Morning Prayer, Based on Matthew 6, The Lord's Prayer

Our father, dear father, You who are in heaven, hallowed, blessed, be your name.

May your kingdom come to earth, may your kingdom be among us, may your kingdom live in my heart.

May your will be done in all things. I trust you. I accept your will. I know you will see me through all circumstances. May your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day those things we need ... food, shelter, peace of mind, forgiveness, love of you, love of our neighbor, love of mankind.

Forgive us our debts and trespasses, our unworthiness, our bigotedness, and help us forgive others in the same way. Just as you love us, teach us to love one another.

Protect us when we are tempted. Give us the strength to say "no."  Help us keep our eyes on you.

Deliver us from evil. Protect us from those influences.

I love you, I trust you, with my imperfect human attention span. Keep me in your care.

Amen.
(Based on Matthew 6:9-13)

Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man …

The gospel lesson for our second midweek Lenten service was Luke 5:12-16. Verses 12-13 (NIV) follow:

¹²While Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came along who was covered with leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground and begged him, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”

¹³Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,”  he said. “Be clean!” And immediately, the leprosy left him.

As I was browsing this reading before service last night, verse 13 came to me with an image of Jesus reaching out to us during our final moments in this life. He says, “I am willing. Be clean!” And then we are – we are clean, we are with Him, we are whole and without pain.

I don’t know why that image was so powerfully clear to me – it’s certainly not the traditional interpretation of this story, but at the same time I saw this image, I thought of a friend who is battling an advanced stage of breast cancer and of another friend who is battling an advanced stage of lung cancer. Perhaps I also saw myself in that image, with Jesus’ hand stretched out to me as he said, “Be clean.” Maybe that was because I have been suffering my own health problems, with intense pain, since mid January, and the idea of Jesus reaching out to soothe me was appealing and comforting. And I know, at my age, that one of my ailments will lead to my last ailment, whatever that is to be.

The traditional interpretation (and, indeed, the literal interpretation) has been comforting to generations of people. Jesus can make you well, we remind each other. Just ask Him.

Being made well as we remain in this life is always appealing. It’s what we want, what we pray for. But as I age, this new image of Jesus making me well as I leave this life and enter the promised eternal life is also comforting to me.

Don’t misunderstand. I love living. I love daily life, the mental and physical explorations, the friendships, the energy, the love – I love so much about life. I wish this life could go on forever. That’s a normal wish. It’s like saying I want this moment to last forever. But as a follower of Christ Jesus, I have comfort 24/7, no matter my situation. 24/7, no matter the season, no matter my pain, no matter my circumstances, Jesus reaches out to me. “I am willing,” He says. “Be clean.” He tells me to be whole, to be well, to be happy, to be comforted. No wonder I love this life so much. Jesus makes me whole no matter where I am.

Romans in Six Weeks - Some Highlights

We're almost through with our study of Romans. Our study ended up being six weeks instead of the eight I originally thought it would be. Imagine Romans in eight weeks - daunting! But in six? But the thing is, we wanted to finish before Ash Wednesday (at least that was one of my original goals), and because of travel conflicts, we couldn't start until January 17 - and complicate that with the fact that I didn't do the math right. I think I would have let my goal of done by Ash Wednesday be forgotten, but others had commitments after that time ... life is like that, isn't it? So six weeks it was and is. God is our God in real time, not in a neatly planned time line of our devising. We meet to study, God is there. We have something else going on in our lives, God is there. We sleep, God is there. We're awake, God is there. God is there. God is here. Period.

From the resources I initially collected (http://suestudies.blogspot.com/2011/09/romans-resources-for-this-study.html), we've used these:

• The study guide by Charles Gieschen from the God's Abiding Word series published by CPH.org (Every participant received this guide for background self-study, if they desired.)
• The two books by Douglas J. Moo (These books are in my library and I didn't ask that anyone else purchase them. They were great resources for me!)
• The 1984 version of the NIV (This is the Bible we have on our shelves at church. We used it so that everyone would be reading from the same text, even though we encouraged everyone to also refer to the text of their own favorite version.)
• http://www.biblegateway.com/ (I used this wonderful site when I wanted to copy limited snippets of text into our weekly guides so we could compare a verse from different versions or to pull up a few verses from the Old Testament or to summarize some history necessary to understand Paul's references. The publishers on BibleGateway.com allow limited uses of their copyrighted text, and they provide the verbiage you need to show that you have permission to use it. I can't say enough about BibleGateway.com. I also use it to study multiple sections of the Bible when I'm dealing with multiple cross-references or when a question about one section pops into my mind. Endless wonderful applications on that site!)
• And, as always, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page. I am so grateful for the people who gather together all their best and post their research onto wikipedia, and for leaving a trail of their arguments under the Talk tab. You give me much information, many points of view, and links to follow through. Thank you!

I've never lead a study where I wasn't both leader and participant. The truth of the matter is, the Word teaches us all. I learn through my preparation time, but I learn also during the time I meet with others. This next week, the 5th of our 6 weeks, we're going to take a little review time to name some of the outstanding points we've learned during our time together. I'm going to start the list with three things I've learned and don't want to forget.

• When we were studying Romans 1:21-23, Gieschen says: "The human response to the Creator is not neutral." To me, this translates into this: "Everyone has a reaction to God. Even atheists are reacting to God." As we were exploring reasons why one seems to reject God, even though that person leads a good life and more or less believes there is "a God," one of our participants says she believes her husband feels vulnerable when he thinks about "becoming a Christian." Vulnerable! I don't recall ever thinking about that. Reluctant, yes. Doubtful, yes. But vulnerable? For me, this was a great truth. I will forever remember this. I know it will color the way I look at nonbelievers. Jesus knows they feel vulnerable. He will be gentle with them, I'm sure. I will be more gentle in my love for my nonbelieving friends, too. (Week 2)
• The same participant who gave us the word "vulnerable" works with the preschool at our church. When we were studying the concept of Original Sin (that's what we Lutherans call it) in Romans 5:12-14, she related a discussion with our pastor about how those beautiful, sweet little children in our preschool could be tainted with original sin. He told her it's because life is all about me at that age.
  
  And isn't that it? Isn't that the definition of the sin inherit in every human being, whether we call it original sin or the characteristic of natural man or our sinful nature or all about me or whatever?
  
  And it's not just true for our preschoolers, either. It's probably the same thing Paul is talking about when he says "For what I do is not the good I want to do..." in Romans 7:19. All about me is the state of our fleshly bodies, of the bodies we live in, all of our lives. Our consolation is that God through Jesus Christ has rescued us from this state and it is no longer our master. We are not slaves to all about me. The phrase all about me will stay with me. (Week 4)
• We talk a lot about God. A lot of people talk a lot about God -- or is that god? During Week 3 we talked about an article by Steve Chapman, a writer for the Chicago Tribune. I found this article in The Week, a magazine which is always on our kitchen table. http://theweek.com/article/index/223252/the-truth-about-lsquosecularrsquo-america Our point wasn't about whether Chapman's assessment was right (secular America has less crime, teen pregnancies, divorces, etc, than Christian America) but why he might think that's true (perhaps what Chapman thinks Christian America calls sin is hidden in secular America because of birth control, cohabiting without the benefit of formal marriage, etc).
  
  We talked about what Christianity really IS. Being a Christian means that you believe what God has done through Jesus Christ. Christianity is believing and trusting in "this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes -- the Jew first and also the Gentile..." (Romans 1:16 - NIV 84). But so often, we equate Christianity with "believing in God," and that's what we'll say: "Do you believe in God? Yes? Then you must be a Christian."
  
  In our thoughts, Chapman was comparing the wrong things. He was actually comparing the economically disadvantaged to the economically advantaged. It's obvious that Chapman's "truths" fell apart in our hands.
  
  And then somewhere in our God-talk discussion, our arguments fell apart a little bit, too. One of our participants asked, "But what about Jesus?" That was a moment of truth for me. How do we define God? Do we need to be clearer when we speak that we're talking about the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (the Trinity, in Lutheran theology and in the theology of many other protestant and catholic denominations and churches)? Do we need to be clearer about defining what Christianity is? And have we forgotten that we, as believers in and recipients of Christ's magnificent work, are part of secular America?
  
  For each of us, our discussion may lead to different paths, but hopefully it will help all of us to be ever mindful of who this God is we worship. Hopefully, Christ is at the forefront of our faith. Hopefully, in our efforts to "do good," we will not forget What About Jesus. (Week 3)

1 Thessalonians

In our small group study last Sunday, we were to study 1 Thessalonians. There are two readings from 1 Thessalonians in our lectionary this month, so it looked like a good place for us to go. 


Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your point of view), our entire group was invited to a "new backyard" party hosted by another member of our congregation, a member who doesn't join us for our little Bible study. The invitation was "Bring your whole group. We'll incorporate your study into our party." So, for various and sundry reasons, we did.


At the appointed time, we were invited into the house to begin our study (actually, we were invited to sit around the new backyard fire pit, in the dark, on a hard brick wall, in the chilly night air - but hey, we're old people - we're old, we're cold, we hurt, we can't see, we can't hear, so we asked to have a place inside the house), and we found ourselves alone in a room while a few lingering party-goers, including the host and hostess remained outside. We sat in our dimly lighted room hoping others would join us, including one of our church elders, but it didn't happen. We tried to do our study, but we all felt so awkward that we soon disbanded. 


Well, it was worth a try. Even though the study was very awkward for us, maybe God used it in some way we can't know about. We'll leave it at that. Our ways and His don't always jibe. In the end, God wins, and that's all that counts. We "win," too, even when we don't know it.


This, however, was the jist of our study. Paul and Silas, and probably Timothy, too, were on what is known as Paul's Second Missionary Journey, and having been chased out (more or less) of Philippi, they came to Thessalonica where Paul taught for perhaps 3 weeks. Some experts think more, but it doesn't seem it could be much more. As usual Paul starts out in the synagogue, and some synagogue Jews and a "large group of God-fearing Greeks and quite a few prominent women" heard what Paul said and believed him. (Paul and his companions were quickly banished from Thessalonica, too, when some of the synagogue members, becoming jealous, challenged what Paul said.)


Oh, there's so much to think about as a result of this short account of history and this small epistle. Here are some of the things we "thought" about (and would have thought about more had we not felt so "out of place" at the party):

• "God fearing." This is a phrase we read several times in the Bible. What does it mean? In the New Testament, it means these people were Gentiles (not Jews). In our lives, we could take it to mean "not Christians" or "not Christians like us." So, who are these God-fearing people in our lives?

• We had some Jews (these were the synagogue members) who didn't like Paul's message and who effectively booted him out of town. The interesting thing is that apparently there weren't enough of them to make a good protest. They went to the marketplace and found "some worthless men" to join the protest. When we see protests today, how many really believe in the protest? How many are protesting just because it's a protest? How many are the "worthless men" (or women) of the marketplace. (Now, I wouldn't call them "worthless," but this is the adjective used in the historical record, so I use the term only as a parallel.)

• Does the good news of Jesus Christ still stir people up? Think about it.

• Think about why you believe someone and why you don't believe someone else. One of our group answered, "I tend to believe those who are consistent in their message." Good point. Paul was surely consistent. Persistent, too!! (I actually think there's something else at work here, especially when the gospel is preached. More about that later.****)

• Paul knew (face-to-face) these people of Thessalonica for only a short while. Yet, when he's chased from town, he can't forget them. What's this all about, huh? He's so obsessed with their well-being that he has Timothy go back and check on them, to make sure they're doing ok and haven't forgotten what they learned. Then, within a year, more or less, he writes this passionate letter to them. The people of Thessalonica aren't the only people Paul's been ministering to all this time. But he just can't forget them.

• So what does Timothy find out when he makes the requested trip back to Thessalonica? Those people are doing so well that everyone in neighboring towns, cities, and countries know about their new faith, the faith in Jesus. So, what does this tell us? Paul's short visit + the Word of the Gospel + an encounter with the living God, through Jesus = ________.

And on we go. There's much to think about in this epistle. The upshot of it for me is:

• We have a man on fire for Jesus - Paul. He is infused with the lovingness of our great God. He has but one mission for the rest of his life - Go love the world for Jesus! In the epistle to the Philippians, written while Paul is a house prisoner in Rome, Paul writes: "As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ." Phil 1:13
I don't think he means he's literally in chains. Or even if he does, that's not the whole meaning. I think he means "My life belongs to Christ, and everyone here knows it. I exist for the Gospel!"

•  ****When the Word is spoken, some hear it, and it has its own power. When I say "hear," I don't mean just hear a sound - they hear this Word throughout their bodies, their minds, their lives. The Word takes root. I can't explain it, nor can I fully understand it. The Word took root in Thessalonica. They heard. They lived. They told.

Paul ends his letter with a list of things for the Thessalonians to do with and in their lives. He gives "instructions" for living the faith. He never preaches "salvation through works," but, like James, Paul knows that the faith that saves you changes you - not just for a future life, for eternity, but for now. It changes the way you live. It changes the way you love. It changes the way you are. This is a God thing, not a mankind thing.

Romans - Resources for this study

I'll use a variety of resources for this study.

• Our primary resource, which will serve as our outline and guide, is a study in the God's Abiding Word series, published by Concordia Publishing House, authored by Charles A. Gieshchen. It's categorized as an "expert" study, although I think it's "expert" at the casual lay level. Because it's Lutheran, I can have confidence that I'll not stray too far from sola fide. Unfortunately, it would be too easy to do that when it's humanly dificult to separate works and faith in our daily lives. Our minds get tangled with those concepts. Gieshchen's study is 16 chapters long. We want to take 8 weeks for this study, so we will be combining some things and adapting other areas to develop the study for our purposes. This resource is the only resource we will use in class. I will use other resources to develop discussion points and other information.
• Paul for Everyone Romans Part One and Part Two, Tom Wright, published by Westminster John Knox Press. Tom Wright is N. T. Wright, and I enjoy thinking about how he thinks once I get past his wordiness. This is a resource I will use, not a resource the group will use.
• N. T. Wright Romans, one of the Bible studies in the For Everyone Bible Study Guides. Again, a resource for me, not for the group.
• Encountering the Book of Romans by Douglas J. Moo, published by Baker Academic. Moo writes from a Reformed / Lutheran point of view.
• The NIV Application Commentary - Romans, by Douglas J. Moo, published by Zondervan. This probably repeats much of Encountering the Book of Romans, although it's presented in a different style and it's a book that resides on my Nook, not on paper.
• The 1984 version of the New International Version (NIV1984) Bible, the version in our pews, published by Zondervan.
• The New Living Translation (NLT) Bible, Life Application Study Bible version, published by Tyndale House. (A personal favorite.)
• The New American Standard Bible (NASB), published by The Lockman Foundation. (My other personal favorite.)
• I almost forgot this one, even though it's a nearly daily event for me: a study on Romans by Robert Cara of Reformed Theology Seminary (RTS), via iTunes University. Although I feel Cara is sometimes flippant about certain topics, and I mentally have taken issue with him about his comments to a female student (perhaps the only female student) in this class, he knows his stuff from a "teaching Reformed theology" point of view. Reformed theology re sole fide  is nearly the same if not exactly the same as Luther's theology.
• Internet searches, with a majority of those searches begun at Wikipedia. It's amazing the number of good articles and links to other sites I can find on Wikipedia.
• One more resource of high importance for this study is http://bible.org/, the home of the NET Bible.****

***The NET Bible translation philosophy seems to be similar to the New Living Translation, a modern combination of formal equivalence and functional equivalence. It's very readable, and it comes with many, many translaters notes.

To best understand the translation philosophy of the NET bible, see this page: http://bible.org/article/preface-net-bible-first-edition The best thing about the NET Bible for me is that it's a very credible modern translation that allows me to distribute more than 500 verses, including even a whole chapter or book of the Bible, without copyright violations!!! This avoids my using a small portion of a translation for illustrations, and then having our group read the balance from their various and sundry translations while the rest of us try to translate from the other's translation into ours, perhaps entirely missing the point of the study. Thank you, NET Bible!

A study of Romans

For the past 6 months or so, I've been moderating a monthly Bible study at the home of some friends. We've been meeting for several years, but up until just before Lent this year, someone else usually set the agenda. Our studies began as movies enacting various gospels, and then we moved into a comercially available study on Genesis. I think people ran out of ideas, and the group asked me if I would prepare something.

Me, moderate a Bible study - you betcha! There's nothing I enjoy as much! It had been a few years since I'd had an opportunity to do so.

So for the past 6 months, we've taken a section of the Sunday readings for the month and I prepared a study based on those readings. The study consists of the text of the readings and then some questions to get us off into a discussion. With the discussion questions, the group leads itself. It's worked really well.

Another pair of friends recently asked me if I would be interested in leading a women's evening Bible study. It didn't take much thought on my part to agree. We decided that the study should be 8 weeks, long enough to get into something meaningful and short enough that we would know quickly if our idea was going to work.

Romans came to mind for me. It's such a beloved epistle. I have always especially liked the parts that tell you how to live amongst others, how to treat one another, and what our responsibility is to each other.

And the best part is that Paul starts out very early in this letter saying something like "I want to encourage you," AND "I want to be encouraged by you." To my mind, that's what a thoughtful study of God's word should do - encourage everyone there.

The study won't start until January, but I'm already heavy at work on it. Although the parts of Romans that I love speaks plainly, there's a whole lot else that deserves more than a simple "what do you think this means" and a "let's try to treat one another better" approach.

Romans isn't an easy epistle. It covers the entire gospel, and it's theologically heavy.

However, I want to stay away from the controversies (and they are numerous). The very heart of evangelical and reformed beliefs arises from Paul's theology in Romans, and entire protestant denominations are divided over their interpretations of Paul's words. So many of the controversies seem akin to the quest to learn how many angels can sit on the head of a pin. That's so nonproductive for a thoughtful study.

It's my thought that many Christians aren't sure what their church's stance is concerning many of the controversial points currently being discussed - and furthermore, they probably don't care. If they were encouraged to care, I believe the controversies would be more destructive to their faith than instructive or productive. I do want to carefully explain concepts like "imputed" and "imparted" because I think the distinction is important in our understanding of our relationship to Christ. But whether or not Jews depended on grace or works in the second temple era makes little difference in the way we live our day to day lives and relate to God.

(Although I have read many articles and books over the years, I am put off quickly when I see one man's writings (yes, these writings are usually authored by men) so heavily laced with why another man is wrong that you can't figure out what either man's beliefs really are. Sometimes I think it's just a big game for them. As much as I have enjoyed reading some N. T. Wright, I am downright irritated when I read, in some of his works, the reasons others are wrong. Come on, Tom, just tell me what you think. Don't tell me what you DON'T think!)

In this study, I want the Word itself to teach us. As a leader and moderator, I need to study the nuiances so I don't let us get off track in our discussions. I want to inform my own understanding. As much as I love leading a Bible study, it's not a frivolous undertaking. People tend to believe some of what you say. They look to you. And I don't want to lead anyone astray because of my careless approach to a very serious business.

The prodigal and the obedient sons

The shades of learning from the story of the prodigal son are probably never ending as each reader questions the meaning of this story (Luke 15:11-32), applies certain portions to his or her own life - or even to the lives of others, but one thing is certain: a son who, for all practical purposes, should have been second best in any version of the story, has returned home and has received more attention and outward love and welcome than he deserved. One would think that the rule-follower, the obedient child, the loyal child who stayed behind and did and became all that a parent could hope, would always be celebrated as the pride and joy of the family.

This morning I was reading N. T. Wright's The Challenge of Jesus, pages 41 and 42, and these were my thoughts:

There was Jesus, standing in the flesh, emitting the love of God all over the place. It was obvious to some that Jesus was Truth in a way that they had never seen or heard Truth. He drew people to himself, people who had fallen away from the old ways, people who had become outcasts in the special family who called themselves God's chosen people.

And here is this person, the prodigal, the wayward person, the person who had first outcast himself for some reason, and who had then become the outcast of his family, and he heard the Truth, and it touched his very soul. He is so drawn to the Truth that he couldn't help himself. He says, "Here I am. I will follow you no matter what. I hear your voice, I recognize it as the greatest home I could ever want, and I want to be near you always."

And the Truth says back to him: "Come to me. I welcome you back. I have missed you. Every richness I have is yours just for being here. Come and let me embrace you."

And the faithful other son, who thinks he had it figured out all the time because he knew the rules and followed them, says: "But what about me? I'm the one who was here all the time, who never left you, who did everything you said and followed all the rules you taught me."

And the Truth says something back to him, something like this: "Yes, but you didn't follow me. You blindly put your eyes on the rules and you quit looking at me. Don't you see? The rules are how I want you to live, but I never intended for you to substitute the rules for your devotion to me. I never intended to send you off and tell you to be on your own, taking my rule book with you as your God. This wasn't some test of your initiative. The rules give you guidance, that's true. But you don't know when and how to apply them. You need me to tell you how to use them, what they really mean. I love you. I want you to love me, and let me teach you, step by step, day by day, hour by hour, moment by moment, how to use the guidance I gave you, how to use it to love others and how to love me."

The rules are good. There's no question about that. But the Rule Giver? He's supreme. Only he knows the real truth, the truth about how to use those rules for the benefit of everyone, how to be the light, the salt, how to live. The rules will never go away and they're right, but I need the Truth to tell me how to use them, how to live them.

I want to be the prodigal. I want to know every day how much I need God. I want to long for Him, to respond to Him, to run to Him when I hear his voice and his Truth.

Let it be so, Lord. Let it be so.