life is graded on a curve. My first test in college calculus I got a 67 and I was distraught. Until the teacher wrote the curve on the board and suddenly I had an A because everyone else did way worse than me! So often we think we just need to be a “good person” and a little bit better than the “those people.”

But Jesus blows this out of the water in our reading from Matthew today – “whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments…will be called least in the kingdom of heaven.” Or Paul writes in our Ephesians text, “you were dead through the trespasses and sins.” On the test of life, we fail. Period. We have a big fat red “F” on our test as we reach the pearly gates.

But Jesus says, “he’s with me.” “She’s with me.” “They’re mine.” “You belong.”

I’m not good enough. And if I think I can bring my goodness to the table, I’m mistaken. I have no reason to boast. And neither do you. But you and I belong anyway.

For it is by grace that we have been saved through faith.

Crafted

Now the last verse adds to this, “10For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.” Doing Christ-like things isn’t how we earn our way into the club – we already belong. Instead we can do Christ-like things because we belong. Because we have been hand-crafted by the Savior for a purpose.

I actually don’t like this translation of verse 10. Saying “he made us” really doesn’t do this word justice. The image is of a master carefully weaving a fine fabric. The image is of a master carpenter getting everything just so. And so I’ll end with one of the finest poems to ever capture the essence of our hand-crafted lives, our senseless belonging. You probably have heard it before, The Touch of the Master’s Hand.

The Touch of the Master’s Hand

Twas battered and scarred, and the auctioneer thought it scarcely worth his while to waste much time on the old violin, but held it up with a smile; “What am I bidden, good folks,” he cried, “Who’ll start the bidding for me?” “A dollar, a dollar”; then two!” “Only two? Two dollars, and who’ll make it three? Three dollars, once; three dollars twice; going for three.” But no, from the room, far back, a gray-haired man came forward and picked up the bow; Then, wiping the dust from the old violin, and tightening the loose strings, he played a melody pure and sweet as caroling angel sings.

The music ceased, and the auctioneer, with a voice that was quiet and low, said; “What am I bid for the old violin?” And he held it up with the bow. A thousand dollars, and who’ll make it two? Two thousand! And who’ll make it three? Three thousand, once, three thousand, twice, and going and gone,” said he. The people cheered, but some of them cried, “We do not quite understand. What changed its worth?” Swift came the reply: “The touch of a master’s hand.”

And many a man with life out of tune, and battered and scarred with sin, Is auctioned cheap to the thoughtless crowd, much like the old violin, A “mess of pottage,” a glass of wine; a game – and he travels on. “He is going” once, and “going twice, He’s going and almost gone.” But the Master comes, and the foolish crowd never can quite understand the worth of a soul and the change that’s wrought by the touch of the Master’s hand.

Summary

Sisters and brothers, you belong simply because, in Jesus, God said so. Now that you belong, you can live a life that is touched by the Master’s Hand. Amen.

Icon_of_Christ,_Sergey_Radonezhsky_and_Evfimy_of_Suzdal

“Ephesians: Christ the King” by Rev Cody Sandahl – April 3, 2016

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Rev. Cody Sandahl
Rev. Cody Sandahl
"Ephesians: Christ the King" by Rev Cody Sandahl - April 3, 2016
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Introduction

We are in the second week of our series looking at the book of Ephesians. Last week we saw that on Easter Jesus adopted us into God’s family, and as a result we have lavish and free forgiveness and a new destiny. This week we’re moving the story along a little bit.

We know that Easter happened. We know that our destiny is fundamentally altered now. But what does it look like to live in a post-Easter reality?

Ephesians 1:15-23

15I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, and for this reason 16I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers.  17I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, 18so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, 19and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power. 20God put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, 21far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come. 22And he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church, 23which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

He Is Able

Last week I started off talking about Star Wars, this week I’m going to be way more mature and start off with a reference to the superhero Iron Man. There’s a scene in one of the recent movies where Iron Man is captured by the bad guys and he’s not in his armored suit – he’s just Regular Man at the moment. And the henchmen are laughing at him until he suddenly juts out his hand, expecting something to happen. The bad guys freeze, afraid that something’s going to happen. But it doesn’t. Gradually they loosen up and again mock the not so super-hero as he keeps thrusting his hand out. But after an interminable delay, the armored suit he built that he could summon by jutting his hand out breaks through the window to rescue its owner.

These henchmen had seen Iron Man in action. They knew what he was capable of. And even when they thought he was powerless, his waving arms scared them for a bit. And rightfully so, it turned out.

Or if you would like a less recent example, one of my favorite stories is Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. Hank is a contemporary of Twain’s that gets transported to King Arthur’s time in England. He’s imprisoned in the castle and he realizes through his fortuitous knowledge of sixth century astronomy that there’s going to be a total solar eclipse soon. So he sends word to the king from prison that he will blot out the sun if he isn’t freed. The king of course responds by ordering his immediate execution, not believing his power but wanting to play it safe. Luckily for Hank the eclipse happens before he can be executed, so he gets to use the eclipse to show his immense power to the ancients.

Now in both of these stories, the question is power. Who has the power. How much power do they have? Are they able to exercise that power right now? Do others believe in their power?

These were apparently questions that the church in Ephesus was asking about Jesus, because Paul uses just about every word imaginable to describe Jesus’ power. He uses “power,” “rule,” “authority”, “dominion,” “all things are under his feet,” “head over all things.” Do you think Paul is trying to make a point here? It’s as if he found a thesaurus and just ran down all the synonyms for power.

But the main word he uses essentially means “to be able.” He’s telling the Ephesians in every way possible, “Christ is able.” Through God, “Christ is able.” Even in death, “Christ is able.” Seated in heaven, “Christ is able.” With the rulers and powers of this world, “Christ is able.” With all things in all ways, “Christ is able.”

Do you ever, like the Ephesians, need to be encouraged and reminded that Christ is able? Do you ever, like the Ephesians, stop praying about an issue? Do you ever, like the Ephesians, resign yourself to defeat? Paul would say with every synonym in the English language that “Christ is able.”

Of course saying “Christ is able” is both an incredible comfort but also a stumbling block. When you’re in times of trial, God’s power can be comforting – “I can’t see a way out, but Christ is able.” But that’s also when we can wonder why God isn’t doing anything – “Christ is able, but he’s so far choosing to do nothing. What gives, God?” Does saying “Christ is able” comfort you or trouble you right now?

Spiritual Warfare

So thanks to Easter, Christ gave us a new destiny. But that destiny mainly plays out at the end – at our destination. Here Paul says Christ is able – right now, not just at the end, right now – to do absolutely anything. It’s like what we heard in our first reading from Mark, Jesus’ first sermon – “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near.” The post-Easter reality is that Jesus’ spiritual kingdom is established. That time is fulfilled. It’s today. It’s now. Not just our final destination. Right here and now.

Christ is the King – the all-powerful, “Christ is able” king – and we are citizen-soldiers. So what’s our role in the kingdom? I mean, even Alexander the Great needed generals and soldiers and stable boys and city administrators, right? Every king needs the citizens of the kingdom to do their part! What’s our part?

Paul writes that one of our most important roles in Christ’s Kingdom is to go to battle in prayer. Not just dabbling in prayer. Battling in prayer. What does that look like?

Paul says in v15 “I have heard of your faith.” The first step in going to battle in prayer is to be aware of the people around you. What do you hear? What do you see? This is why we did the prayer walk through the surrounding neighborhoods a month ago. We had more than 50 people walk or drive a block and I heard from so many of them, “I’ve driven by this a thousand times, but I hadn’t stopped to notice.” Be aware of the people around you.

Then in v16 Paul writes, “I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers.” The second step in going to battle in prayer is to increase your prayer frequency. This one gets me all the time – I realize I’ve been going through my day doing my best, using my God-given abilities to try to get around my God-given weaknesses, and then I realize I haven’t stopped to use my God-given open line of communication with the King. Increase your prayer frequency.

Third, Paul prays in v17 for “a spirit of wisdom and revelation.” He wants them to know who God is – that’s revelation – and how to live as a result – that’s wisdom. So the third step in going to battle in prayer is to pray for someone to know God better and know how to live in a God-honoring way. Pray for transformation.

Next, Paul prays in v18 that this transformation would allow them to “know what is the hope to which he has called you.” The fourth step in going to battle in prayer is to lift up those who are feeling defeated. Jesus says in John 10:10, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” Jesus doesn’t want us to feel useless and defeated – he wants us to have full life! Lift up the downtrodden and defeated.

After that in v18 he reminds the Ephesians of “God’s glorious inheritance among the saints.” Now this is an Old Testament reference getting a New Testament update from Paul. In the Old Testament, God’s inheritance are the people of Israel taken in sum – not individual people but the WHOLE people. And so Paul is reminded the Ephesians that when they are together they are mighty because of the King who works in them and through them. Adding your prayers with those of other people is another step in going to battle in prayer. That’s why we had the prayer guide for Holy Week.

Finally, Paul asks in v19 that they know, “what is the immeasurable greatness of his power.” There’s that power again. The last step in going to battle in prayer is to let God use his power through you. Let God use his power to make this world look more like the Kingdom. More like our destination.

Example: Community Dinner

Let me give you a tangible example. Back toward the end of last year, Lynda Kizer asked to meet with me because God had placed something on her heart. While helping with the Thanksgiving meal she became aware (step 1) of the need for meals in our community, and that need extended far beyond Thanksgiving. As a result of that awareness, she had been in frequent dialogue with God about it (step 2). Not wanting to just go gallivanting off on her own, she asked for wisdom and guidance – seeking my input and then getting a ton of info from other churches who offered meals more frequently (step 3).

As she started formulating a plan for offering a community meal maybe once a quarter rather than just at Thanksgiving, she circled around a vision for a welcoming home, a dignified meal on real honest-to-goodness you-matter-to-us plates rather than disposable. She wanted our meal to communicate that people matter, that there’s hope (step 4). With vision in hand, she met with Mission and Outreach and eventually all of Session to see if others felt the same passion (step 5). And now she’s putting together a leadership team AND volunteers to pull off a community meal here at our church once a quarter – starting Tuesday June 7 from 6-7pm (step 6).

I don’t know what God is going to do to show his power through the meal in June and the meal in September and our Thanksgiving meal. I don’t know how God will show that “Christ is able.” But I’m pretty sure he will show up and do something. Because whenever the citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven go to battle in prayer, the King goes there too. If you have a passion for the hungry or the downtrodden or just for food – go to battle in prayer and maybe join Lynda and her team on June 7 or the next one in September.

Summary

Sisters and brothers, as a result of Easter we have a new destiny – a new destination. But the kingdom of heaven is at hand TODAY. The King is ready for his citizens to go to battle in prayer TODAY. What has he placed on your heart? What’s your battleground? And who might he be sending to join you there? Amen.

 

2016-03-27 - Easter

“Ephesians: Children of the Resurrection” by Rev Cody Sandahl -March 27, 2016 (Easter)

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Rev. Cody Sandahl
Rev. Cody Sandahl
"Ephesians: Children of the Resurrection" by Rev Cody Sandahl -March 27, 2016 (Easter)
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Introduction

Today we are starting a new series looking at the book of Ephesians, and we’re going to take 8 weeks to cover these 6 chapters. We’re also inviting everyone to read along with us on your own. We’ll have a full devotional for each chapter available next week for you, but you can see the devotional for Ephesians 1 on the insert of your bulletin.

I believe Easter is a fantastic time to start looking at Ephesians, because the resurrection of Jesus is the climax of God’s story – his plan to redeem us and all of Creation is achieved and summarized by Easter morning. And Ephesians, as we’ll see, is really a birds-eye-view of that whole story. It’s kind of like the Cliff’s Notes version of God’s plan which is culminated on Easter.

And so here’s my challenge to everyone. Give God a chance. Give him about one chapter a week – actually it’s only 6 chapters in 8 weeks so it’s less than one chapter a week. See if God shows up as you read along with us in Ephesians and hear the sermons and maybe even go to the Sunday 9:30am class or the Monday 1pm class we’re offering to go deeper. Give God 6 chapters in the next 8 weeks and see if he does something in your life. I bet he will. And with that…

Ephesians 1:1-14

1Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus: 2Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. 5He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, 6to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.7In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace 8that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and insight 9he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, 10as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. 11In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will, 12so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory. 13In him you also, when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and had believed in him, were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit; 14this is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s own people, to the praise of his glory.

Destiny

I am a huge Star Wars fan, evidenced by my Darth Vader bobble head attached to my computer monitor in my office, and one of the most powerful scenes of the original Star Wars movies is in Return of the Jedi where Luke is on the Death Star with the Emperor and Darth Vader. And the Emperor is trying to turn Luke to the Dark Side. As Luke’s friends walk into carefully laid traps, the Emperor gloats and says to him, “It is unavoidable. It is your destiny. You, like your father, are now MINE.”

The Emperor circles back to this concept of destiny after Luke defeats Vader when he laughs and says, “Good! Your hate has made you powerful. Now fulfill your destiny and take your father’s place at my side!”

And then, confronted with a choice, Luke tosses his lightsaber aside and replies, “Never. I’ll never turn to the Dark Side. You have failed, Your Highness. I am a Jedi, like my father before me.”

I find this concept of destiny fascinating. Especially since there were competing visions for Luke’s destiny. It turned out the Emperor was wrong – he wasn’t destined for the Dark Side – wrong destiny.

Paul, in writing the letter to the Ephesians, is also concerned with destiny. And as with Luke in Star Wars, there are competing visions of our destiny as individuals and as humans and as a whole world. Ephesus was the home of the main Temple of Artemis – one of the seven ancient wonders of the world. She was known by different names to different cultures, but very similar images are found in temples ranging from the Mediterranean to Asia to the Middle East. All of these carvings are of a woman with various pictures of life and birth and nursing. Artemis is worshiped as the mother of all life – kind of a mother earth personified.

So one possible destiny is that we are part of the earth, just like other animals. Maybe we spring from mother earth, from Artemis, and we return in the cycle of life. That’s a destiny that is very powerful in Ephesus, in the Temple of Artemis – it’s her hometown. If a basketball game is played in Ephesus between Team Artemis and Team Jesus, the referees are going to give Team Artemis the calls and the crowd’s going to be loud and raucous.

But Paul writes about a different destiny. Paul writes, “God chose us in Christ,” “God destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ,” “in Christ we have redemption…and forgiveness,” “in Christ we have an inheritance,” “we are destined according to God’s purpose.” Do you hear this destiny language?

So let’s go through some of the reasons Paul lists for us to be grateful for our true destiny.

Adoption

First off, in v5 he says “God destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ.” And is this because we did so much good stuff that we deserve it? No, it’s “according to the good pleasure of his will.” So we are destined to be God’s children – not by birth, not by right, not by our action, but by adoption, by God’s choice, by God’s free gift.

This reminds me of some people I know – most of us know people like this – who decided to adopt a baby from another country. And it’s this really stressful process where you could be on the waitlist for a few months or several years and you’d better be ready to go when you get the call. And you know they’re signing up to adopt without knowing who the child is – the kid probably hasn’t even been conceived yet. But when they got the call they flew over to meet the child and they adopted her.

Let me ask you – what did that little baby girl do to earn her adoption? Nothing! It’s the same with us and God. We did nothing to earn adoption into God’s family. Actually we did a whole lot to DISQUALIFY us from being adopted into God’s family, but through Jesus we are destined to be children of God.

That’s what Jesus achieved on Easter. That’s what the empty tomb means to us. That’s why Jesus’ resurrection is the Super Bowl of the Christian calendar. Because on Easter, God’s plan to bring us back into the family is realized.  Yes we do all the same things that led to Jesus being hung on the cross on Friday. But NEVERTHELESS Jesus overcame our sin, overcame death, and chose to adopt us into his family. We are destined, because of Jesus, not because of what we’ve done, because of Jesus, to be children of God in the resurrection. In the Easter story that we read, Jesus tells Mary, “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” On Easter, Jesus chose to make his father our father – he adopted us.

Forgiveness

On a related note, Paul writes that “in Jesus we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses.”

I know a family whose son is a drug addict. He goes through periods where he’s clean, but eventually the pain of his life catches up to him and he seeks to escape with the high. And so every time they welcome him back, they know it’s just a matter of time before he steals from them to pay for his next hit. Or he’s out of it and breaks something in their house. Or he’s agitated and threatens them.

But despite the advice of everyone in their lives, they keep welcoming him back. When asked why, they say, “Because he’s our son.” Now they’ll make sure to hide the jewelry when he’s back – they’re not stupid, but he’s always welcome back.

In a similar way, now that we are part of the family, our faults, our trespasses, our angry words, our shameful acts, our WHATEVER – all of that is forgiven. And this isn’t just a little forgiveness. Paul calls it “the riches of his grace that he lavished on us.” This isn’t like finding a shiny penny on the ground, it’s like finding the Hope Diamond in the gutter. It’s like going snorkeling and discovering a sunken Spanish treasure galleon. It’s like finding a mint condition Mickey Mantle baseball card in your garage. It’s like discovering some initial stock from Apple’s IPO. It’s lavish!

It’s so lavish that you can’t outspend God’s gift. You can’t out-sin God’s forgiveness. You can’t dis-earn God’s love. Maybe you can refuse it. Maybe you can ignore it. But it’s there. Nothing you’ve done is unforgiveable to God. Nothing. Jesus’ closest friends abandoned him as he died a gruesome death on the cross, and yet three days later he’s adopting them into the family of God. It’s hard to accept lavish gifts that we can’t repay. But take it. Take the forgiveness. It’s free. It’s your destiny.

Live for God’s Praise and Glory

Finally, Paul writes that we are “destined…to live for the praise of Jesus’ glory.” So we are supposed to live our lives in a way that points to Jesus in a positive way.

But I think this is often misunderstood. Sometimes we think this means we should always put on a smiling face and pretend it’s OK and everything’s super and even though someone smashed my car and drove off isn’t God good? That’s hogwash! We aren’t destined to be a whitewashed caricature of our former selves. We aren’t destined to have fake perfect lives.

Other times we think we have to hide. If they only knew the real me, they wouldn’t want to be around me anymore. That’s hogwash, too! The church is a hospital for sinners, not a hotel for saints. We are here because we NEED that lavish free gift of forgiveness. And we don’t just need it one time, we need it every stinking day!

So our destiny isn’t to live a fake life. It’s to live our real lives while claiming Jesus’ forgiveness. Our destiny is to keep striving to live like Christ, but Paul says that’s going to take, “the fullness of time.” Our destiny is to be real and point to Jesus’ lavish free gift of forgiveness and our incomprehensible adoption into God’s family.

Summary

Sisters and brothers, God has been at work for a long, long time. He has a plan. God has a plan to reunite us with him by adopting us as God’s children, as Jesus’ brothers and sisters. Thanks to that adoption, we have free, lavish forgiveness. And thanks to that forgiveness, we can live real lives, not whitewashed caricatures. This plan, this destiny, became real once the women and the disciples found the empty tomb on that first Easter. That’s when it all came together. That’s when our destiny became clear. It’s hard to accept such a lavish free gift. But I encourage you to take it. It’s your destiny. Amen.

Lord Teach Us to Pray

“Lord, Teach us to Pray: Thine is the Kingdom” by Rev. Cody Sandahl – March 20, 2016

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Rev. Cody Sandahl
Rev. Cody Sandahl
"Lord, Teach us to Pray: Thine is the Kingdom" by Rev. Cody Sandahl - March 20, 2016
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Introduction

This is our last week looking at the Lord’s Prayer in depth. Last week we prayed for God to give us clear signs so we can get out of the bad neighborhood of trial and temptation, and we were warned against the false detour signs of the adversary.

Starting next week and for eight weeks total we will be going deeper with the letter to the Ephesians. We’re inviting everyone in the church to read along on your own as well. So we’re giving you eight weeks to read six chapters. And to help you go deeper, we’re putting the finishing touches on a devotional guide for each chapter and we have my class at 9:30 on Sundays and Carol’s class at 1pm on Mondays. We are convinced that leading our whole church deeper into Scripture, and Ephesians in particular, will help strengthen our spiritual practices – the trunk of our spiritual growth tree.

But to finish out our series on the Lord’s Prayer and get us into Palm Sunday and the start of Holy Week, we have the final phrase of Jesus’ prayer – “For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.” As we read the whole prayer from Jesus one more time I invite you to notice where this phrase lands.

Matthew 6:9-14

9“Pray then in this way: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. 10Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.11Give us this day our daily bread.  12And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13And do not bring us to the time of trial, but rescue us from the evil one. 14For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you;

Doxology

Well did you catch it? Did you notice where this final phrase of Jesus’ prayer is? No? That’s because it’s not there. Maybe you’re thinking we should check Luke’s version, since we’ve noticed a few differences throughout this series. But you’d be out of luck there, too. And maybe you’ve been to a Catholic mass before, and maybe you noticed that they end the Lord’s Prayer before this final phrase, too. Now if you have your trusty King James Bible with you and flip to Matthew 6:13, here’s what it says: “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen”

Aha! Now we’ve found it! But we know this prayer so well. We know it ends with this closing. So why does it only appear in the King James Version? Why was it removed from the more modern translations? Why did the Catholics never have it as part of the prayer?

First off, have you ever played a game of telephone? That’s where someone starts with a phrase and they whisper it into the ear of the person next to them. Then that person whispers what they heard into the ear of the person next to them. And on and on and on you go until you’ve gone through you whole group. If you have more than about six people, you’re in for a shock. For instance, maybe the first person whispers, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.” And by the end you’ll get something like, “We gobbled the toad and shaved a ton.” If you don’t believe me give it a try at home.

Or maybe you prefer the rumor mill. Once a rumor is passed along by two or three people, it has a life of its own and no longer bares any resemblance to the truth. We as humans simply can’t accurately pass along what we’ve heard.

And so it is indeed miraculous that when you compare all the various scrolls and parchments and letters with Bible verses from early Christianity, they agree about 95% of the time. And most of the places in the remaining 5% where there are some differences? It’s stuff like one version says “Jesus Christ” and the other one says “Christ Jesus.” Boring.

But occasionally there are true differences. And this last phrase of the Lord’s Prayer is one of them. So every translation of the Bible uses some baseline – they have to choose which ancient scrolls to go with when there are differences. The Catholic Church commissioned St. Jerome in the year 382 to collect and update the various Latin texts that were used in the church. That eventually developed into their baseline version, called the Vulgate, and when in doubt Jerome went with what was most commonly used in Catholic churches at the time.

When the King James Bible was being commissioned in 1611, however, they used a different baseline called the Textus Receptus. That was a Greek version put together primarily by a scholar named Erasmus, and he tried to figure out where scribes might have made errors while copying, and wherever he had a question he used the Catholic Vulgate to fill in the gaps. So his version was a little different than the Vulgate, but really similar.

Modern translations use yet another baseline, which treats the oldest scrolls as the de facto standard. So when it’s not obvious where the scribes messed up, modern translations go with the oldest scroll when they’re in doubt. Again, very similar but occasionally different.

And for Jesus’ prayer, the Latin Vulgate has never had this closing phrase, so the Catholic Church has never said it. Erasmus’ Textus Receptus used by the King James? It has this phrase. He thought the scribes messed up when they didn’t include it. And the modern translations based on the oldest scrolls? Not in there. To make it even more fun, the Byzantine church – the Eastern offshoot of Christianity – added our last phrase, not to the Bible, but as a blessing to be spoken together whenever it was read aloud in worship. It’s kind of like how we say, “This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.”

Now that I’ve bored you, what’s the “so what” for all of this? Well I think it presents us with a choice. Now that you know that our tradition intentionally added or added back in this phrase, “Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.” Now that you know that, you have a choice. The first choice is to pretend it’s not there. You can end your prayer by asking God to deliver us from evil. The second choice is to say it like you mean it. Because if we pray, “thine is the kingdom,” we’re saying “mine is NOT the kingdom.” If we pray, “thine is the power” we’re saying “I don’t have the power.” If we pray “thine is the glory” then we’re saying “I don’t deserve credit.”

Thine Is the Kingdom

And that brings us back to Palm Sunday. I think this is the choice available to the crowd as they gathered for Jesus riding into Jerusalem. Our text says, “the whole multitude of disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen, saying, ‘Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!”

Did you hear that last bit? “Blessed is the KING who comes in the name of the Lord?” Add our last phrase to the end there, “For thine is the KINGDOM and the power and the glory forever.” The crowd is primed and ready for a KING. The crowd is primed and ready for a KINGDOM. The crowd is primed and ready for the Messiah. They are ready for Jesus to claim the throne.

They were ready for a revolution. And so as they followed Jesus, gathering in numbers, they knew, absolutely KNEW he was going to go straight down the road. Because at the end of the road, straight ahead, was Herod’s palace in Jerusalem. It was time for Jesus, the true King, to confront Herod, the pretend king propped up by the Romans.

But then a funny thing happened. Jesus turned right. And he went up the stairs. And into the Temple. And he drove out the merchants and the money changers.

To help you see how shocking this was, imagine that there’s a movement to clean up Arapahoe County. So a march is organized to go up Littleton Blvd and end at the Arapahoe County offices across the street from our church. And that’s where this march is going to demand change! But when the leader of the march gets to Littleton and Windermere, he turns right. And comes in through the main entrance of our church. And he trashes a bunch of stuff in here that he thinks distracts people from God. People’s jaws would be on the floor in shock!

But that’s kind of what Jesus did. The crowd expected him to go trash Herod’s palace. Instead he trashed the Temple courtyard. The crowd expected him to go clean up the government. Instead he cleaned up worship. The crowd expected him to want to save the nation. Instead he saved our souls.

And I believe that unmet expectation led the crowd that shouted “Hosanna” on Sunday to shout “Crucify him” on Friday.

They wanted a king. They wanted a kingdom. But they wanted the power and glory – they wanted it their way. They made their choice. They were shouting and singing and dancing. But it was for all the wrong reasons.

Instead of praying “THINE is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever,” they were praying, “OURS is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.”

Summary

Maybe on one level that’s why this phrase slips in and out of the Lord’s Prayer depending on which version you look at. Because we really want the kingdom and the power and the glory to be OURS, not GOD’S. We want it our way. Jesus refused to do it our way, and the rest of Holy Week shows how we respond.

So as we enter Holy Week again, where does Jesus want to turn right even though you want him to go straight? Where does Jesus want to save your soul instead of saving your kingdom? Where does Jesus want to do it his way, not my way?

“For THINE is the kingdom, THINE is the power, THINE is the glory. Forever.” Amen.

Lord Teach Us to Pray

“Lord, Teach us to Pray: Temptation” by Rev. Cody Sandahl – March 13, 2016

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Rev. Cody Sandahl
Rev. Cody Sandahl
"Lord, Teach us to Pray: Temptation" by Rev. Cody Sandahl - March 13, 2016
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Introduction

We are still in our series looking at the Lord’s Prayer. Last week we talked about forgiving our trespasses, our sins, our debts as we forgive our debtors. And we looked at what we “owe” our neighborhood and our community as a church. And I also just wanted to pause to celebrate for a moment. I can account for about 50 people and 14 blocks walked last week as we prayed for our community. I’m excited to see what God does with that in our hearts.

If last week was the terrible petition, this week is the fantastic one. We can all get behind asking God to rescue us when we are tempted or troubled. This one’s easy. At least, it’s easy until we ask what our role is in this.

Matthew 6:9-13

9“Pray then in this way: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. 10Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.11Give us this day our daily bread.  12And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13And do not bring us to the time of trial, but rescue us from the evil one.

Temptation

My grandfather was an interesting man and apparently quite a character. Despite being bound to a wheelchair due to polio, he managed to get a law degree, run a very successful Pepsi bottling company in Austin, and get elected to the Texas House of Representatives. In fact I have two Texas-shaped coasters on my desk here at the church that are from the Texas House – don’t rat me out, I’m not giving them back!

He had many reasons to be proud. But whenever you put a dessert in front of him, he would state, “I can resist anything…except for temptation.”

I love that – I can resist anything…except for temptation. Isn’t it so true?

I mean, I absolutely hate gambling. Not because I’m morally opposed to it as an entertainment form, but because I’m too good at math and too much of a cheapskate to enjoy it even when I’m winning! I’m just waiting for the inevitable losing to commence. I blame my Swedish roots.

So should I be proud of myself for resisting gambling when it isn’t tempting to me in the slightest?

I was talking with someone recently who decided to give up Diet Coke for Lent. They’re braver than I am, that’s for sure. But then I saw this person with a huge, 40 oz cup with soda in it, and my puzzlement must have been evident because they explained, “This is REGULAR Coke, so I’m still good.” Should we be proud of ourselves if we simply substitute one temptation for another?

We can all resist anything…except for temptation.

So let’s throw out everything that you easily resist because it doesn’t even tempt you. Maybe that’s alcohol or smoking or gambling or whatever. Throw that out for now. That’s great, but what actually tempts you? What takes willpower to overcome? What gives you pause? Does unattended cash tempt you? Does income that can’t be traced by the IRS tempt you? Does lying tempt you? Does pornography tempt you? Does a great dessert tempt you? What actually tempts you?

God Always Gives Us A Way Out = Signs Pointing Back to Him

Now I’ve long debated what it means to pray to God, “lead us not into temptation.” Why would God LEAD me there? Does he have a grudge or something? In Matthew it’s no better – “do not BRING us to the time of trial.” Why would God BRING me to trial? Is he bored? Have you ever wondered that?

Well James writes in chapter 1, “Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.  But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.  Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.”

OK, God isn’t tempting me. So what does “lead me not into temptation” mean, then?

Well to answer that, we need the whole phrase. In our version of the prayer it’s “Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.” Matthew’s version has, “Do not bring us to the time of trial, but rescue us from the evil one.”

To move this image into a contemporary setting, there’s a scene in the movie Bruce Almighty, and the main character is driving around asking and PLEADING with God for a sign. He passes by a “slow down” sign as he prays the first time. As he again asks God for a sign, a construction truck pulls out in front of him with a bunch of stop signs hanging out of the back. Finally he looks up toward heaven – while still driving mind you – and demands a sign. And that’s when he rear-ends the construction truck. The joke is that he was ignoring all the very literal signs God was sending him.

Temptation is kind of like driving around and finding yourself in a bad neighborhood and your GPS just keeps repeating in an ominous tone, “Make a U-turn, Make a U-turn.” When you’re in the bad neighborhood, somewhat lost, you need to follow the right signs to get out.

And this prayer isn’t asking God to keep you out of those bad neighborhoods, it’s a prayer to God to give you clear signs to follow to get out.

Our first text today from 1 Corinthians 10 says, “No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it.”

Think about that – it’s incredibly hopeful. God will not let us be tested beyond our strength. No matter the circumstance, we have a way out. No matter our genetics, no matter our upbringing, no matter our situation, we have a choice. I know a guy who was taking his brother to rehab, and the guy going to rehab started talking about how it was his parents’ fault that he was doing drugs. So my friend replied, “I grew up in the same home, and I never did drugs.” Shockingly, the brother replied, “You know, you’re right.” My friend took the way out, his brother didn’t. But he could have. And maybe rehab will let him finally take that way out.

Our text today asks God to “rescue us from the evil one,” or as I usually call him, “the adversary.” My friend’s brother was falling for one of the most common detour signs the adversary throws up when we’re looking for directions out of the bad neighborhood of trial and temptation. The detour signs says, “it’s inevitable – just give up.” Another detour sign reads, “it’s someone else’s fault – just give in.” Another detour sign reads, “it’s so small no one will notice.” Or, “it’s just this one time.” What detour signs get in your way when you’re in the bad neighborhood of trial and temptation? What does the little red guy on you shoulder whisper in your ear?

Whatever it is, it’s a lie. It’s a detour. It’s not the way out.

God has a way out – always – but it’s a different sign. Many times it’s a much harder direction.

Ways Out

Back in the year 2000 the US government started requiring that clinical trials of medications and treatments start publicly registering their methods and how they were going to measure impact before doing the actual research. And when they looked at studies before that requirement and after it, the difference was striking. Before researchers had to tell other people their methods ahead of time, they found a positive impact – a reason to go to market with the drug – 57% of the time. But when they had to register their methods, they only found a positive impact – a reason to go to market with the drug – 8% of the time. It seems even researchers can succumb to the temptation of wealth while conducting their science. But public accountability took a lot of wind out of those sails. Public accountability was a much harder direction, but it was a way out of the bad neighborhood of temptation.

Just as the adversary has some common detour signs, God has some common direction signs. Being publicly accountable is one of those common signs. Could you use another person – or maybe several people – to hold you accountable and ask you about your temptation? Or maybe you know someone who could use you graciously checking in on them? Accountability is a common direction sign from God.

Another common direction sign from God is “Find Something Better.” Now probably this doesn’t mean going from Diet Coke to regular Coke for Lent – that’s not really helping. But we all know the phrase, “Idle hands are the devil’s playthings.” When I was a bachelor, there were more opportunities for temptation because I had way more idle time. Having a wife and two kids certainly is an effective means of reducing idle time! Whenever that idle time is there and temptation comes, though, one way out is to have something better ready to go.

Weight Watchers has had an ongoing debate about how many points to assign fruits and vegetables. Scientifically, fruits and vegetables have calories and fruits have sugar. But many of the programs make fruits and vegetables free – you can eat as many as you want. I once heard someone say, “I don’t need Weight Watchers because I’m eating too many fruits and vegetables. That’s not the reason.” Having fruits and vegetables be free – always available if you’re hungry – was a huge blessing to this person because they always had a guilt-free option rather than trying to just ignore the hunger. They had something better. One of the common direction signs from God.

The third major direction sign from God says, “Exit here.” Psalm 1 says, “Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers.” There’s a progression there – walking with the wicked. Then that leads to standing – lingering – in the way that sinners take. And that leads to sitting – making friends with – the company of mockers. At any step along the way, someone can take the “Exit Here” sign from God. It’s a lot easier to take the exit when you’re walking, not lingering. And it’s a lot easier to take the exit when you’re standing, not sitting at the table. God gives us “Exit Here” signs so that we can get out of the bad neighborhood while we’re still on the outskirts, not trapped in the middle. What’s the first step that leads you closer to temptation? What’s the second step that leads to temptation? How can you exit sooner?

Summary

Sisters and brothers, we will all find ourselves driving around in the bad neighborhood of trial and temptation. But no temptation is stronger than you can bear, and God is faithful and always, always, ALWAYS provides a way out.

What direction signs might God be giving you? Is he telling you to find accountability? Is he telling you to find something better? Is he telling you to exit sooner?

Follow the direction signs from God, not the detour signs from the adversary. We know we’re not always going to do that. But now we know it’s always possible. And for that I say thanks be to God.

Lord Teach Us to Pray

“Lord, Teach Us To Pray: Forgive Us As We Forgive” by Rev Cody Sandahl – March 6, 2016

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Rev. Cody Sandahl
Rev. Cody Sandahl
"Lord, Teach Us To Pray: Forgive Us As We Forgive" by Rev Cody Sandahl - March 6, 2016
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Introduction

We are still making our way through the Lord’s Prayer. Last week we talked about praying for our daily bread as a daily shopper prayer, not a once-a-week Costco run. But we were also encouraged not to get to bread too soon in our prayers – it’s in the middle for a reason.

To get us into the next part of Jesus’ prayer, let me tell you a story. In middle and high school, there was another boy in our youth group who rubbed me the wrong way. Every time I was around him alarm bells were going off in my head. Over the years, my instinct was proven correct. I won’t go into the details, but there were complaints from most of the female members of the youth group. When I think about this boy – and now he’s a man somewhere – alarm bells still go off in my head. I can still get worked up thinking about it.

And so, thinking of this boy, I really wish I could change the Lord’s Prayer. More of a tweak really. Jesus probably wouldn’t even notice. I’d much prefer “forgive us our debts but don’t forgive our debtors.” Just a small change. Doesn’t that sound better? We should start a petition.

Unfortunately that’s not what Jesus said. Listen to why the ancient theologian Augustine called this, “the terrible petition.”

Matthew 6:9-12

9“Pray then in this way: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. 10Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.11Give us this day our daily bread.  12And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

Debts, Sins, Trespasses

One of the common questions pastors get about the Lord’s Prayer is: “should we use forgive us our debts, forgive us our trespasses, or forgive us our sins?” The answer is, of course, “Yes!” All three can make a pretty good case for themselves.

I mentioned last week that the Lord’s Prayer in the Gospel of Matthew is slightly different than the version in Luke. Let me read you Luke 11:4: “And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.”

I don’t know about you, but I dislike that version even more than Matthew’s version. If I pray Matthew’s version – “God forgive me as I forgive” – then I’m nervous that God will actually do that. I’m afraid he’ll use my own record of forgiveness to determine how much to forgive me. Scary.

But if I pray Luke’s version – “God forgive me because I forgive everyone” – well then I’m lying to God in prayer. I don’t think that’s an especially good idea. In fact, I think lying is covered by one of the Ten Commandments.

But did you notice that Luke says both “sins” and “debts?” Archaeologists have discovered a lot of letters from early Christianity, and many of them have the Lord’s Prayer on them. And some of the letters say “debts.” Some of the letters say “trespasses.” And some of the letters say “sins.” All three were in use. The early Christians were emphasizing three different aspects of our need to forgive and our need for forgiveness.

Sins = Damaging Relationship with God OR Pointed People Away from God

So let’s look at sins first. Sin is anything that separates us from God. Which is only almost everything we do, so we have that going for us. But sin is also any way that we point people away from God through our actions, inactions, words, and attitudes. And when others do that to us, that’s when we need to “forgive those who have sinned against us.”

Now I know that no one here has been un-Christ-like to others, but has anyone been un-Christ-like to you? Have they had no patience, sapped your joy, destroyed your sense of peace, been impatient, been unkind, done wrong or unjust things, been harsh, or simply lacked self-control toward you? Then they’ve sinned against you.

The first text we read today is interesting in this regard. The king forgives the slave his 10,000 talents worth of debt until the slave refuses to forgive a 100 denarii debt. To put that into scale, a denarii was one day’s wage for a laborer – minimum wage if you will. So if someone owed you 100 days’ worth of minimum wage, that’s like $12,000. That’s a considerable sum!

But a single talent is worth 20 years of minimum wage labor, and the slave owes 10,000 talents. The math is a little fuzzy, but that’s somewhere between two and seven BILLION dollars’ worth of debt. So he’s not going to be able to pay that back no matter how hard he works.

So the point of Jesus’ story is that it’s good to be the king. Oh wait, no.

The point of Jesus’ story is that we owe such a debt to God it is incomprehensibly bigger than what anyone else could possibly do to us. Again, $12,000 is no joke – I think most people would notice if they had loaned $12,000 to someone and it wasn’t paid back. Other people can really and truly do us harm. But the weight of our sins toward God – against whom we can sin without saying a word, without anyone else noticing – makes any sins against us pale in comparison.

Jesus is saying – if God can forgive you $4 billion, can’t you forgive your $12,000? If God can forgive you for everything you’ve thought and said and done, can’t you forgive someone else for what they’ve said and done against you?

Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.

Trespasses = Damaging Relationship with Neighbors

The next version – trespasses – really focuses in on those $12,000 damages. Trespassing primarily means to enter another person’s property without permission. It’s primarily about damaging our relationships with our neighbors.

We have a neighbor who is incredibly kind and gracious. And whenever the snow is very deep he will bring his heavy-duty snowblower and help out five out of the six houses around him – luckily we’re one of the five he helps. But it’s fascinating to see him clear off the sidewalk of one house, turn off the blower, and then turn it back on after he crosses the property line of that other house. Clearly there’s some major hurt, major damage between those neighbors. And clearly there hasn’t been any forgiveness in either direction yet.

Contrast that with two neighbors when we lived in Bethlehem. One neighbor had a basketball goal. The other had a swimming pool. And in between them was a pretty high, maybe five or six foot wooden fence. But they had installed a ladder that straddled the fence from one side to the other, and whenever I walked by I would often see the families playing together on one side of the fence or the other. Even when the other family wasn’t there, it wasn’t uncommon to see them playing in the neighbor’s yard.

How’s your own neighborhood? How’s your relationship with your neighbors? Is it closer to the snowblower story or the ladder story? Any trespasses you’ve committed or that have been committed against you? Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

Debts = Obligations

In our own back yard in Bethlehem some prior owner had installed a much smaller fence. But curiously there was a gate at the very back going from our yard to the house behind us. I’m guessing that at some point our two houses had a similar relationship – families going back and forth between the yards using that gate. But that wasn’t the case for us. The neighbor behind us only spoke to us once in over six years – and that was because the tree pruning company wouldn’t trim the tree that started in our yard and stretched into his without permission from us.

So there wasn’t any damage there – no trespassing to forgive. But I wonder if forgiveness is still needed in that case. Do we need to ask for forgiveness if we never get to know our neighbors? Do we, the salt of the earth, the light of the world, the city on a hill that cannot be hidden – that’s how Jesus describes the church – do we have some kind of obligation to do better than that?

And that brings us to debts. Because a debt is really an obligation. It is a weight, a burden, it can even be a form of bondage. So what are our obligations – especially with our neighbors? What do we owe our neighborhood? Our community? What can they expect of us? If you watched the sermon teaser video this week you know these three stories.

This past week one of Charlie’s teachers figured out that I’m the pastor here, and she said, “Oh that’s such a beautiful building!” And you know what? She’s right! We do have a beautiful building. Thanks to our Properties and Renovation Committees for making sure that’s the case. In fact, when people figure out where our church is I hear two statements more than any others – “That’s such a beautiful building” and “Oh, I park there when I eat at Romano’s.”

But is beautiful architecture what we owe to our community? Is that enough for us to feel like we’ve met our obligations, our debt, to our community?

A couple of months ago I talked with a man who had visited our church and he told me how much he enjoyed the music. He liked that it was traditional but still very alive. He loved that we sang the hymns he knew. And you know what? He’s right! We do have great music. Thanks to Mary and Susan and Karen and everyone in our various choirs and thanks to the Worship Committee for making sure that’s the case. In fact, many people who visit our church or become new members at our church say they came here because we have traditional music done very well.

But is good music what we owe to our community? Is that enough for us to feel like we’ve met our obligations, our debt, to our community?

About a month ago a man walked in on one of my night meetings and said, “I heard this is a place where I could get some help. I don’t have a place to stay tonight, but I also just need to talk to someone.” And you know what? He’s right! He was able to get some help – not as much as I would have liked, but enough for a night. And we were able to talk a little about Jesus Christ and how he can change the trajectory of someone’s life.

And I wonder if THAT’S what we owe to our community. Do we owe it to our community to be a place where people can get help? Do we owe it to our community to be a place where you can hear about Jesus Christ and how faith in him can change whatever trajectory you’re on?

That’s how the prophet Micah summarized the nation of Israel’s obligation in Micah 6:8 – “What does the Lord REQUIRE of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”

God was a little more confrontational when he spoke through the prophet Amos in chapter 5: “21 I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. 22 Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the offerings of well-being of your fatted animals I will not look upon. 23 Take away from me the noise of your songs; I will not listen to the melody of your harps. 24 BUT let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”

In other words, God said – “You’ve got a beautiful Temple, but that’s not what you owe me. You’ve got great worship and great music, but that’s not what you owe me. You owe me a concern for justice and a concern for people’s relationship with God.”

So, God, forgive us our debts – forgive us for wherever we’ve ignored our community’s need for justice. Forgive us for wherever we’ve ignored people who need to know Jesus. Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

Summary

Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who have sinned against us. Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. God clearly cares about our relationships with our neighbors and our community. So God, I pray that we – as people and as a church – would let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

Lord Teach Us to Pray

“Lord, Teach us to Pray: Daily Bread” by Rev Cody Sandahl – February 28, 2016

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Rev. Cody Sandahl
Rev. Cody Sandahl
"Lord, Teach us to Pray: Daily Bread" by Rev Cody Sandahl - February 28, 2016
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Introduction

We are still in our series looking at the Lord’s Prayer. Last week Pastor Carol asked us what kind of Christians we want to be as we looked at “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” This week we are continuing with “give us this day our daily bread.” Listen to how far we’ve made it in Jesus’ prayer from Matthew 6.

Matthew 6:9-11

9“Pray then in this way: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. 10Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.11Give us this day our daily bread.

THIS Day

Where do you do your grocery shopping? Are you a corner store person? Do you prefer King Sooper’s or Safeway or Trader Joe’s? Do you prefer a more all-in-one store like Target or Walmart? Or maybe you’re a bulk buyer – stocking up at Costco or Sam’s Club? Where do you do your grocery shopping?

And how often do you go grocery shopping? Are you the every day shopper or do you try to get everything for the whole week?

This prayer from Jesus is recorded in both the Gospel of Matthew, which we just read, and the Gospel of Luke. And they’re almost the same but there are some differences. One difference is that in Matthew we pray “give us THIS day our daily bread,” and in Luke we pray, “give us EACH day our daily bread.” A subtle difference.

My pastor friend and I were looking at this text, and he commented that these were different ways of shopping with God. If you pray for THIS day, that’s being a daily shopper, because tomorrow isn’t THIS day until after midnight. But if you pray for EACH day, that’s making a Costco run. You can store up several days’ worth of God’s daily bread if you pray for EACH day.

When we say the Lord’s Prayer today, which one do we say? THIS day. So sorry if you’re a pantry stocking grocery shopper, it seems that daily shopping with God won out.

Manna

And nowhere is this more clearly illustrated than with our first text today from Exodus. The Israelites are hungry in the wilderness, so God sends them this strange substance they call “manna,” and the closest analog in English would be a “whatchamacallit.” Highly technical and scientific name.

But did you catch God’s instructions to them? Gather what you need – no more, no less. Those who tried to Costco it up and stock their pantries? It was bad by the next day. Those who tried to leave some on the ground, worried that more wouldn’t come? It bread worms and stank. Those who thought God was kidding about resting on the Sabbath, so they thought more manna would come? They went hungry that day. God prevented them from having more than they needed or less than they needed for THIS day, or on the Sabbath THIS day and God’s commanded day of rest. No more, no less.

Or if you look at the Proverb from our call to worship, it hits on this, too. “Give me each day what I need. For if I have too much I might forget you are the one who provides. Or if I do not have enough, I might become hungry and turn to stealing and thus dishonor the good name of my God.”

So one of the main ideas in this prayer is to remain connected with God – THIS day – EVERY day – because God is the one who provides everything we have.

But this can be hard for us. Most Americans – not all – but most can stock up the pantry with food. Most – not all – but most of us can just run to the store or to a restaurant if we’re low on food. We don’t NEED to pray for THIS day’s daily bread, because King Sooper’s has us covered.

I know someone who went on a mission trip to Africa, and in the village they had a small granary to store their food between harvests. And this person asked one of the villagers, “What do you do when this runs out?” They stared back very confused. So this person went over and pointed to the bottom of the granary, “When the food reaches this point, where do you go? What’s your backup plan? What do you do?” Still confused, they replied, “We starve.”

Most of us – not all – but most of us don’t strictly NEED to pray for daily bread, because there are a plethora of backup plans. We don’t need our daily manna, because we have Trader Joe’s. Our granary isn’t going to run out. Praise be to God for that, but, as the Proverb warned, it also disconnects us from that rhythm of connecting with God THIS day.

Daily Necessities

So if we’re so blessed that we don’t have to literally pray for our daily bread, what else is covered here? Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote that “daily bread…covers the entire sphere of the necessities of physical life.” It’s anything you need to survive THIS day.

There have been times in my life where I needed patience to survive this day. Sometimes I have needed hope to survive this day. Sometimes I have needed trust to survive this day. What do you need to survive THIS day?

Or expand that a bit. If you picked up one of our Joys and Concerns lists at the entrances to the building, you’d see a list of what other people need to survive THIS day. Some need strength to deal with chemo. Some need peace in a storm. Some need the doctors to finally figure it out. Some are celebrating where God has already provided. “Give us this day, our daily bread.”

Interestingly, I know people who struggle to pray for others, because they’re so focused on their own needs. And I know other people who struggle to pray for themselves, because, “God can’t be bothered with my tiny things.” If you’re praying for yourself but not others, remember that Jesus says, “give US this day OUR daily bread” – it’s a communal prayer. But if you pray for others but not yourself, remember that Jesus cares about even the bread we eat – he’s asking you to pray for it even if it seems small. And if you’re not praying at all, well, THIS day sounds like a great day to start being a daily shopper.

Getting to Bread Too Soon

So to recap, when Jesus says, “give us this day our daily bread,” he’s encouraging us to be daily shoppers with God, don’t do a Costco run with God and just pray once in a while. And he’s encouraging us to pray for all the little things we need in life to survive THIS day. That prayer covers our personal needs and other people’s. So how are you going to pray THIS day? And how will you pray when tomorrow becomes THIS day? And when Tuesday is THIS day? [LONG PAUSE]

But there is a danger in this prayer, too. As NT Wright said, “The danger with the prayer for bread is that we get there too soon.” Let me say that again, “The danger with the prayer for bread is that we get there too soon.”

Notice where this is in the prayer. Does it come first? No. It’s in the middle. It comes AFTER “Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” All of that other stuff is supposed to be prayed first.

Think back on some of your recent prayers. How did they start? I know I often launch right into my daily bread, “Holy God, please help me by…” “Heavenly Father, I’m in desperate need of…” “Holy Spirit, please reveal to me…” How do your prayers start?

I believe Jesus intentionally placed the prayer for bread right in the middle. I’m a big Downton Abbey fan, and Mr. Barrow is always looking out for himself. So whenever he’s nice to someone, everyone wonders what he’s after. Do you know anyone who’s always trying to get something for themselves? Do you have a friend or family member who only calls when they need something? Or maybe a kid in college who the only time they call is when they need more money?

If we always launch right into our daily bread prayer – our wish list prayer – aren’t we being Mr. Barrow to God? Aren’t we being that me-first friend or family member to God? Aren’t we being the kind of person whose phone calls we want to dodge?

Don’t get to bread too soon. We start with Our Father and reinforce our close relationship with God. Then we remember God’s power and might as we hallow God’s name. Then we pray for God’s will, not my will, God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Only THEN do we get to our daily bread.

So are your prayers jumping to bread too soon? Mine often do. I need to reinforce my relationship with God, to remember God’s power and might, to pray for God’s will first before I ask for my daily bread.

Prayer Walk

Next week we’re organizing a way for us to reinforce our relationship with God, to remember God’s power and might, to pray for God’s will, and then to ask for daily bread for our neighbors. Next Sunday, we’re inviting everyone who is able to set aside 20-30 minutes to walk one of the blocks around our church and pray for the businesses, organizations, houses, apartments, and whatever else you see. Some groups have already said they’re going to pray for some blocks together as a group, but there’s no need to sign up. I’d love to know if you or your group plan to walk a block and pray so I can celebrate with you, but you can just do it on your own next Sunday. I’m doing the West #2 block so I can pray for Charlie’s preschool – you’re welcome to join me.

There’s a map taped to the outside of the office and a few sample handouts. So I’m going to print up handouts for each of those blocks with some prayer ideas. If you walk the block across the street, pray for the success of Romano’s and thank God for our partnership with them. When you walk by the eye care business, pray for everyone who has trouble seeing. If you walk by the car repair shop, pray for everyone who has difficulty with transportation. If you walk the block with the preschool, pray for the parents and teachers and especially the kids at the preschool who have developmental delays. If you walk the block with the rec center, pray for the health of our city. You get the idea.

Most importantly, we’re not handing anything out. We’re not promoting any church event. This isn’t about getting people from the community to join us. This is about changing how we see our neighborhood. This is about changing how we pray. This is about growing our hearts toward those around us. This is about orienting ourselves and hopefully our church around being FOR others, not about what’s in it for US.

So I encourage you and invite you to invest in your prayer life, invest in your heart, invest in your compassion for our neighbors by walking a block next Sunday and invite any groups from the church that you’re in to join you. If you can’t walk, maybe drive it slowly once and then park on the street somewhere by the block and pray for what you saw. Pray for THEIR relationship with God. Pray for THEM to know the power and might of God. Pray for THEIR daily bread. Our hearts will change by praying for them.

Summary

Sisters and brothers, Jesus encourages us to pray daily, not just a once-a-week Costco run. And he encourages us to pray even for the small things, whatever we need to survive THIS day. And he encourages us to pray for those small things for others, too. But he also placed this prayer for daily bread in the middle for a reason. So how will you start your prayers this week, and what daily bread is needed THIS day? Amen.

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