I often use the book, Common Prayer by Shane Claiborne, Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove and Enuma Okoro, for prayer. I find it helpful for my personality and bent. And, a little while ago, I read this prayer which I thought was beautiful, true, and needed:
“Give us more light about each other: that we might understand enough to love.” (p. 154)
Isn’t that a beautiful prayer? Isn’t that what is missing in our world – enough understanding, so that we can love?
The truth is, we love binaries, we love judgments, we love knowing who is in and who is out. But, that’s not what true love is about.
True love is understanding someone enough that we might really support and journey with them. And, even when we disagree with them, to do so in a way that values their dignity and worth.
I just think that this deep understanding about others is missing in our fast-paced, “talking point,” and “tweetable” world. We are missing the depth that allows us to develop compassion and transformation. We need to be moving toward understanding of those we differ with, so that we can love them deeper, and understand them better.
This is especially important with our enemies and those with whom we really disagree. 2 Timothy 2:25 (NLT)puts it this way:
“Gently instruct those who oppose the truth. Perhaps God will change those people’s hearts, and they will learn the truth.”
Gentleness is supposed to be part of our tone, demeanour, and perspective. And, what grows gentleness and compassion is often understanding.
So, to make this practical and personal, I want to ask:
With whom are you struggling?
And, if you can name someone, can you also pray that prayer above? Can you ask for more understanding, so that the depth of your love grows?
Because, I believe that in our world today, that’s what is needed:
More understanding. More love. In essence, more living like Jesus.
I’ve recently been convicted of something in my life by God and it’s this: I’m often tempted to use God for godly outcomes. And, here is what I mean by that…
I have noticed a consistent temptation, and even posture, of me using my relationship with God to ensure godly or good outcomes. And, that last part is important. I’m not seeking to use God for bad outcomes – sinful things – but rather for good and holy things – Kingdom things. And, here is what that might look like in the practical, tangible ways I’ve noticed in my life…
1. I spend time in prayer to ensure my preaching is good, but not to connect with God.
2. I serve to see God’s Kingdom grow, but not to find God in the serving.
3. I fast, but do it to ensure that a new project goes well, rather than as a way to sacrifice and focus on God.
4. I rely on God when I need Him, but rely on my gifting and skill at other times.
Do you see how subtle the shift is in practical, but real life ways? And, do you also see how dangerous it can be? Because prayer, serving and reliance can quietly shift from God to the ourselves or the good things God calls us to do. But, the truth is, as soon as the focus shifts from God to ourselves, we’ve lost the point.
Eugene Peterson puts it this way, “Along the way, the primacy of God and His work gives way ever so slightly to the primacy of our work in God’s Kingdom. We begin to think of ways to use God in what we’re doing. The shift is barely perceptible… We continue to believe the identical truth. We continue pursuing good goals. It usually takes a long time for the significance of the shift to show up. But, when it does, it turns out that we have not so much been worshipping God as enlisting Him as our trusted and valuable assistant.”
That last sentence is what stopped me in my tracks and caused me to really reflect on my motives, not just my actions.
And so, I write all this because this is the season of Lent – a season when we are to take a hard and reflective look at our lives, and reveal any subtle shifts that have happened. Because, they can happen and they can be hard to notice, but they need to be revealed and repented of. And, I use that word in the proper way – repentance is not about feeling bad, but about changing direction. We need to repent of our tendency to use God, and move toward worshipping, loving and appreciating Him.
So, I write this because, my bet is, I’m not alone in this temptation. But, becoming aware of it is the first step to changing it. And, it’s something worth changing. It’s subtle. It’s a small shift. But, it can change everything.
As you may be aware, a new Scorsese film came out called Silence. It’s taken from a historical fiction book written by Shushaku Endo about two Jesuit priests.
I haven’t seen the movie yet, but there is one line in the book that I’ve often thought a lot about. Endo writes this: “Sin is for one man to walk brutally over the life of another and to be quite oblivious of the wounds he has left behind.”
Now, I’ve read a lot of definitions of sin, but this one is a good one.
Read it again: “Sin is for one man to walk brutally over the life of another and to be quite oblivious of the wounds he has left behind.”
And, isn’t that what sin is? For us to brutally walk over someone – to hurt and harm them – without acknowledgement, compassion or realization?
This is why sin is both so brutal and something to be rooted out. This is why, especially during a season of Lent, we are called to focus on rooting out our sins – on really taking seriously the harm, hurt and damage that sin can cause.
The reason that I really like Endo’s quote is because of what he gets right – that sin harms others. It always has and it always will. This is why the church speaks so strongly against sin – because sin kills. Greed will kill your career, lust will kill your marriage and lying will kill your relationships.
So, I write all this as a simple reminder that we are in the season of Lent.
Traditionally, this is a time to slow down, reflect, and honestly spend some time in introspection and rooting out of sin. And, I think that, even though it’s hard work, it’s necessary work. Because, we as Christians never want to be oblivious to the wounds we might cause. Sometimes, before we can participate in healing the wounds of others, the Spirit needs to convict us of how we are causing wounds to others.
Is that easy? No. But the promise of following Jesus isn’t that it’s easy, but that it will lead you into true life. So, today, amidst all the busyness and noise, sit and invite the Holy Spirit to reveal any area of sin in your life, and seek to live differently.
Parents, have you ever had a moment of fear about what your child was about to do next? You know, that feeling when you realize that what is about to happen probably isn’t good…and generally that always happens in public.
Are any of you with me?
Well, last month, we were at this large family gathering. It was actually a blending of two families and we were trying to get to know one another, and it was pretty great. Then, it came time to pray for the food and, just as the prayer was about to begin, Asher yelled and screamed, “No!” and said that he wanted to pray.
I instantly had that feeling come over me as a parent – when I didn’t know what was about to happen, but I knew it wouldn’t be good.
I was ready for more yelling, silliness or for Asher, in particular, more wrestling with his brother. But, here is what happened…
Asher said, “I pray” and then he started, but stopped and told us all to close our eyes first. Then he prayed, “Dear Jesus, thank you for being here at Grandma’s with us, for the food, let’s have fun. Amen.”
I looked at my wife and my jaw dropped. Because, Asher has never done this. In fact, I don’t think he’s ever really prayed out loud before. Most of the time, he’s the one talking through my prayer. In fact, he’s more likely to yell during grace than to do anything else.
So, I share this with you, not because I have perfect kids, but for this reason…sometimes things stick and shine through, so have hope!
Read that again…sometimes things stick and shine through, so have hope!
Sometimes, after fighting through grace at meal times, fighting through bedtime prayers amidst yells from your kids that they don’t want to go to bed and fighting through reading Bible stories while your kids wrestle…sometimes things stick and shine through.
Jesus talks about it in Matthew 13 when He asks us to sow seeds. And, here is the thing…seeds take a long time to grow, but sometimes they sprout and grow, and you get to see this when you least expect it (like at a family gathering when everyone is watching).
So, I share this with you to encourage you to hold onto hope. Parenting, grandparenting and seeing change in any relationship takes a long time. Sometimes, it just feels grueling, like you’re toiling for no reason. Sometimes, in beautiful moments, you see that it’s stuck and it shines through.
So, don’t give up, because Asher sharing a deep and beautiful prayer when least expected has reminded me, we never know what’s going on underneath.
I read this prayer the other day, and thought it was beautiful.
God, we know you see us in our suffering and in our sin. It is we who are forgetful. Be patient with us and receive even our forgetful prayers and pleas. Remind us again and again of your presence, and help us to be that memory for others. Amen.
– Common Prayer
As you pray it, may you find God’s presence again and again and go out and be a tangible witness to his presence for others.
I think parenting is an exercise in trust and hope. I mean you spend hours and hours with your kids, coaching, guiding, and if you’re at all like us – disciplining your kids.
Sometimes if I’m honest you wonder if it’s all worth it.
Like you know it’s all worth it, but after a giant fight at bath time, when your soaking, and kids are crying doubt creeps in. I think that’s why parenting is hard, because you are really playing the long-game in parenting. You are hoping that what you do today, pays off in decades. And it’s hard sometimes to keep motivated or to even know if all your effort is having an impact when the results are years and years away.
But then every now and then you see some glimmer, you see a glimpse, you see some of the fruit.
As many of you know Krista and I accepted a new position, so we’ll be moving and changing churches in the next few months. This was an incredibly hard decision, but one we feel certain about. A tough point though came when we came to tell our kids.
We sat down with Hudson, told him about the move. He asked great questions, he processed it all, and in the end he asked to pray. This is what he prayed,
“Dear God help daddy to trust you with this move, find us the best house, best new friends, and help daddy with his new job to do really really great. Help mom and dad not to be sad, but excited. Amen”
And sometimes after hours and hours of wondering if anything sinks in, to little ears that don’t always seem to listen, you have a moment like this. You have a moment when you realize that your kids aren’t just kids, but people God speaks to. People who can pray better than you, and say the things you struggle to say, and people who remind you God is always working.
So all of this is to say that if you’ve had a long week with your kids, don’t forget all that’s growing underneath. Because when God reveals their little hearts, you realize all the effort is worth it. It’s always worth it.
On Sunday we opened up a favourite passage of mine in James 5. In James 5:13-18 we read this:
Are any of you suffering hardships? You should pray. Are any of you happy? You should sing praises. Are any of you sick? You should call for the elders of the church to come and pray over you, anointing you with oil in the name of the Lord. Such a prayer offered in faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will make you well. And if you have committed any sins, you will be forgiven. Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. Elijah was as human as we are, and yet when he prayed earnestly that no rain would fall, none fell for three and a half years! Then, when he prayed again, the sky sent down rain and the earth began to yield its crops.
And here James shares with us some incredibly practical advice about prayer, healing, and sickness. James calls us all to pray if we are hurting, or in joy, that prayer should be our response (verse 13). And then he gives some incredibly practical advice – if you are sick you should call in the elders.
The truth is that sickness has a tendency to isolate and to separate and James knows that in sickness we need others. So he says invite the elders in to pray, anoint, and support someone who is sick. This is because in sickness it can be so difficult at times to pray, so he says rely on the prayers of others. Be anointed a symbol of the Holy Spirit, and it was also thought to be medicinal. So pray for healing, and don’t shy away from those in the healing profession and medicine for help as well.
James says bring in supports to care, love, pray, and anoint and to find God willing to heal.
We also looked at the importance of confession, of the phrase the “name of the Lord” and a few others things. But most importantly, we landed not on more teaching about prayer, or about how to pray. We landed on whether or not we trust in prayer.
Because the truth is, if we know all about it, and even if I challenge people to practice it – if we don’t trust in prayer and in God, it won’t make a difference. So I asked us all to consider this question, “Do you trust in prayer and God to use prayer”. In spite of all the questions, the suffering we see, all the legitimate doubts and difficulties – do you trust in prayer?
Because I believe that prayer is worth trusting in. I believe that prayer actually changes the world. I believe that even in spite of the doubts I have at times, like anyone, that prayer matters.
So we ended with a challenge to prayer, and then ended the service with the only way that seemed appropriate. We invited people forward for prayer. And today if you are struggling in any way, I think today is the day to invite people in your life to pray. Because prayer matters, and prayer changes lives.
Sermon Notes:
Big Idea: Pray. Pray. Pray.
Teaching Points:
No profound theologian, James’ genius lies in his profound moral earnestness; in his powerfully simple call for repentance for action, and for a consistent Christian lifestyle. Douglass Moo
Wherever we are at in life prayer is to be part of our life.
Sickness has a way of separating us.
Oil was medicinal and a symbol of the Holy Spirit and God’s consecrating.
To pray in the name of the Lord is to pray and act as his representative and in his authority.
Do you trust in prayer?
It is God who is the healer.
Pray. Pray. Pray.
Adult Discussion Questions:
What stuck out to you from the sermon? What was challenging to you? What was new? What is your view of prayer? When have you seen a prayer answered? What are your questions concerning prayer? Who do you know that needs prayer and support? Who can you confess your sins to? Are you willing to?
Discussion Questions for Young Families
Talk to your kids today about the power of prayer. Ask them what they think prayer is? Ask them who they should be praying for – and then spend time in prayer with them.
Challenge for the Week: To trust in the power of prayer.
On Sunday we are going to talk about prayer. Prayer is something that is really important and should be part of the regular fabric of our lives. Prayer is something that really releases God to work in the world and in our lives.
So on Sunday I am going to teach on prayer, but more importantly we are going to have a chance to practice prayer. We are going to have a time to actually pray for another. We are going to have a time to anoint people with oil, because I believe that prayer can heal. Prayer can change lives. So that’s where we are going on Sunday. We are going to be looking at this passage:
Are any of you suffering hardships? You should pray. Are any of you happy? You should sing praises. Are any of you sick? You should call for the elders of the church to come and pray over you, anointing you with oil in the name of the Lord. Such a prayer offered in faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will make you well. And if you have committed any sins, you will be forgiven. Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. Elijah was as human as we are, and yet when he prayed earnestly that no rain would fall, none fell for three and a half years! Then, when he prayed again, the sky sent down rain and the earth began to yield its crops.
On Sunday we looked at another pretty challenging teaching of James, but also one filled with hope and promise.
James writes this, ““So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come close to God, and God will come close to you”. (James 4:7-8)
James is sharing that the heart you respond to God with, is how he will respond to you. That if you are open to God, seeking God, humbling yourself to God – he will draw you close. But if you are pushing him away, fighting him, and rejecting him – God honours our freedom but still seeks to care and have compassion for us.
So James reminds us to check our hearts, to see if they are pushing God away, or opening up to him.
James also reminds us that if we resist the devil he will flee from us. And as I’ve said before, even if you don’t believe in the devil, you’ve experienced him. In the Bible the devil is the source of accusation, fear, and someone who actively seeks to separate ourselves from God. The truth is we have all felt accusation, and fear which separates us from God.
James wants to remind us that this doesn’t need to be so. That if we just were to resist the accusation, the guilt, the fear, the separation, the devil would flee and we would move closer to God. That if we would but draw close to God, he will draw close to us and the devil must flee as we move closer to God.
We ended up with a pretty clear main idea, that we need to repent and rely on God.
God promises to be there with us, to push away the devil, accusation, guilt, and fear but we need to repent and rely on him. As long as we are going our own way, as long as we assert our independence, as long as we pretend we don’t need him – he can’t help us. He can’t help us when we are resisting and pushing him away.
So on Sunday to make this real, we did something I don’t often do. We did an altar call. We invited people to simply come forward who wanted to physically say to God ~ I need you in some area. And that was it.
But sometimes we need to do something tangible to connect with God. And the truth is we are all broken and need God, so we can all use with doing something tangible.
So if you are in the place where you need God today – do something tangible. Maybe kneel, maybe write out your needs, maybe ask someone to pray. But do something, because God’s promise is that if you move closer to him, he’ll move closer to you.
Sermon Notes:
Big Idea: We need to repent and rely on God.
Teaching Points:
“God gives what he demands” – Augustine
God will respond with the heart you have for him.
One of the primary roles of Satan is to separate God and people.
Draw close to God and he will draw close to you.
How often do we try to go it alone and hide our flaws?
We live with a lack of light, because we refuse to rely on him.
We need to repent and rely on God.
Adult Discussion Questions:
“The reason we struggle isn’t because we can’t overcome our failures, but because we are too proud to ask God to move.” What do you think of this statement? Have you experienced the truth of these promises: that God WILL come near as we come to Him in true humility, and that Satan WILL flee from us as we resist him? What do you need to repent of? Confess? Get clean from? Admit? (Remember, this is how James says we come closer to God – it is crucial in our relationship with Him) About what things are you too proud to admit the truth? (Our pretending prevents God from working) How can you practically turn from these things and rely on God, beginning today?
Discussion Questions for Young Families
Have you ever needed help with something, but you didn’t want to admit that you couldn’t do it alone? How can we come to God today, letting Him be the one that helps us through our weaknesses and failures?
Challenge for the Week: To repent and rely on God…today.
On Sunday we discussed one of the last sayings of Jesus, where he cries out in a loud voice:
“My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”
And this is a verse with a lot of tensions and complexities. Many scholars don’t like the idea of the Father abandoning the Son. This also raises consternation and concern about the Father’s character for me too. So scholars offer two solutions. One, that Jesus isn’t actually being abandoned by God, he is just feeling like he is. But that just seems like semantics to me, and goes against what seems obvious: that Jesus is experiencing being abandoned by God, because he is being abandoned by God.
Other scholars point out that Jesus is quoting Psalm 22 (which he is). And taking the Psalm as a whole, it ends with vindication. That the suffering victim is eventually vindicated, justified, and that God overcomes the wrongful suffering. So they say Jesus is actually saying that he will trust in God to overcome this wrong. They (rightly) point out that speaking on a cross is incredibly painful and difficult. So Jesus couldn’t have quoted the whole Psalm (I agree), so he quotes one verse to bring the whole Psalm into view.
Again though I just think this goes against the plain reading. If Jesus could only quote one verse because of pain, and wanted to talk about God vindicating him, he could have quoted the last verses of Psalm 22. But he doesn’t, he quotes a verse about being abandoned.
So even though I might not like the idea of the Father abandoning or forsaking his Son, I think we are left with the plain reading of Scripture.
But there is one obvious fact that needs to be stated, that actually changes the whole perspective of this verse. It is stated from Jesus’ perspective. We don’t hear the Father’s perspective. So Jesus is being forsaken by the Father, and then we assume, that the Father is above pouring out wrath on Jesus in an emotionless dispassionate state.
People struggle with this verse because it makes it seem like Jesus is nice, whereas, the Father is stern, uncaring, judge, who abandons his son when he needs it most. But this is all based on an assumption, that the Father is unmoved by what his Son is going through. And this assumption is wrong, and what I not only challenged but worked through in more detail (download the sermon for more).
Jurgen Moltmann writes,
“In forsaking the Son, the Father also surrenders himself, though not in the same way. For Jesus suffers dying in forsakenness, but not death itself; for men can no longer suffer death, because suffering presupposes life. But the Father who abandons him and delivers him up suffers the death of the Son in the infinite grief of love…The son suffers dying, the Father suffers the death of the Son”.
And here is his key thought: “The grief of the Father here is just as important as the death of the Son.”
And this is what we need to get, that the Father and Son are both affected and separated because of our sin. It isn’t a singular choice on the Father’s side to abandon his son. It is a choice within the Trinity to experience the separation of sin so that we could be welcomed into fellowship with God. The Father doesn’t kill his Son, to forgive us. The Father experiences an abyss of separation from his beloved Son, so that we could become incorporated into the family of God. Sin ruptures, that’s what it does. And it does this at the heart of the Trinity. So yes, Jesus experienced being forsaken by the Father, and the Father experienced the death of the Son.
This led us to some simple but personal conclusions.
First, that we need to be in reverent thanks of what the Father, Son, and Spirit went through to include us in their life. The Son died, so we could live. And this affected all the Trinity, and for that we need to be grateful. We need to be reverently worshipful of the depth of what God went through for each and everyone of us.
Second, we talked about that sin is serious. That sin brought separation to the heart of God, and we need to own that. We did that. We killed the Son (read the Book of Acts). We need to recognize the seriousness of sin, and confess, repent, and rid ourselves of sin. If sin did this to God, we need to work at ridding ourselves of it.
So we ended with a challenge, to sit in thanks to God, and repent for sin. When we see the depth of what God went through, I think that is the right response: reverence and repentance.
Martin Luther said, “God forsaking God, who can understand it?” I know for sure we don’t all understand it because of one sermon (I certainly don’t), but I hope we got a little closer and most of all, a little more reverent and repentant.
Sermon Notes:
Big Idea: Jesus was abandoned by the Father for us; and the Father experienced the abandonment of the Son for us.
Teaching Points:
Challenge for Lent: 1) Pray Weekly Prayers of Repentance, 2) Pray Daily Corporate Prayers 2 Chronicles 7:14, 3) Fast Something for Lent
“God forsaking God. Who can understand it?” – Martin Luther
Jesus’ death is a moment of cosmic significance, and the cosmos recognize it by darkening
This passage is not about us, but what Jesus is experiencing.
We need to be honest with text – Jesus is being forsaken
Jesus is stating what is true from his perspective
Just as Jesus was forsaken, so too was the Father forsaken from the Son
If our sin separates Jesus from the Father; it separates the Father from the Son.
The grief of the Father here is just as important as the death of the Son. Moltmann
We cannot understand the depth of our sin, unless we understand that both Jesus and the Father are suffering in this moment on the cross.
The Son is losing the Father, but the Father is losing the Son.
Our sin doesn’t just affect Jesus, but affects God as a whole.
We should have holy and reverent awe for God.
We should repent and cast off sin.
Adult Discussion Questions:
What stuck out to you from the sermon? What was challenging to you? How did God speak to you through it? What was new? Have you practiced Lent before? What can you fast or give up this year? Had you ever struggled with the idea of the Father forsaking the Son before? Had you ever thought of what the Father went through when Jesus died? What do you think it was like for him? How does it make you appreciate God? How does it change or deepen how you see sin?
Discussion Questions for Young Families
Read the story today with your kids. Talk to them about the verse we read, about how Jesus was separated from his Dad because of our sin. About how hard it was, but that he did that for us. So that we can be loved, and welcomed in. Give them a chance to confess anything to Jesus in thankfulness for what he did.
Challenge for the Week: To sit and contemplate what Jesus went through, confess any sin, and reverently worship him this week
I’ve recently been convicted of something in my life by God and it’s this: I’m often tempted to use God for godly outcomes. And, here is what I mean by that…
Parents, have you ever had a moment of fear about what your child was about to do next? You know, that feeling when you realize that what is about to happen probably isn’t good…and generally that always happens in public.
I think parenting is an exercise in trust and hope. I mean you spend hours and hours with your kids, coaching, guiding, and if you’re at all like us – disciplining your kids.
{ Andrew Mills } 