Tag Archives: Mark

Jesus is the Suffering Servant

Unknown's avatar Rev. David J. Schreffler 4:44 am on September 1, 2015
Tags: Mark,   

Use Your Salt — Rev. David J. Schreffler

 

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September 1, 2015

“For everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is good; but if salt has lost its saltiness, how can you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.” Mark 9:49-50

“In giving admonition we must distinguish between: men and women; the young and the old; the poor and the rich; the joyful and the sad; subjects and superior; slaves and masters; the wise of this world and the dull; the impudent and the timid; the insolent and the fainthearted; the impatient and the patient; the kindly and the envious; the sincere and the insincere; those who fear afflictions and, therefore, live innocently, and those so hardened in evil as to be impervious to the correction of affliction; the meek and the choleric; the humble and the haughty; those who do not even begin to do good and those who begin but do not finish; those who do evil secretly and good openly, and those who hide the good they do, yet allow themselves to be thought ill of because of some things they do in public...” Pastoral Care, Gregory the Great (540 – 604) “For All The Saints”, volume II (p. 451 – 452)

Which are you quickest to hide: the evil or the righteous, the bad or the good? Most would say they try to hide the bad they do, and allow the good to shine in the light of day. If you are someone who will do good only if you will receive either recognition or some kind of reimbursement, then maybe you need to take a step back and assess what you do and why you do it. Jesus says: “When you fast do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that your fasting may be seen not by others but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” (Matthew 6:16-18)

It is not often that we have people who do a lot of ministry and yet do not want any recognition for what they do. But every once in a while I encounter a person or a group who do just that. We have a group at my church who are individually and collectively involved in many ministries, yet they do not want others to know what it is they do. For the Lutheran church, this is a bit of an oddity. Often you look around the church, especially the Lutheran church, and you see plaques and signs recognizing a person or persons who donated this window, or gave that piano. But this group of willing workers do not want the recognition. They have “salt” in themselves and use that salt, not so that others notice, but so they can season the lives of others.

Pastor Dave

Unknown's avatar Rev. David J. Schreffler 4:44 am on August 30, 2015
Tags: Mark,   

The Dirty and the Clean — Rev. David J. Schreffler

 

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August 30, 2015
Sunday

“Then he called the crowd again and said to them, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.”
Mark 7:14-15

“When I preach at the prison where I volunteer as a chaplain I invariably run into “holiness people.” I know there is a bit of irony in that but it is true. In my normal life I spend most of my time with Christians you might call “all things in moderation” sort of people. But the holiness people aren’t like that – they watch me like a hawk when I preach. They come up to me after worship and point out verses that I didn’t quote perfectly, or tell me about edgy words that I used that might have “opened the door for the devil’s toe hold.” At first those folks kind of freaked me out. I came to dread in particular one guy who would catch me stumbling every time. He has a lot more time to study the Bible than I do and he would always yank out a verse or two to “correct” me. Mostly, he was right. But then I began to notice something. It was obvious that the holiness crowd sat in the front of the room while the guys who just showed up in chapel to “do business” sat in the back. But what I learned over time was that their separation wasn’t limited just to chapel – that separation continued throughout the week. The “clean” sat in the front. The “dirty” sat in the back. So one night I challenged those in the front to sit in the back the next week. They still haven’t taken me up on it…and I get far fewer Bible verses quoted to me after the sermon. And that, I think, is the key to these verses. They aren’t about moral purity (not that there is anything wrong with that) but about the corrosive effects on human community of separatist religiosity that reduces the world to insiders and outsiders, clean and unclean.

The bottom line is that Jesus didn’t just show up for the good people but for all people. And my personal sense is that he would have hung with the guys in the back of the room.” Daily Devotions Pastor Kerry Nelson (Thursday, August 27th Mark 7:14-15)

When people go to great lengths to “appear” holy — I can’t help but allow my suspicions to enter my brain. Why must someone go to such lengths to make me think they are “holy”? Often, not always, but often it is an attempt to hide their own “dirt”. By dirt here I mean their own sinfulness, because they have no idea how to resolve their sinfulness with their need to be holy. We have no need to put our “holiness” on a plate to hold out for all to see. Jesus is just as capable of loving us in spite of our “dirt” without our extensive attempts to cover that dirt. Instead, we should be getting dirtier working with those who have no more strength to hide their dirt because they have yet to understand what Grace is all about. You see, Grace is the “Heavenly Holy Hoover” — Grace is what sucks the dirt out of our lives and leaves us looking as clean as ever in the eyes of Jesus. This allows us to join Jesus in the back of the room sitting with the “sinners” and the “tax collectors” and learning from each other about the love of Jesus.

Pastor Dave