Why Call God "My" God?

Reading: Matthew 27:45-54.

About three o'clock Jesus cried with a loud voice. . . "My God, my God, why have you forsaken
me?". Matthew 27:46.
Even in the depths of being forsaken by God, Jesus addresses God as "my" God. Given the
circumstances, how can he do that? What's behind this pronoun "my"?
In the Christian story, my God is the one who possesses me, who claims me as his own. In Jesus'
case it first happened at his baptism as the heavenly voice announced: "This is my beloved son."
Jesus has been living from that word ever since, and his "my" from the cross signals his
continuing faith in it.
Our own baptism repeats that for us. But in our case, Jesus is also present as God says to us:
"You are my beloved son, my beloved daughter." In his own Son at his moment of anquish, God
was reclaiming, re-possessing lost sons and daughters. Since God claims me with a "my" of his
own, I can claim God with the same little word--even when my God is forsaking me.
Siegfried's rendering of Jesus in the Fourth Word, his head sinking between his shoulders, calls
us when we are sinking to hear our God inviting us: "Call on me in the day of trouble (even
trouble that I bring to you); I will deliver you." Jesus banks on that promise, crying to "my"
God as he hits bottom. Because he did, the same holds true for us.
Prayer: When we hit bottom, God, remind us whose we are, that you are our God. Jesus was
there and you remained his God. On his recommendation we call on you "out of the depths."
Amen.

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Why, God, Why?

Reading: Mark 15:33-39

At three o'clock Jesus cried out with a loud voice, "My God,
my God, why have you forsaken me?" Mark 15:34
Saint Mark records one and only one word from the cross:
"My God, my God, why?" Mark seems to be in a hurry.
He leaves only 15 verses for the entire crucifixion narrative
and Jesus speaks only once, this cry of despair. Does that
one cry make the whole story "good news"? Mark seems to
say so.
Notice how he reports an answer to this cry. It does not come from the one Jesus calls "my
God." It is instead the centurion carrying out the death sentence who tells us why. Why was
Jesus God-forsaken? Why, because "truly this man was God's Son!" God's true Son joins
sinners all the way down to God-forsakenness, down to cries of despair, even despair of God.
Earlier the bystanders had taunted Jesus: "If you are God's son, come down from the cross." But
since Jesus really is God's son, he stays there. Phoney messiahs, pseudo-sons of God, don't do it
this way. They avoid the cross at all costs. They leave their fans to do the crying, the despairing,
the dying .
Not so this Son of God. He goes to the very pits, so that we will be rescued when we hit the pits.
When we ourselves cry out: "My God, why?" the one who truly is God's Son speaks to us: "I've
been there myself--in the Big Pit. And since I have been there, you will not stay there." We
have his word for it and that gets us out. Truly!
Prayer: (from Isaiah 53) In your suffering, Lord Jesus, you were wounded for our
transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon you was the punishment that makes us whole,
and by your bruises we are healed. Truly you are your Father's Son, and we are truly grateful.
Amen.

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Strength Enough to Get to God’s Hideout

Reading: I Kings 19:1-8

And Elijah got up, and ate and drank; then he went in the strength of that food forty days and
forty nights to Horeb the mount of God. I Kings 19:8
Elijah is ready to throw in the towel. He can stand up to King Ahab, but Queen Jezebel is just
too much. When she swears to have his scalp, he responds with fear, and he flees for his life.
He even tells God that he’s quitting. Who needs that kind of hassle? Prophet, shmophet! And if
God wants to zap him for giving up, so be it.
But God does not zap Elijah. Instead God nourishes him. Elijah’s own name could have
told us (and him too) that God would react this way. The word “Eli-jah” is a full Hebrew
sentence: “My God is Jahweh,” the covenant God of Israel. Other gods may zap their agents who
quit on the job, but not Jahweh. This God majors in rehabbing the losers, restoring the fallen,
forgiving sinners, re-filling the empties. So Elijah gets food and drink to keep on going.
With that nourishment he has strength (forty days worth = just enough) to get to God’s
own hideout in the Sinai desert. Here Jezebel can’t get him, and God can thus get on with the
rehab project. If you read on beyond the suggested verses above, you see that it takes more work
to get Elijah on track again. But those forty days were just enough to get Elijah to God’s own
hideout, the safe space for Elijah to be restored.
Lent’s 40 days are safe space for us to get our second wind, to get relief from the Jezebels
that are out to get us, to get the big picture. The Passiontide of Christ is just that: just enough
space for us to see that Elijah’s name is our name too. Our God is Jahweh, and Jahweh’s
beloved son is our brother Jesus. So what does that make us? God’s own beloved kids as well.
That’s a big “Four -O” to live on forever.
You brought Elijah through his wilderness, O God, and refilled him when his own emptiness
brought him to despair. Do for us what you did for him. We have even better grounds to trust
you for it. He too had your Word for it, but we also have your Word in the Flesh, Our Lord
Jesus Christ. Refuel us from his fullness. Amen.

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Christ Amid the Thorns of Our Relationships With Ourselves

Readings: Luke 6:43-45

"The good person out of the good treasure of the heart produces good, and the evil person out of
evil treasure produces evil." Luke 6:45
Our behaviors grow out of our attitudes. That's our contemporary way of saying what Jesus says
here in Luke. So to change behaviors, we say, change your attitudes, the stuff on the "inside,"
what the Bible calls "the heart." True enough, but just saying it doesn't make it so.
When Luther explains the first commandment in his Small Catechism, he uses verbs of the heart:
"fear, love, and trust in God above all things." What we fear, love and trust defines who we
think (fear, love,and trust) we are. And from the treasure of this heart we live out our roles in
daily life.
Over and over again in his earthly ministry Jesus speaks to that agenda. "Do not let your hearts
be troubled," he says (John 14:1). Does his saying it make it so? Jesus addresses these words to
his anxious disciples. We too are not trouble-free in the heart. From our troubled hearts come
our troubled behaviors. Like all troublesome people we need new hearts -- healed hearts,
untroubled ones.
Jesus follows up his word about heart-trouble with three little words: "Believe in me." You can
indeed trust someone who'll go to the cross for you. Such trust does indeed produce a good heart
on the inside with its "good treasure" for producing good in our relations on the outside.
Prayer: (from Psalm 51) Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit
within me. Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take away your holy spirit from
me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit. Amen.

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Christ Amid the Thorns of Our Relationships

Reading: Psalm 23

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil; for you are with me.
Psalm 23:4
Humans are created to live in relationships. Relationship to other people is basic, but Biblically
it is third in a sequence. Our relational world is a threesome: outside, inside, God-side. We see
it here in Psalm 23.
The Psalmist is in serious difficulty "on the outside." "The valley of the shadow of death"
confronts him. Whatever all that might be, it includes the enemies mentioned next. Personal
relations with these folks are not good.
But of "the inside" what do we hear? "I fear no evil." His self-perception is OK. He copes with
the bad news on the outside by means of a fearless heart on the inside. And what's the source for
that? His God-side relationship: "for you are with me; your rod and your staff -- they comfort
me."
None of us have permanent "green pastures." We have thorns on all three of these turfs snarling
our lives like the bramble that encircles Siegfried's work. On the cross Christ addresses the deep
one first, our root relationship with God. As those thorn-tangles break, he re-roots us in the
living God.
With that new root in place, new shoots grow, new perceptions of who we are and of our worth
in the world. And from those shoots come new fruits, life-bestowing transactions with those on
the outside. By the time Jesus breaks out full-blown at Easter, there is health and healing for the
whole trio.
Prayer: Heal us, Lord, in our relationships -- root, shoots, and fruits. Break open the thorns that
strangle our own growth -- in trusting you, in being pleased with who we are, and in keeping
faith with those you've given to surround our lives. Amen.

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The Thorn of Parenthood: The Parent's Side

Reading: Colossians 3:20-21
"Fathers, do not provoke your children, or they may lose heart." Colossians 3:21
The fourth commandment is a one-way street for children: "Honor your father and your mother"
(Exodus 20:12). No word there for parents. Not so the New Testament. Here parents get a
mandate too--on how to use their authority.
To be sure, parents are bigger than their kids--for a while, at least. But that's not what gives
them their authority. Biblically viewed, all authority is an assignment from God for a specific
purpose: to help some other specific person(s). God authorizes parents be God's sort of
father/mother to these specific children so that they do not "lose heart."
Authority is not tyranny. It's the requisite "clout"to carry out a task. Jesus even jolts his
disciples with his words in Matthew 20. Authority, he says, does not put us over, but under
others, to support, nurture, care for them. To do that you've got to be under those over whom
you have authority!
Parental authority is God's authorization to shape the next generation to be God's kind of grownups.
"Bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord" was how yesterday's reading
put it. The fallen world equates authority with privilege. No wonder there's a crisis of authority.
But authority as authorized service, as God's tender loving care, is God's calling for parents, and
our calling as well in any authority role we have.
Prayer: Your own exercise of authority, Jesus, brought you to the cross. And there you execute
that authority in coming all the way down to suffer our death, suffering it out of existence.
Inform our authority roles with that same lordly lowliness to be unto others as you have been to
us. Amen.

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The Thorn of Childhood: The Child’s Side

Reading: Ephesians 6:1-4

"Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right." Ephesians 6:1
The first people we all relate to are our parents. Even if we are orphaned at an early age, or,
worse still, abandoned, parents (or their substitutes) shape us at the deepest level as we grow into
becoming human. No wonder the Bible gives them near-divine status. Not because they're
perfect, but because they do the work whereby God creates us to be who we finally are.
The Biblical word for faithful response to parents is "Obey." That word's not fashionable
nowadays. It signals the servile, the oppressive. Not so the Bible's perspective. Obedience is
"right", says our text. The root meaning of obedience signals the rightness. It's "ob-audience,"
with the root word "audio," listening, in it. Ob-audience is "listening in the right direction."
The "right" way to obey parents is to affirm their role as God's agents for creating and nurturing
us. That's faithfulness in this primary relationship. But, of course, this relationship has its
thorns. Ask any parent; ask any child.
Not until parent-child connections are "in the Lord" are they finally really "right." For his own
mother, here paradoxically "orphaned" by her son's death, Jesus cares. For us in our fractured
parent-child roles with thorns that pierce and scratch, the same is true: he cares. Faith in him
grounds fathfulness in all our relationships with significant others.
Prayer: Lord, increase our faith that we may be "right" in what we hear and "right" in how we
listen to the primary persons you've placed around us to carry out your work on us. Open our
eyes to behold our parents as Jesus does his mother in his last words to her. Amen

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Testing. Testing. One, Two, Three. Testing.

Reading: Deuteronomy 8:1-3

“Remember [O, Israel,] the long way that the LORD your God has led you these forty years in
the wilderness, in order to humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart.”
Deuteronomy 8:2.
This Sunday’s forty days have God (not the Tempter) doing the testing. What’s God testing for?
To know what’s in his people’s heart, the text says. But doesn’t God already know that apart
from giving us an exam? The answer, of course, is yes. So why the testing? Answer: for the
same reason that schoolteachers give tests: so that students will know the truth about themselves.
God tests Israel for forty years so that (finally!) God’s people will know what’s in their own
hearts, and that it is at best a mixed bag. Learning that is indeed humbling. But not to know is
even worse. Human hearts are unknown territory, not to God, but to humans themselves. We
need God’s X-rays to show us our own pictures. To be humbled thus is not to be put down, but
to be confronted with the truth, typically unknown, so that we might be healed. Such tests,
however, are only half of God’s testing program.
Another kind of testing God does in the Scriptures is called “testing our faith.” Here too
the test is not for God’s benefit, for God to see how strong or weak our faith is. God knows that
without tests. The beneficiary of faith-testing is the one being tested. God tests our faith so that
we can see what faith can do when we trust God’s promise. God’s faith-tests increase our faith.
As Christ’s disciples we benefit when we “take the tests” God gives us. That’s true of
both kinds: the ones that expose the defects in our own hearts and the ones that show God’s
power and call us to trust it. During Israel’s forty years these two were most often one and the
same exam. For Lenten disciples the same is true.
Lord, increase our faith. Encourage us to take the tests you place before us. Dislodge the
prideful ego that occupies our hearts. Replace it with your words of forgiveness and mercy.
Nudge us to shift our allegiances from our agendas to yours, from our self-made achievements to
the good news you offer. Let Lent’s forty days be “time enough” to get the job done in us--
again. Amen.

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Remembering How God Remembers Us

Reading: Psalm 25:1-7

According to your steadfast love remember me, for your goodness' sake, O Lord! Psalm 25:7
In the old church calendar the second Sunday of Lent had a Latin name, Reminiscere. On that
Sunday the liturgy called on God to reminisce, that is, to remember his people the way the
psalmist prays. It's not that God might forget his mercy and loving-kindness toward us. Isn't the
trouble rather our own amnesia, our forgetting how God remembers us?
We so easily get the wrong "mindset," as St. Paul likes to call it, not just when we think about
others, but when we think about ourselves. It regularly slips our mind just how God keeps us in
mind.
For one thing, God remembers that we are marked with the cross of Holy Baptism -- even when
we forget. God is mindful that his own Son Jesus now calls us his own brothers and sisters --
even when we forget. God remembers Jesus going around that full circle of thorns--for us.
It is not God's memory, but our own, that needs regular prompting. "Keep in mind," the canticle
sings, "that Jesus Christ has died for us." Artist Siegfried does it visually in his second word.
How does he see God remembering us? With angelic mercy, an open hand, an open door to
God's own paradise.

Prayer: Remember us, LORD, the way Jesus remembers us. When the hustle and bustle of daily
life feed our amnesia, remember us as Jesus remembers us--together with him, in his kingdom.
Amen.

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Saving Yourself

Reading: Luke 23:35-38

"If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!" Luke 23:37
From the days of Israel's first great monarch, King David, the rule for the ruler -- God's rule for
the ruler -- was not to save yourself. The assignment was just the opposite. Remember how
David got into royalty?
He was last in line in Jesse's big family. When none of his big brothers passed the test, the
prophet asked if there were any more boys. "Oh, yes, there's the youngster out with the sheep.
But he's no palace material." Well, it turned out he was. His fieldwork had prepared him to be
King of Jews.
Here's how. When the wolf, the lion, the rustler zero in on the flock, it's the shepherd's job to see
to it that the sheep stay alive, even if it should mean that he does not. Jesus' own words in John's
gospel have always been the job description: "The good shepherd lays down his life for the
sheep." David was never quite that good. But Jesus is.
Since he really is the last in David's line, the words "save yourself" are a temptation. He must
say No. The truth is that because he is this King of the Jews, he cannot save himself. Saving us
is his calling. He cannot save himself and still be King of the Jews.
Pilate doubtless wrote "King of the Jews" and put it over him for ridicule. But he wrote the
truth. He saves others, that's why he cannot save himself.
Prayer: Thank you, Jesus, for saving us by sacrificing yourself. Put your shepherding spirit into
us to be your sub-shepherds with those who surround us in daily life. Nourish us by your self giving
to lose ourselves for the welfare of others. Amen.

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The Thorn of Justice

Reading: Romans 6:20-23
"And we indeed have been condemned justly; for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds."
Luke 23:41.
"The young demand justice. The old will settle for mercy." Someone coined that saying in the
sixties. Of course, everyone wants justice, wants a fair shake. But there are premises in that
demand-- that the demanders are innocent, are being gypped out of their due reward, a reward
that's good.

The old will settle for mercy. The more experience we have, the more we know how flimsy
those premises are. No one of us is all that innocent.
In Arthur Miller's play "After the Fall," we see a group of characters typical of our society. All
are demanding justice in their own lives. Yet no one is innocent. They all live "after the fall,"
the fall into sin. In the difficulties they face they are getting what they deserve. But it is not very
pleasant.
The believing criminal in our text does not demand justice. Instead he acknowledges that it is
already happening to him. But then he has the chutzpah to ask for mercy from the Man in the
Middle. Apparently he knows something, trusts something, that the other criminal doesn't. He
clearly trusts that mercy is happening on the middle cross. So he goes for it. "Jesus, remember
me--dirty hands and all." He'll settle for that. So can we.
Prayer: Strengthen our hold on your mercy, O Lord, to take our due rewards in faith. When
justice awards us good things, ignite our thankful response. When its rewards bring pain,
empower us to take them too in faith. Banish our pretended innocence. Keep us settling for
mercy--with you and with each other. Amen.

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Two Equal Sinners -- But Different as Day and Night

Reading: Luke 12:4-5.
One of the criminals...kept deriding him...but the other rebuked him, saying: "Do you not fear
God?" Luke 23:39-40.
Two equally guilty criminals, but different as day and night. What's the difference? The
believing criminal says it's "fearing God." One does, one doesn't. But what does that mean?
The un-fearing thief thinks his big problem is with the authorities who caught him and the justice
system now executing him. All he really needs is to get off that cross. Perhaps he doubts that
there is a God at all, or that God knows he's innocent. Either way: with God there's nothing to
fear. No problem.
"Not so," cries the believing thief. The "big" courtroom where nobody ever stands 100%
innocent is God's courtroom. To "fear God" is to fess up to the truth of our own lives. We do not
fear, love and trust in God above all things.
Yet fearing God is not the last word. The believing thief follows his fear word with a plea for
mercy to the innocent one on the middle cross. To this guilty God-fearer, now a Christ-truster,
Jesus offers acceptance. Remarkable!
When we are linked to the Man in the Middle, our case in God's court is already decided. Not
that we're declared innocent. No, we're guilty as charged, and nevertheless forgiven. How so?
Jesus enters our case, stands in for us before The Judge. He takes our sentence too, our place on
the cross. In Christ our court date with God -- that's judgment day -- is already behind us. Call it
Paradise. Today already! Incredible? No. It's worth believing. He said so.
Prayer: Renew our hearts, God, to redeem our fears. Nothing in the world is worth fearing, you
say, but You alone. Then in your Son you surprise us with his cheering words "Fear not." Let
faith in this surprise replace our fear of anything--even you. Amen.

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" What is Ash Wednesday ? "

Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent. Its official name is “Day of Ashes,” so called because of the practice of rubbing ashes on one’s forehead in the sign of a cross. Since it is exactly 40 days (excluding Sundays) before Easter Sunday, it will always fall on a Wednesday—there cannot be an “Ash Thursday” or “Ash Monday.” The Bible never mentions Ash Wednesday—for that matter, it never mentions Lent.

Lent is intended to be a time of self-denial, moderation, fasting, and the forsaking of sinful activities and habits. Ash Wednesday commences this period of spiritual discipline. Ash Wednesday and Lent are observed by most Catholics and some Protestant denominations. The Eastern Orthodox Church does not observe Ash Wednesday; instead, they start Lent on “Clean Monday.”

While the Bible does not mention Ash Wednesday, it does record accounts of people in the Old Testament using dust and ashes as symbols of repentance and/or mourning (2 Samuel 13:19; Esther 4:1; Job 2:8; Daniel 9:3). The modern tradition of rubbing a cross on a person’s forehead supposedly identifies that person with Jesus Christ.

Should a Christian observe Ash Wednesday? Since the Bible nowhere explicitly commands or condemns such a practice, Christians are at liberty to prayerfully decide whether or not to observe Ash Wednesday.

If a Christian decides to observe Ash Wednesday and/or Lent, it is important to have a biblical perspective. Jesus warned us against making a show of our fasting: “When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen” (Matthew 6:16-18). We must not allow spiritual discipline to become spiritual pride.

It is a good thing to repent of sinful activities, but that’s something Christians should do every day, not just during Lent. It’s a good thing to clearly identify oneself as a Christian, but, again, this should be an everyday identification. And it is good to remember that no ritual can make one’s heart right with God.

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Eden Lost & Recreated

~ The Bible Begins and Ends with a Garden of Paradise ~

 

 

Eden  ~  The word “Eden” has a root meaning of “garden” and contains the thought of “delight” (which is the plural of the word). With this in mind it is easy to see how the concept of Eden is that of a “garden of delight” or simply “paradise.” Eden is clearly a symbol of beauty, fruitfulness and God’s blessing (see Isaiah 51:3).

In a very real way the Bible as a whole is the story of Eden lost and Eden regained. This becomes clear by examining the first two chapters (Genesis 1-2) and the last two chapters (Revelation 21-22) of the Bible. These last two chapters picture a “river of the water of life” and “the tree of life”—once again picturing paradise.

The Beginning  ~  “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’ So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’ And God said, ‘See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food. Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food;’ and it was so. Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day” (1:26-31).

“This is the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, before any plant of the field was in the earth and before any herb of the field had grown. For the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to till the ground; but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground. And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being” (2:4-7). “Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it” (2:15).

The Conclusion  ~  “Now I [John] saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea” (Revelation 21:1). “And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away. Then He who sat on the throne said, ‘Behold, I make all things new.’ And He said to me, ‘Write, for these words are true and faithful’” (21:4-5). But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb's Book of Life”(21:27).

“And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him” (22:1-3). “Then he said to me, ‘These words are faithful and true.’ And the Lord God of the holy prophets sent His angel to show His servants the things which must shortly take place” (22:6). Jesus Christ said, “And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last” (22:12-13). “Happy are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city” (22:14). “And the Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’ And let him who hears say, ‘Come!’ And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely” (22:17). “He who testifies [Jesus Christ] to these things says, ‘Surely I am coming quickly.’ Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus! The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen” (Revelation 22:20-21—the last two verses of the Bible).

the key question:  Will you be in the future Eden?  Are you sure?  If not, you can be! 

 

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