Tag Archives: Jesus

G*d’s Son, the second person of the Holy Trinity, Messiah, Savior

Unknown's avatar Rev. David J. Schreffler 4:44 am on December 19, 2015
Tags: Jesus   

Focus — On Christ — Rev. David J. Schreffler

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December 19, 2015
Focus – On Christ

“So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.” Colossians 3:1 – 4

“Today we’re big on the concept of instant gratification and acquiring more stuff. But ‘earthly things’ lose their appeal once the bill arrives and the interest on your credit cards starts piling up. When that happens, blessings can turn into curses and rob you of the joy of living. One pastor says: ‘Materialism doesn’t satisfy because it’s tyrannical, and human beings were born to be free…We find we don’t own the house—the house owns us. We’re married to a mortgage. We become slaves to gadgets and garments. After they’re purchased, delivered and installed, we enjoy a fleeting sense of pleasure, but they still dominate, dictate and demand, ‘‘Press me, polish me, patch me, paint me, prune me, plaster me!’’ We spend our best years and the bulk of our money working for ‘‘things” until…we’ve no time left to pursue life’s really enjoyable vocations: visiting friends, having fun, and serving others in need…no time to do good deeds, see places, or visit the people who give us the greatest inner joy. Paul says, ‘‘Godliness with contentment is great gain’’ (1 Timothy 6:6). And to experience that contentment you need to count your blessings every day and thank the One who made them all possible.’ Jon Walker writes: ‘Assume there’s an imaginary line dividing what you can see from what you can’t see—the temporal from the eternal. Our objective in Jesus is to look upon the things ‘‘above”, so we can understand that what we see and feel is not a full and accurate measurement of God’s reality…people are eternal beings, and decisions that seem insignificant now, when seen in the fullness of reality, are of eternal significance.’” (Focus On What Is Above, Lutheran Church Charities Devotions, November 9, 2015)

“…visiting friends, having fun, and serving others in need…no time to do good deeds, see places, or visit the people who give us the greatest inner joy.” When we work too hard, and have to earn so much money to either pay for our bills, or pay for the things we think we desperately need, then the enjoyment of serving others, visiting people, and enjoying time with our families becomes an after-thought. But serving those in need, being present with people, visiting those who are lonely, and paying attention to our families should not be an after-thought – all should be our first thoughts each and every day.

Jamie Foxx and Ariana Grande just released a song called “Focus”. The refrain of the song goes something like this:

“Focus on me, F-F-Focus on Me”

On first blush, it sounds like this song is a microcosm of celebrity – that all celebrities want is for people to look at them, about how ego-centric they can be. Here is what Ariana says about the song:

“I’m not asking to be the center of attention. […] I literally mean “focus on me,” on what I’m all about and what I believe in. The more we focus on each other, as people and not on what we look like, not what we’re wearing, our gender, our hairstyle, our sexuality, the color of our skin, but focus on each other on a soul level. The more we realize how much we have in common, the more we listen to each other, the more one we become.”

Seems a bit deep for a pop singer, but she has a point. When we focus on Christ, we learn not to focus just on ourselves, but to focus on others, and focus on becoming one in Christ. Thank you, Ariana and Jamie…

Pastor Dave

Unknown's avatar Rev. David J. Schreffler 4:44 am on December 7, 2015
Tags: Anger, Jesus   

Love Has Anger? — Rev. David J. Schreffler

 

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December 7, 2015

“Then Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who were selling and buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer’; but you are making it a den of robbers.” The blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he cured them. But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the amazing things that he did, and heard the children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they became angry and said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?” Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read, ‘Out of the mouths of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise for yourself’?” He left them, went out of the city to Bethany, and spent the night there. In the morning, when he returned to the city, he was hungry. And seeing a fig tree by the side of the road, he went to it and found nothing at all on it but leaves. Then he said to it, “May no fruit ever come from you again!” And the fig tree withered at once.” Matthew 21:12 – 20

“Do you not suppose that love has anger? There is no such anger as that which a mother’s love furnishes. Do you suppose that when she sees the child that is both herself and him whom she loves better than herself, the child in whom her hope is bound up, the child that is God’s glass through which she sees immortality…doing a detestable meanness, that she is not angry and indignant, and that the child does not feel the smart of physical advice? You might as well say that a summer shower has no thunder as to say that love has no anger.” Henry Ward Beecher (1813 – 1887) Yale Lectures on Preaching, “For All The Saints” volume III (p. 16)

Why would Jesus be angry at a fig tree? It makes us wonder at the inclusion of this encounter. Jesus is angry at the money changers who are trying to turn the house of prayer into a den of robbers. The business of changing money, exchanging a coin that is not acceptable in the Temple, for a coin that is acceptable, was rife with corruption. When you have someone who desperately needs an item at your mercy, it is clear to see why the sin of corruption would permeate this business. Jesus is angry.

But Jesus has the opportunity to spend the night away from the business of the Temple and to calm down. But it seems to me he is not calm at all. Of course he is hungry, but is this the fault of the fig tree that it is not bearing any fruit? Here is some insight for all of us. The fig tree was a popular symbol for the nation of Israel. In his encounter with the Temple money changers, Jesus sees the barren fig tree as a microcosm of the whole nation of Israel –it had become barren from the business of G-d just as the fig tree was barren. When Jesus says “May no fruit come from you ever again”, is he cursing the nation of Israel, or simply stating their future if they do not turn back to the business of G-d?

Pastor Dave