March 4, 2024 – Prayer

“He was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” So he said to them, “When you pray, say: Father, may your name be revered as holy. May your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial.” And he said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.’ And he answers from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.’ I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything out of friendship, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs. “So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. Is there anyone among you who, if your child asked for a fish, would give a snake instead of a fish? Or if the child asked for an egg, would give a scorpion? If you, then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” Luke 11:1-13

“Prayer renounces assessments of capability. Prayer embraces the reality of failure. Prayer tells you that you are not at the center. Prayer calls you to abandon your plans for the wiser plans of another. Prayer flows from a deep personal sense of need and runs toward God’s abundant grace. Here is the bottom line. We need to be met by God’s grace if, in true humility, we are ever going to be able to abandon our self-reliance and pray for grace. It is only by grace that we will ever acknowledge our need for grace and worship God for the grace he has so willingly lavished on us. Since prayer is fundamentally counterintuitive, we need grace to rescue us from our self-oriented religious meanderings so that, with humble hearts, we may acknowledge God as the Redeemer-King and cast ourselves on his gracious care.” (“New Morning Mercies”, March; Paul David Tripp)

We know that there are many different kinds of prayer: prayers of intercession or prayers for others; prayers of lament; prayers of praise; prayers for our own needs and concerns. I would say that knowing what kind of prayer you may need in a moment is not your concern – your concern is praying with the faith that you will be heard. After all, as Paul Tripp says above, prayer embraces the reality that we are not capable of handling everything in our lives on our own.

Prayer helps us remember that we are not alone in this world as we strive to live the Christ-like life. We do not always know the way, so our prayers for guidance keep us on the right path. We do not always know why things happen, so our prayers for clarity and assurance keep us strong in the spirit. And when we think we know it all, prayer reminds us that we are always dependent upon the one who knows us best, knows our sin, and still loves us nonetheless.

Pastor Dave

March 3, 2024 – Lent 3B

“The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. He told those who were selling the doves, “Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!” His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” The Jews then said to him, “What sign can you show us for doing this?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking of the temple of his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.” John 2:13-22

What is wisdom? How would you define wisdom? Is wisdom the sum total of all knowledge? Or, does age and experience influence wisdom? Is there something that wise people have which the average person does not have? Who are the people you consider wise? Maybe I should ask you to list the people you think are fools. Would that be easier? What have the wise of the world actually contributed over the span of the millennia? Here are some people I think we might agree were wise:

Solomon was wise – Joseph was wise – Benjamin Franklin was wise – Confucius was wise – Jesus was wise……and Moses, we must consider him one of the wisest.

Moses was wise enough to listen to G-d calling him from a burning bush to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. When they were on the precipice of their long journey, G-d had the wisdom to lay down some rules – rules for interacting with G-d – and rules for interacting with each other. So G-d gave them the Decalogue – the Ten Commandments – plus G-d gave them the oral laws – rules that extend those Ten Commandments to six-hundred and thirteen. And within those 613 commandments there are 248 Positive Commandments (things they can do) and 365 Negative Commandments (things they may not do). Now, let me ask you, did all of these rules and commandments suddenly make these Israelites the wisest of the wise? Of course not! Why? Because they were human – like you and me – and all of the wisdom of the world could not stop them and cannot stop us from doing stupid things – and making dumb mistakes. So, what is the wisest thing, phrase, teaching etc. that you have ever heard from a family member, friend or other?  I like this quote from Albert Einstein: “Not everything that counts can be counted and not everything that can be counted, counts”.

Or, how about this one: “No good deed goes unpunished”. That one is the story of my life. The wisest piece of advice I have heard has come from two retired pastors – they both advised me to “Live without fear”. Live without fear. It is, at once, a challenge as well as an admonition – as much as it is Gospel advice. Live without fear. The body of Jesus, the death on a cross, the resurrection: it is there where we see the wisdom of G-d. It is there where we see how G-d made foolish the wisdom of the world. G-d turns the cross (which is a death machine) into a life machine. As such we preach Christ Crucified. And those who do not believe, when they call us fools, well, we have a choice: We can fall victim to human wisdom, and teaching, allowing the debaters of this age to lead us around like lemmings and fools.

Or, we can believe the scriptures – and trust that the cross was the ultimate expression of the power of G-d – and the love of G-d. Just think about it: G-d kills G-d’s self so we might have the opportunity for New Life. Is that foolishness? Is that crazy? The foolishness of the cross is our bridge to the prodigal love of G-d – the Grace of G-d – the mercy and forgiveness of G-d. Of course the world sees it as foolishness. After all, who would kill themselves to save others? The sign of the cross, is the foolish love of the foolish G-d, whose foolish Son died on a foolish cross – thanks be to G-d that G-d’s foolishness is wiser and greater than all human wisdom.

Pastor Dave