Good Morning Friends,
Today we look at the core mystery of our faith and the reaction of the world to it as we contemplate the quality of our personal response. And in the process, we will learn that God has a way of making the unknown known through the Spirit and sometimes it is a hard lesson and sometimes great joy. And sometimes we will feel guilt for our sins, as a rebuke and conviction of Jesus’ Holy Spirit. For we are often like the bratty kids in today’s Gospel scripture. Sure, even though we are sinners, Jesus still loves us, and wants to live in our hearts, but get this, Jesus plays by rules we sometimes do not want to follow. So, we ask today’s question, Do We Know How To Behave As Model Christians For The Next Generation?
Scripture: I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these instructions to you so that, if I am delayed, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and bulwark of the truth. Without any doubt, the mystery of our religion is great: He was revealed in flesh, vindicated in spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among Gentiles, believed in throughout the world, taken up in glory.
1 Timothy 3:14-16 (NRSV)
But strive for the greater gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way. If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.
1 Corinthians 12:31-13:13 (NRSV)
“To what then will I compare the people of this generation, and what are they like? They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another, ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not weep.’ For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon’; the Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Nevertheless, wisdom is vindicated by all her children.”
Luke 7:31-35 (NRSV)
Message: It seems to me this morning that at the core of the mystery of how to behave is an embrace of God’s godliness bestowed on us. We are to demonstrate love combined with obedience in acts of faith to carry on the work of the called-out assembly of God with others called by Christ. But each new crop of children must learn and cope with the frictions of a changing culture pressing against this love of an unchanged God. It is hard to know what to obey. We always seem a bit behind the curve. Each generation takes responsibility for the work of society with the awkwardness of the reality that they have not crafted its institution’s laws but must work through them even when they no longer work to create a desired end. So, each generation makes new mistakes. Thankfully the mystery continues, but we still need to be obedient to what our faith calls us to do for that is the way of salvation in the grace of God. You see, the core of the behavior we are to emulate is a mystery. It is the very nature of Christ on the Cross and the frustration we must go through to carry on God’s work in society and in our lives that is the challenge. The problem is that unless we are godly, we cannot produce disciples for the next generation. So, we must grow in grace and that is fine, but we might miss the reality that we may also like Jesus suffer as well, as we too face rejection. Friends, we cannot hide who we are if we hope to disciple others and we cannot be so self-centered as to think it is about us. Thankfully a focus on the Holy Spirit can resurrect Jesus and us too and we need that. Being human and holy is difficult. We only get fleeting moments of it as we develop and use the gifts we have been given. And here it is necessary to have a balance of temperament for each gift comes with the possibility of it becoming a potential idol.
The full fruits must be realized if we are not to become a people who are selfish and self-centered and who want everything their way. We must be united with the mind of Christ. And it is to this relationship that Jesus invites people, as he invited John the Baptist, to come even to their own conclusions about who Jesus is, based on what they see. And that is a problem for us because we are not godly people all the time. The challenge here for us to continually improve as we seek to be Jesus’ witnesses in our world making disciples. And yes people will tend to look at us, the people of God, the ones who claim to be followers of Jesus, and then make decisions about who Jesus is based on what they see in those who claim to be followers of Jesus, and that is not always positive. We all need to focus on Jesus. So, it is critical that we are living in obedience to Jesus but always humble and honest for people know the difference and of course God knows too and thankfully finds a way to make it all work out if we love. For we like the Jews often expect a different kind of Messiah and certainly in Jesus receive a different kind of Christ than we might expect every time we talk ourselves out of doing what is right and sometimes in new revelation even in those times, we actually do what is right.
And So, we must be ready to stop playing our own games with God, expecting Him to follow our rules and play our game, and whole-heartedly dive into whatever God’s plan may be for us as an act of faith. But we must be honest that the road might well include suffering and sacrifice and rejection and pain and heartache. It did for Jesus and in is entirely possible, even likely, perhaps unavoidable, that following Jesus means that you and I will also suffer. Thankfully Jesus knew that before coming to earth. Now it is our task to join with Jesus in affirmation that being human and godly is worth the effort of love, for love is the one thing we can pass on from one generation to another and still glorify God in the process.
Pray we, despite the mystery, can answer the question of who Jesus is for us. Pray we confess that Jesus is more than the most dominant figure in all history. Pray we confess Jesus is divine and wants us to be godly too. Pray we realize that Jesus plays by rules we sometimes will not want to follow. Pray we remove our expectations, and look and listen, and then accept and rejoice in what God is doing. Pray we realize that we need Jesus to accomplish what is really needed to transform us into disciple makers. Pray we appreciate the preeminence of love. Pray we acknowledge the necessity of love. Pray we recognize the futility of our actions if we do not love. Pray we learn the characteristics of love and practice them. Pray we discover the wisdom and permanence of a love that connects us to God. Pray that in all we pass on to the next generation we give them a reason to love. Pray we realize that the future is coming with the rising of the Sun and love awaits us all if we seek it with wisdom.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 