ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS September 13, 2019 Scripture: 1st John 4:1-2 Dear friends, don’t believe every spirit. Test the spirits to see if they are from God because many false prophets have gone into the world. This is how you know if a spirit comes from God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come as a human is from God… Thought for the Day: Docetism was a religious belief that suggested Jesus was not born of flesh, but was a spirit, a celestial being. It often played itself out in extreme dualism – flesh is evil and spirit is good. Salvation was nothing other than escaping the evils of the flesh, and rising into the true reality of the spirit. There are many reasons why Docetism was declared a heresy, but beginning with the beginning, scripture speaks poetically of God creating the earth and declaring it good. The author of 1st John seems to have more than one motive for writing, but responding to Docetism is part of the rationale. Christianity has historically desired orthodoxy, but whose definition of orthodoxy? Usually those with authority, money and military have been able to define orthodoxy. Scripture is complicated, and you can have opposing views that draw upon scripture and both claim to be the orthodox belief. Brian McLaren wrote a book a number of years ago entitled, “A Generous Orthodoxy,” and though I really enjoyed the book, I loved the title. When I think of generous, I imagine benevolence and even sacrifice for the sake of another. Christian orthodoxy, by its name, should already be generous and Christ-like. It must be benevolent and self-sacrificing. I’m not ready to claim Docetism or anything close to it, but if I encounter someone claiming such a belief, I will try to explore why; what brought the person to that belief; how does that belief impact the person’s life on a daily basis? I am becoming more convinced that we as people of faith are not called to prove our faith to anyone or to intimidate someone with some imaginary orthodoxy. We are called to live a life of love, and if someone needs to change, love is more than capable. I think those who try to use orthodoxy as a fear-tactic do not trust the power of love or do not wish to put forth the effort and take the risk required to actually love. Prayer: Let my strongest held belief be none other than your love, O Lord, revealed in Jesus. May I trust love as Jesus did, even as he hung upon the cross. Amen. via WordPress https://ift.tt/2ZRMmqq
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ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS September 12, 2019 Scripture: Isaiah 43:19 Look! I’m doing a new thing; now it sprouts up; don’t you recognize it? I’m making a way in the desert, paths in the wilderness. A Thursday Prayer: Overwhelmed! Swamped! Buried! So often the news and the events of the world can leave us feeling incapacitated. Could there be, Merciful God, an agenda of despair? Could there be a strategy that seeks to discourage? If social media bombards us with tragedy and suffering, suggesting how the immensity of the problem is beyond our capacity to solve, we end up shaking our heads and making ourselves comfortable watching more of the same. Could it be, Merciful God, that you provided us Jesus to pushback against the narrative of hopelessness? Your gift to the world told his disciples how they’d do even greater things, and if that’s the case, what would it mean if a few billion of us got together? There were only 12 among them, and their witness changed the course of history. What could we do if only we listened to your Spirit, and not the mind-numbing nothingness of today’s talking heads? It’s ok to be informed, but not by those who present their opinion as the obvious and reliable truth. Provide us information from which we can gain knowledge, and then guide our choices based upon the love and compassion we see in Jesus. You’ve not called us to be the most enthused spectators, but passionate about enfleshing the love of Jesus. Let us take this message of hope to the heart of a hurting world. Amen. via WordPress https://ift.tt/2NaSTpu ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS Thought for the Day: In the ancient world, a name said something about a person. To believe in the name of God’s son, Jesus Christ, is to claim Jesus as the anointed expression of God in the flesh. And if you’re confused over what to believe in regard to this anointed expression of the Holy, all you need to do is look at the following words, “…love each other as he commanded us.” Believing requires action. Some will suggest that goes against the good Martin Luther (Protestant) belief of saved by grace, but in fact there is no conflict or contradiction. According to 1st John, the love of God has for us is never in jeopardy. That part is unchanging, but our belief unleashes the power and joy of that reality. What’s in a name? Everything, everything necessary to change the world! Prayer: Guide me inward, O Lord, to better understand what needs to be changed if I am to be a living conviction of your love. After we have done some good work on me, enliven and motivate me to practice what I see in your amazing gift, Jesus. Amen. via WordPress https://ift.tt/30cyliF ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS Thought for the Day: In our culture, there is some hate toward Christianity and other religions. My concern is that it is mostly for the wrong reasons. When I read the headlines, there is reason: Another church protecting a minister who committed sexual assault or another tv preacher who bought his third personal jet because God told him to do it. There is some general loathing toward the church, and Christians specifically, but it is not the way 1st John was suggesting. I have heard pastors quote these words as defense for all kinds of bizarre, immoral or even illegal actions. As strange as it may sound, let’s be hated for all the right reasons. Let’s be so disgustingly loving, forgiving and compassionate that it troubles those who are in the business of intolerance and inflicting cruelty. No one wants to be hated, but if you’re going to be hated, be hated for the right stuff. Prayer: With each morning, O God of Transformation, provide me a rebirth in the spirit of love. Give me the courage to live in this spirit no matter the pushback I might receive from the world around me. I ask this in the name of Jesus who shows me how to live in love. Amen. Come and PrayIn the ChapelTODAY7am – 7pmvia WordPress https://ift.tt/2LrmCIV ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS September 8, 2019 Scripture: 1st John 3:7-8 Little children, make sure no one deceives you. The person who practices righteousness is righteous, in the same way that Jesus is righteous. The person who practices sin belongs to the devil, because the devil has been sinning since the beginning. God’s Son appeared for this purpose: to destroy the works of the devil. Thought for the Day: At the end of Harry Potter and Order of the Phoenix, Voldemort is attempting to claim Harry. Harry is struggling as he recognizes this deep connection within himself to this evil force that is Voldemort. Dumbledore steps in and whispers, “Harry, it isn’t how you are alike. It’s how you are not.” As I have said before in regard to 1st John, there isn’t much middle ground, very little gray. Impassioned speakers and writers tend to communicate with dramatic flare, “It is this way or the highway.” “You are either for us or against us.” People who are seeking a dramatic change in others, usually because of the seriousness of the situation, do not spend time trying to cover the murkier areas, or point out the potential ambiguity that might exist. But in regard to the fictional character Harry Potter, there is already the full acknowledgement of the tension, the internal struggle. Both good and bad, hope and despair, promise and failure live within him, and so it becomes a story of making difficult choices that are very rarely absolutes. I like the clear picture of 1st John, but I also know myself. There are internal battles, some of them I have yet to even acknowledge, yet I believe I am making the best choices I can make in the moment. That’s where we desperately need grace as it is the voice that comes alongside us to call us to something greater. Like Dumbledore, grace whispers to us amidst the complexity, “It isn’t how you are alike. It’s how you are not.” It is about seeing ourselves more fully, and learning to claim what is healthy and life-giving more and more each day. Prayer: Teach me, and as you are teaching me, Lord, be patient. I’ve got some personal work that needs doing, yet too often I settle with the less than perfect. I know I will never be perfect, but with your Spirit, I believe tomorrow will provide me the opportunity to do better than I did today. Amen. via WordPress https://ift.tt/2ZNekCS ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS September 7, 2019 Scripture: 1st John 3:1a See what kind of love the Father has given to us in that we should be called God’s children, and that is what we are! Thought for the Day: Children of God! That is what we should be called because, according to the author, that is what we are. It doesn’t say, “…that’s what we will become” or “if we work hard, we might earn it.” It IS what we ARE. It is a done deal, a completed task, an accomplished reality. We need to stop with the games of who is in and who is out, who is loved more and who is loved less, who has the better theology and who has a weaker theology. We are all beloved children of God, and there is nothing we can do to change that reality. So, in light of God’s clear declaration of our status, let us stop bickering and get onto the work of helping others experience and claim their already guarantee place as children of God. What wonderful work! Prayer: Our fears and insecurities play all kinds of games. We allow ourselves to question the power and depth of your love, O Lord. We attempt to secure our rightful place by distinguishing ourselves from those who we have deemed as incapable of securing a rightful place. Allow for your Spirit to calm our anxiousness, providing a peace through which we can glimpse the beauty of your unconditional love. Allow for our lives to be a witness to a love that refuses to forget even one. We pray in the name of the one who enfleshed your love, Jesus Christ. Amen. via WordPress https://ift.tt/2ZKONdC ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS September 6, 2019 Scripture: 1st John 2:28 And now, little children, remain in relationship to Jesus, so that when he appears we can have confidence and not be ashamed in front of him when he comes. Thought for the Day: Too many people (and I have done it) read through this verse quickly and project it to some final day, when Jesus appears in ultimate glory. That could be true, but how often have you been cruising through life and suddenly had a Jesus-moment, an experience of the divine/holy. It was as if you were reawakened to who you are as a person of faith amidst the humdrum of daily life. The question becomes, when you found yourself unexpectedly meeting the Spirit of the Living Christ, were you ashamed of what you were doing? Or did you find yourself, like it was second nature, doing the work of Christ without even thinking about it? Even in those moments when we are left feeling a bit embarrassed, regretful or guilty, God will be gracious. At the same time, this challenges us to be about the work of making Jesus, and the Love First Life, central to our daily lives. What would it be like if we didn’t need to pause and ask ourselves, “What would Jesus do in this situation?” What if we intentionally trained ourselves so that in most situations, we simply were able to Put Love First? Prayer: I may not be there yet, O Giver of Love, but I seek your assistance as I prepare myself to be an advocate of the Jesus-life. Amen. via WordPress https://ift.tt/2HNbweO ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS Thought for the Day: Many who read this simple verse are immediately transported in their minds to a heaven with angels and puffy clouds and golden streets. I’m not knocking that mental picture, but eternal life is not the life after this one. Eternal life, as I have often said, is eternal – having no ending and no beginning. We all have a beginning, so the eternal life is the life of God. When we connect, or as 1st John might suggests, abide in God and God in us, that life that knows no beginning or end dwells within us and we dwell in that life. Baptism is for me the point at which we claim this life, and the waters of baptism are a tomb for the old and an opportunity to rise into the new. John’s Gospel speaks of the abundant life, but it too has repercussions for this life. In fact, I believe faith allows us to live in the heavenly reality before we are ready to live in the heavenly reality. This way, we can be light and joy, peace and love in this life and for the sake of this world. We pray each week, “Thy Kingdom come…,” and that prayer implies our desire to participate in the life to come before it has fully made its appearance. Now please hear me – I am not tossing out an afterlife. If anything, I am expecting its beauty and power to be our life as we connect with the One who is eternal. Prayer: I’m ready for the afterlife, Lord, and I really want to start living it long before my heart stops beating. Amen. via WordPress https://ift.tt/2zQ9pme ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS September 4, 2019 Scripture: 1st John 2:18-21 Little children, it is the last hour. Just as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have appeared. This is how we know it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not really part of us. If they had been part of us, they would have stayed with us. But by going out from us, they showed they all are not part of us. But you have an anointing from the holy one, and all of you know the truth. I don’t write to you because you don’t know the truth but because you know it. You know that no lie comes from the truth. Thought for the Day: I confess that I am a card-carrying cynic, at least in some parts of life. Interesting, though, I am a cynic in certain parts of my faith life because I am a person of hope. In this section, the author speaks of how we are in the last hour. Not only is the antichrist coming, but many of them are already here. Of course, those words were not written an hour ago…or even a few hundred hours ago. In recent years, there are those who have said that an hour in God’s time is in fact, two-thousand years. And for that reason, the hour is upon us now. Of course, there were those a thousand years ago who made a push to suggest that an hour in God’s time was one thousand years. There have been those who have come up with all kinds of creative formulas that suggest that the current moment is the moment. These creative interpretations of scripture have occurred every single year since Jesus walked the earth, and even before his arrival, there were those who suggested that the end was upon us. Why would today be any different then 45 years ago or 400 years ago or 1,100 years ago? You get my point. Might I suggest that the author is drawing upon a well know genre to communicate hope to a people who have known periods of persecution and suffering. In human history, has there ever been a time when antichrists have not been appearing, those who stand opposed to the ways of Christ’s love? Instead of spending so much energy and resources in trying to prove why next Thursday is the day, I think God is challenging us to be those whose lives are the radical alternative to the antichrists. So much time is spent in 1st John talking about living in the light, loving brothers and sisters, and demonstrating compassion. Maybe the author wants every generation to claim this as the final hour, in part, to take seriously the idea of loving God and loving neighbor now. Prayer: Provide me passion and urgency, O Spirit of Hope, in the work set forth by Christ Jesus. Give me eyes to see what needs to be done, and how my gifts can assist in revealing your love. I do not wish to place this action item on my calendar for two weeks from Friday, but for this moment before me. Amen. via WordPress https://ift.tt/2NNRODF |
AuthorRev. Bruce Frogge Archives
April 2024
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