Take a Stand- Lent 6

Death is a mirror that gives us a glimpse of who we really are.

            Death is a rearview mirror that puts the past into perspective.

            And if anyone who ever walked this earth lived with an up close understanding of death- it was Jesus.  He entered Jerusalem on the Palm Sunday long ago- with the mirror of death in mind.  Purposeful, poised, and prepared. To put your past into perspective through His death.

            The closer you and I come to death, the clearer and farther you can see.   Nothing recalibrates priorities faster than a cancer screening, a car accident, or a visit from a military chaplain.  Important things become all important.  And unimportant things are revealed for what they are- insignificant. 

Our story today about three teenage Hebrew boys may seem, at first, out of place on a Palm Sunday, but their all in commitment is one that I want us to examine as we consider Jesus’ entrance into the Holy City of Jerusalem.  This is a story of matching talk with walk.  Commitment and action meet at a place called integrity. 

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego knew that if they refused to bow down to the ninety-foot tall statue of King Nebuchadnezzar, they would be executed.  But these Jewish ex-pats feared God a lot more than they feared death.  They would rather die by the flame than dishonor God.  So they made a defining decision to stand up for what was right rather than bow down to what was wrong. 

If, these three Jewish teenagers had compromised their integrity by listening to a rationalization-they would have been delivered from the fiery furnace.  But their deliverance would have been by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, NOT by God’s intervention.  These God followers would have forfeited their testimony by failing the test.  While their lives would have been saved, they would have sacrificed their integrity. 

It was their integrity that triggered a miracle.  Their integrity that allowed God to show up and show off.  Their integrity that was their fire insurance and life insurance. 

Integrity comes from the root word integer.  It refers to a whole number versus a fraction.  In other words, integrity is all in.  It does not look for an easy way out. 

Is there anything you are bowing to?  Then, it’s time to take a stand.   

See you at the ‘all in’ place,

Pastor Michelle

              

Crash the Party- Lent 5

Jesus must have been bored silly, feigning interest, with small talk about Jewish law at the dinner party hosted by a Pharisee.  This party has ‘lame’ written all over it.

That is until the party was crashed.  By a woman.  And moreover this was a woman who had a reputation and background that was less than ideal.  No doubt she had broken more than one Jewish law and was less than holy.  Imagine the look on the Pharisee’s straight-laced faces when she rushes in and falls at Jesus’ feet!? 

Her act of worship, to anoint Jesus, is one of the most beautiful, expressive and generous statements of faith in the New Testament.  She lavished Jesus with her gratitude. I am sure she knew that the Pharisee men in the room usually stoned a woman like her, but that did not stop her from sharing her expensive gift with Jesus. 

Breaking that jar with semiprecious gemstones filled with a half liter of pure nard was this woman’s burning the ships moment!  The jar represented her past guilt and her future hope.  She anted up pouring our every last drop at the feet of Jesus.  She walked out of the dark shadows of this world and came to meet the Light of the World. 

There comes a moment when we need to come clean.  There comes a moment when we need to unveil the secret shame of our sin.  There comes a moment when we need to fall down on our knees on the gracious feet of Jesus!  This is that moment for this woman.  

Going all in means radical repentance.  Putting all your cards on the table.  We cannot trust God’s grace at 99% and put 1% on our own effort.  It is 100% or not at all.  We cannot receive partial credit for our salvation as much as we’d like to lie to ourselves than we can be part of the equation.  Paul’s letter to the Roman Christians reminds us that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.  All.  That includes me.  You.  Person next you.  Person behind you.  The person who goes to church regularly.  The person who has never been to church.  All have sinned.  All have access to the free gift of God’s grace in Jesus, accepted by faith. 

Full confession; not half-hearted confession is what you and I are invited to do.  A half-hearted confession always results in half-hearted love for Jesus.  To down play sin is to also down play grace.  And dishonors Jesus, Who is Sinless, and worthy of our love. 

One of the praise and worship songs that has been around for a while is Alabaster Jar.  Listen to these lyrics… “This alabaster jar is all I have of worth, I break it at Your feet, Lord, it's less than You, Deserve; You're far more beautiful, more precious than the oil; The sum of my desires and the fullness of my joy; Like You spilled Your blood, I spill my heart As an offering to my King.  Here I am, take me as an offering. Here I am, giving every heartbeat for Your glory.”

What if you and I sang this song with our lives and actions?  What would happen if you and I mustered the moral courage of this woman, walked into a room full of self-righteous Pharisees, and revealed our sin unashamedly while anointing Jesus as Lord and Savior? 

What would happen?  You know what would happen- a revival on Earth and a party in heaven! 

See you at the ‘all in’ place,

Pastor Michelle

Burn the Ships- Lent 4

There are moments in life when you and I need to burn the ships to the past.  We do that not by literally lighting a match, but by making a defining decision.  A defining decision that eliminates the possibility of sailing back into our old world.  You burn ships named Past Failure or Past Success.  Burn ships named Bad Habit or Regret.  You burn ships named Guilt or My Old Way of Life. 

            That is what Elisha did in our Bible story this morning.  When God needed to select a new prophet for the people Israel, God selected Elisha.  Once Elisha was called by Elijah, he turned his family plowing equipment into kindling and barbequed his oxen.  It was his last supper.  He said goodbye to his old friends and old way of life by throwing a huge party. 

Burning the plowing equipment was Elisha’s way of burning the ships. He could not go back to his old way of life as a farmer because he destroyed the ‘time machine’ that would take him back.  End of Elisha the farmer.  Beginning of Elisha the prophet.  Notice, when we follow the story further in I Kings that Elisha asked for a double portion of Elijah’s power… God granted that request.  Why?  Because God knew that Elisha was 200% committed.

It does not matter if you’re trying to lose weight, get into graduate school, write a book, start a business, or get out of debt.  The first step is always the longest and hardest.  And you can’t just take a step into the future… you have to also eliminate the possibility of moving backward into the past.  That’s how you go after goals.  How you break addictions.  How you reconcile relationships.  You leave the past in the past by burning the ships. 

Burning the oxen and celebrating with friends, was Elisha’s all in moment.  He was not just buying in to God’s call in his life.  He was selling out too.  Fully present and committed.  Not living the past nor the future, but in the moment.  That does not mean you and I don’t learn from our past or plan for the future, but you and I don’t live there.  Going “all in” is living as though each day is the first day and last day of our lives. 

See you at the “all in” place,

Pastor Michelle

This is Only A Test- Lent 3

Too often you and I approach stories like God asking Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac as if God is on trial.  When we do that we are starting from the wrong place.  It is not God’s character that is in question.  It is Abraham’s character or our character that is on the stand.  Since the Garden of Eden, we get to choose to obey or not to obey.  You and I will either follow through on what God asks us to do with what is most precious to us- or will we not.

            God never intended nor would have allowed Abraham to follow through on physically harming his son.  God does not support child abuse. 

This was a test.  This request of Abraham was an assessment of his willingness or not to follow through on the request made by God.  God wanted to test whether or not Abraham was willing to obey the most counterintuitive command imaginable. Scripture says very clearly in verse 1, God tested Abraham.  And Abraham passed the test!  Good for him!

God tests you and I for two primary reasons.  1) Placing a challenge before us is an opportunity for God to prove himself to us.  God provided a ram for Abraham to use.  2) having a challenge before us is a chance for us to prove ourselves to God.  Abraham was obedient to God’s tough assignment.

When Abraham raised the knife, God knew that he was all in.  And then God proved Himself as a provider by offering the ram in the thicket.  If Abraham had not gone all in, he would have robbed God of the opportunity to provide a ram.  After all, God cannot reveal God’s faithfulness until we have exercised our faith.  Think about that one!  I will say it again, God cannot reveal God’s faithfulness until we have exercised our faith! 

But, thanks be to God, that Abraham was all in!  And thus God was able to reveal that God is our Jehovah-jireh or Great Provider. 

As we step deeper into Lent and thus move closer to the Cross of Christ- what is your Isaac?  What are you placing your security or identity in?  If Jesus is not your security and identity, then God will test you until you leave that “Isaac” on the altar. 

See you at the all in place,

Pastor Michelle