The Continuing Presence of Jesus (Wide Angle: Acts 1)

Posted on March 31, 2022 by salooper57

(Reading time: approximately 3-4 minutes)

After Jesus’s ascension, (Acts 1), the disciples “returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives, a Sabbath’s day’s walk” – about 3/4 mile – “from the city” (Acts 1:12). How must they have felt as they walked back to the city? What did they talk about? There was something final about Jesus’s departure. They probably understood that they had entered a new phase of life, but how were they to live it? “Witnesses to the ends of the earth”—how were they to do that? What would it look like?

As they walked back to their accommodations in Jerusalem, they had no clue about how to answer those questions. The future was a blank. They didn’t know what their lives were going to look like. All they had was Jesus’ instruction.

They did not know what was next, or what to expect, so they did a wise thing. Jesus had told them to wait, and they did, but while they waited, they also prayed. Verse 14: “They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.”

If we are looking through our wide-angle lens, we will see that the era into which they had transitioned – the witnesses-to-the-ends-of-the-earth era – has continued to this day. We, like them, do not see the Lord Jesus in the flesh. We, like them, carry on the commission to be witnesses, making disciples of every nation. We, like them, have the words of the Lord and the Spirit of the Lord to guide us.

Don’t forget that Jesus once said, “I tell you the truth: It is better for you that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you” (John 16:7). The coming of the Holy Spirit ushered in a new era, in keeping with God’s plan. With our wide-angle lens we can see it: God lived with Adam and Eve until the rebellion, when their relationship was broken, and man and God were estranged. The thousands of years that followed, the sacrifices, the building of the temple, the promise of a new covenant was all so that God could live with his people again.

He came to us in Jesus, who was Immanuel – God with us. But as a physical being Jesus could not be with ­a lonely old man in India, a young Christian mother in Ecuador and you in your town or city at the same time. The transition was necessary.  It was better for the disciples; it is better for us, that he went away.

While we have our wide-angle lenses on, it is important to see that even after the ascension, Jesus continues to show up all over the place. Up, up, but not away: because of the coming of the Spirit, Jesus could be everywhere. In chapter 2, verse 47 we find him bringing people into his church: “The Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.” It wasn’t the apostles and teachers and programs that added people to the church; it was the Lord Jesus. In chapter 9, verse 34 we find him healing people: “‘Aeneas,’ Peter said to him, ‘Jesus Christ heals you. Get up and take care of your mat.’ Immediately Aeneas got up.” In chapter 14, verse 3, we find Jesus working miracles among the Gentiles: “Paul and Barnabas spent considerable time there, speaking boldly for the Lord, who confirmed the message of his grace by enabling them to do miraculous signs and wonders.” We see the same thing throughout the book.

And that theme continues. Jesus is here, living in his people, acting through them by his Spirit. His ministry on earth, his death, resurrection, and ascension were only the beginning of what he was doing and teaching. He is still at it, and we are invited to join him, to be a part of the kingdom he inaugurated.

(For more Wide Angle posts, type “Wide Angle” into the search box to the top and right of this page.)

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Resistance Is Not Futile: How to Resist the Devil (1 Peter 5:5-11)

Posted on March 28, 2022 by salooper57
Viewing Time: 27 minutes (approximate)

Both Saints James and Peter tell us to resist the devil. How does one do that? 1 Peter 5:5-11 gives us a quick-start guide. This sermon is for those who have joined the Resistance.

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Soul Work: It’s an Inside Job

Posted on March 26, 2022 by salooper57

(Approximate reading time: 3-4 minutes.)

When work needs to be done, but no one qualified is available to do it, it is sometimes necessary for unqualified people to attempt it. I know this from personal experience.

When I entered pastoral ministry, the denomination I served sent me to a little church that was on the verge of closing. Membership was small and most members were on a fixed income, so we were always short of funds. When the roof leaked, I tried to fix it. When the parsonage washing machine stopped, I tried to repair it. When the boiler didn’t heat, I tried to get it working again.

The boiler was old, probably from the 1930s, and had once been coal powered. It had been converted to run on natural gas and, by the time I came in 1981, had a control module to regulate it. It was this module that I would tinker with whenever the boiler stopped working.

I had no qualifications for working on a boiler, unless that it was that I had once cleaned carbon deposits out of the massive boiler tubes where I worked. In my defense, when the church had no heat and no money to pay a repairman, something had to be done.

Once, when all my tinkering failed to restore the boiler to working order, we hired a repairman. I took him to the boiler room, showed him the control module, and waited around to learn what I could. He examined the controls for a short time, then turned to me and said: “Don’t ever touch that again.” Later, when I was coiling his extension cord for him, he took it away from me and did it himself. The look on his face said everything: “You’re an idiot.”

A decade later, in another town, I had a computer that sometimes failed in startup. Once, when my brother-in-law, who was a programmer, was visiting, I had him look at the computer. He got into the root directory and began making changes to the autoexec.bat file as I watched. After that, whenever there were problems in startup, I would enter the root directory and begin making changes.

There came a time when nothing I did would successfully launch the operating system, and I had to ask a friend at church – another programmer – to take a look. He worked intently on the computer for a few minutes. Then, with the same look the boiler repairman had given me, said these hauntingly familiar words: “Don’t ever do that again.”

It’s enough to give a guy a complex. This week, I took it on myself to repair the dishwasher, which wasn’t heating, and which had developed a small leak. I had ordered a new heating element and spent five minutes watching a repair video on YouTube. I removed the dishwasher from the cupboard, loosened the retaining nuts, removed and replaced the heating element, then put it all back together. We tested it the next evening. It didn’t heat and the leak was a little worse.

I am afraid of the look the repairman is going to give me. I am planning to busy myself in the other room until he leaves.

Many people who would never think of repairing boilers or rewriting root directory files assume that ordering their spiritual lives is a piece of cake. Yet the complexity of a human soul is far greater than that of boilers or computers, which can be repaired by an outside professional. The soul is an inside job. It is something we must do ourselves.

But we needn’t do it alone. Others with more experience – established believers, pastors, and spiritual directors – can guide us. Older generations of Christians referred to this guidance as “soul work” or “the cure of souls.” It is wise to seek guidance, but others cannot do the work for us.

We must do the work ourselves, yet it can only be done in cooperation with God. The instruments used in the cure of souls routinely include Scripture, prayer, meditation, and select spiritual practices, but such practices are not substitutes for confident interaction with God. They are rather a means to it.  

(First published by Gannett.)

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The Psalms: Biblical Theology Class #11

Posted on March 24, 2022 by salooper57
Viewing Time: Approximately 51 minutes

The Psalms: the role they play in worship, personal devotion, and the attainment of wisdom. This class looks at how the psalms have been used by believers through the years and gives today’s believers ideas for benefitting from the Psalms in their own lives.

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Pastors’ Motives: A Sermon based on 1 Peter 5:1-4

Posted on March 22, 2022 by salooper57
Viewing Time: Approximately 23 minutes.

Excerpt from Pastor’s Motives (1 Peter 5:1-4).

Peter operated from a mind that had been saturated with thoughts and ideas that had come from Jesus. You could say that he had (in the words of St. Paul) “the mind of Christ.”

Why take time to expound on this? Because I am afraid that some of us have the mind of Fox News or of MSNBC. We can (and do!) repeat their talking points but we cannot repeat Jesus’s talking points! Our minds are saturated with ideas that did not come from Jesus and, in some cases, conflict with his ideas. And we probably don’t even know it.

I mentioned the news shows, but the entertainment shows – the primetime sitcoms and dramas – can also fill our minds with ideas of what is normal and good. The mind forms around what it takes in. We will think the thoughts and take for granted the assumptions that have been filling our minds. That is how humans were designed. Why is that important? Let’s take Peter for an example. He had a mind that was saturated with the wisdom of Jesus. He looked at life through the lens of Jesus’s teaching and example. Because that was true, when the crisis came in his life, he acted like Jesus.

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Biblical Thology Class #10: A House for David

Posted on March 20, 2022 by salooper57

The Eden Project, renewed by God’s promises to Abraham moves forward. God promises a king who will rule forever. This class looks at 1 Samuel 8 and 2 Samuel 7, two very important chapters in the great story of the Bible.

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Don’t Let the Little Devils Sneak In: Staying Close to Christ

Posted on March 19, 2022 by salooper57

Reading time: 3-4 minutes

We lived in an old farmhouse for twenty-five years. It was built in the I-Style of architecture that was common for country homes in the late 19th century and was around a hundred years old when we moved into it.

Upon arriving, we were counseled to get a cat because “all these old farmhouses have mice.” The person who told us this was trying to get rid of a litter of cats at the time. We took one. It ran off, She gave us another.

For 17 years, we had few problems with rodents; then the cat died. We saw firsthand the meaning of the adage, “When the cat’s away, the mice play.”

The mice played. I caught twenty mice a week in some seasons and could have taken more, had I baited more traps. But it wasn’t just the mice. We encountered two snakes, many salamanders, and bats – oh, the bats. We once had bats in our bedroom on three consecutive nights. There were so many behind the wall near the disused chimney that you could hear them squeaking.

We eventually hired an amazing pest control professional – I nicknamed him “The Batman” – to get rid of them. When he came to the door, I noticed he was missing a finger or two, which aroused my curiosity, but I was afraid to ask him how it happened. I wasn’t sure I wanted to know.

I showed him around the exterior of the house and pointed out all the places where I thought the bats might gain entry. He dismissed my suggestions out of hand. In short order, he had identified and sealed all the real points of entry, except one. He left the bats an escape route through a one-way tunnel of sorts, which prevented them from gaining reentry. It was brilliant.

One year, toward the end of our time in that house, we had a red squirrel in our walls. Sitting at the desk in my study, I could hear it gnawing the wiring behind my paneled wall—or at least that is what I imagined it was doing when I heard that noise. I heard that noise every day.

I succeeded in trapping the squirrel once. Having sealed up the place where it was getting in, I released it from the cage. It was back in the house before I was. By the time I returned to my desk, it was again gnawing on the wiring.

After our success with The Batman, I called him to save us from the red squirrels. This time our hero was less optimistic. He trapped the squirrel and sealed the place where it was getting in, but he told me that he could put his hand through the sill plate, which connects the frame to the foundation, at almost any point around the house. Before he left, he warned me that the red squirrels would be back.

The foundation was strong, and we had tuckpointed where it was necessary. But the sill plate that rested on the foundation had rotted, allowing the critters into our home. The little devils could sneak in wherever there was a gap between the foundation and the frame.

Like houses, lives are also built on a foundation. According to St. Paul, Jesus is the foundation on which the lives of Christians (and the church they comprise) is built. That foundation is rock solid. There is no reason to worry that it will deteriorate or fail to provide support.

But the connection between the foundation and the lives that rise from it must be maintained. One way to do this is through scripture reading and prayer. I say “one way” because scripture and prayer work together in an integrated way that forms a seal between a person and God.  

Where that seal is rotted and broken, the rodents and gnawers enter and destroy. Rather than sealing the connection, some people spend their lives trying to trap and remove the pests, which are back before they know what has happened. They must either seal their connection to the foundation or come to accept the presence of these pests as unavoidable.

(First published by Gannett.)

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The Ascension: A Post-Resurrection Disappearance

Posted on March 16, 2022 by salooper57

Reading time: 4-5 minutes.

(This Wide Angle look comes from Acts 1. Verses not otherwise identified by book and chapter are taken from there.)

When Jesus was crucified, and his followers had despaired.  When he was raised, they were astounded.  They realized that something phenomenally important had happened, but they didn’t realize where it would lead. They did not understand that they were living in a period of transition. They assumed that their old dreams were still in play. So, they asked Jesus, verse 6, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”

The lexicon defines the Greek word translated restore as “to change to a previous good state.”  The disciple expected Jesus to remain among them as he had before.  They could only suppose that he would take his rightful place as the king of Israel, drive out the foreigners, and restore Israel to a place of national sovereignty. They looked at the future through the lens of the past.

But God had something else, something they could not imagine, in mind.  The kingdom Jesus brought did not belong to Israel, but to God.  The king would sit on a throne, but it would be in heaven, not Jerusalem.  His royal attendants would not be known by titles like “lord” or “benefactor”, but by names like Peter, John, and Matthew.  The power at their disposal would not be arms and armies, but radical, death-defying, life-giving, enemy-conquering, Holy Spirit-originating love. Instead of casting the Romans out of their earthly kingdom, that love would sweep Rome into God’s heavenly kingdom. Instead of bringing the Gentiles to their knees, it would raise them up to the heavens.

Now they had just asked, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”, and it was not the first time they asked a question like that (Mark 10:35-37). But I think there was another question in their minds they did not articulate: “Are we about to get our promotions to positions of authority?”

Now look at verse 7: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.  But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

They wanted authority, but they would receive power (or ability, as the word could be translated).  And this isn’t what they were expecting.  It was authority, after all, that was important to them. They dreamed about sitting on thrones. In fact, just before Jesus’ arrest, they had argued about which of them would be placed in the highest positions of authority (Luke 22:24-25). But Jesus had a different idea: instead of sitting on thrones as rulers, they would go into all the world as witnesses; instead of exercising authority, they would be given power.

When we think of a witness, we usually think of someone who tries to persuade others to believe in Christ.  That is a very good thing, but it is not what Jesus had in mind here.  A witness is someone who has seen something and tells what he has seen.  In this case, a witness is someone who has seen Jesus, and tells about it.

That was not really what the disciples had in mind.  They wanted to be “lords” in Israel, not witnesses to the ends of the earth.  But remember, they were entering a period of great transition, a fact which became clear to them almost immediately. 

Verse 9: “After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.”  We read in verse three that Jesus had appeared to his people many times over a period of forty days in what are often called “post-resurrection appearances.”  But verse 9 is a transition verse: instead of a post-resurrection appearance, we have a post-resurrection disappearance.4 He was hidden from their sight.

The disciples had assumed that Jesus would continue with them in much the same way he had been with them before.  But it was clearly not so. The great transition was taking place, and he had been taken from their sight.  But he had given them work to do: they were to be his witnesses to the ends of the earth. They were commissioned.

Verse 10: “They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them.

‘Men of Galilee,’ they said, ‘why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven’.”

It’s as if they were saying, “What are you standing around for?  You’ve been given work to do, and it will be a good thing if he finds you doing it when he comes back.”  Like the disciples, we sometimes look for Jesus but cannot see him.  We strain our eyes toward heaven, and still miss see him. But when we reach our hands to earth to serve the least of his brothers, we suddenly spy him there.  That was his intention.

               4 I am indebted to William Larkin for this phrase and the title of this piece.

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5 Things to Do When You Suffer (1 Peter 4:12-19)

Posted on March 14, 2022 by salooper57

This sermon explores the five instructions the Apostle Peter gives to Christians who are suffering.

Approximately 25 minutes.
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Blessings and Cursings: Deuteronomy 28-30 (Biblical Theology Class 9)

Posted on March 13, 2022 by salooper57

The Blessings and Cursing of Deuteronomy 28-30 weighed heavily on the minds of Old Testament prophets, New Testament apostles, and Jesus’s contemporaries. St. Paul refers to this passage in Romans (in fact, Romans 9-11 is dependent on this section of Scripture. Though there are more than twice as many curses than blessings in this passage, they end on a note of hope in the covenant-keeping God.

Biblical Theology Class #9. Viewing Time: approximately 51 minutes.
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