Woods Canyon Lake, AZ
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The Downward Way of Christ and Salvation
We want our comfort and convenience. We want our power. We want to point out our success in pulling ourselves up by our own bootstraps. But Jesus subverts these “saviors” and offers something different. He offers himself. He offers forgiveness of sins and grace to forgive others.
And many of us simply can’t see how this can work in the real world. What’s the point of living if we’re uncomfortable much of the time? How will we get anything done without requiring others do what we think is best? Where’s our identity if we can’t build up ever-improving sense of accomplishment and expression?
These are reasonable questions, and this is why the message of the Cross, the Good News of God in Christ, the Gospel of Jesus, is a scandal. We often say it is counterintuitive, which means it doesn’t conform to how we might thing things go.
Yet, Jesus conquers our objections, because as God in the flesh, he conquered death. When we look a the results of our pursuit of saviors apart from him, we all find the same ending point: death itself, with no hope for anything past that. We might find temporary comfort, we might have our way for a bit, we might experience a self-esteem high that feels great! But that doesn’t keep us from dying as result of our and everyone else’s selfish and self-destructive attitudes, actions, and affections.
Jesus, on the other hand, proved that his way is the way of life by coming back to life. This why he said people had to understand “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected… and be killed, and on the third day be raised…”
The Resurrection vindicates the downward way of Christ as the ultimate way of life and health and peace.
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Lashed to the mast of Word and Sacrament
This how I try to understand and live out my pastoral and priestly vocation: “lashed to the mast of Word and Sacrament.”
“One more thing: We are going to ordain you to this ministry, and we want your vow that you will stick to it. This is not a temporary job assignment, but a way of life that we need lived out in our community. We know that you are launched on the same difficult belief venture in the same dangerous world as we are. We know that your emotions are as fickle as ours. That is why we are going to ordain you and why we are going to exact a vow from you.
We know that there are going to be days and months, maybe even years, when we won’t feel like we are believing anything and won’t want to hear it from you. And we know that there will be days and weeks and maybe even years when you won’t feel like saying it. It doesn’t matter. Do it. You are ordained to this ministry, vowed to it. There may be times when we come to you as a committee or delegation and demand that you tell us something else than what we are telling you now. Promise right now that you won’t give in to what we demand of you. You are not the minister of our changing desires, or our time-conditioned understanding of our needs, or our secularized hopes for something better. With these vows of ordination we are lashing you fast to the mast of Word and Sacrament so that you will be unable to respond to the siren voices.
There are a lot of other things to be done in this wrecked world, and we are going to be doing at least some of them, but if we don’t know the basic terms with which we are working, the foundational realities with which we are dealing – God, kingdom, gospel – we are going to end up living futile, fantasy lives. Your task is to keep telling the basic story, representing the presence of the Spirit, insisting on the priority of God, speaking the biblical words of command and promise and invitation.”
Eugene Peterson, Working the Angles
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Christians, prayer for the world is an essential aspect of our vocation
Christian brothers and sisters, Prayer for the world is an essential aspect of our vocation.
We must stand firm in prayer always, and especially in this terrible moment for our human family that is unfolding in Ukraine.
Let us pray:
Eternal God, in whose perfect kingdom no sword is drawn but
the sword of righteousness, no strength known but the strength
of love: So mightily spread abroad your Spirit, that all peoples
may be gathered under the banner of the Prince of Peace; to
whom be dominion and glory, now and for ever. Amen.Almighty God, from whom all thoughts of truth and peace
proceed: Kindle, we pray, in the hearts of all people the true love
of peace, and guide with your pure and peaceable wisdom those
who take counsel for the nations of the earth; that in tranquility
your kingdom may go forward, till the earth is filled with the
knowledge of your love; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.O God, the Creator of all, whose Son commanded us to love
our enemies: Lead them and us from prejudice to truth; deliver
them and us from hatred, cruelty, and revenge; and in your good
time enable us all to stand reconciled before you in Jesus Christ;
in whose Name we pray. Amen.Prayers from BCP2019 p. 654-655
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Learning about Ephrem of Syria today. Really looking forward to reading him and other Syriac Fathers more.
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I usually preach from a Word doc on my aging Galaxy Tab A 10″.
I also do the first part of my prep there in the Logos app.
I create a clippings doc of my highlights, notes, etc from commentaries on the passage I am preaching from.
Then, to the laptop for more organization, and writing the sermon in Word.
Everything syncs flawlessly.
