Proper 7
Devotional
Pause Before The Pulpit
Personal Reflections For Pastors On The Lectionary Readings
Mark 4:35-41
Who's "calling the shots" in your ministry? Is it you? Is it your spouse? Is it your church council, your district president, or your bishop? Or, is it the Lord? We would all like to believe it is the Lord, but is it really? One way to determine that is to re-evaluate how you and your church make decisions. Are decisions made on the basis of long meetings with people in debate, or long meetings with God in prayer? Do the decisions generally fit your comfort level and serve you, or do they stretch you and serve God?
Notice how Jesus addressed his plans with the disciples that evening, as they ended another day of ministry: Let us go across to the other side. God never tells us to do something on our own. His plans are always about us. Let us go and visit that shut-in or inmate at the jail. Let us preach on this or that difficult subject or text. Let us deal with this particularly difficult person in the church. Let us go into this congregational meeting together. Let us pick up from here and move to another congregation. Let us do something other than parish ministry for a while. Never does he send us into his work alone. It's always us. When we feel alone, it is either because of sin in our life or we have run ahead of him into something that is not his will or plan for us. Jesus is always inviting us to join him in his plans. Are we listening?
Sometimes his call to join him involves leaving our comfort zone. It might be to leave the people we feel most comfortable around. It might be a call to go to a dangerous mission field. It might be to minister to someone who makes us really uncomfortable. It might be a call to preach on a text or subject that makes us nervous. The call might come in the evening, when we are tired and would just as soon call it a day. What will you do? How will you respond? The disciples got in the boat. Will you?
It is always risky to go with Jesus. Seldom are we given the details of the mission. Seldom do we see the "storms" on the horizon. So why does he lead us into danger? Why does he call us to churches that have the potential to "chew us up and spit us out"? Why does he send people to us who cause us stress and fatigue? Have you ever asked the question the disciples asked: Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?
What was one thing in particular that the disciples learned that evening? It was about the power and authority of Jesus to calm storms. How would they have known this about him if he had not taken them into a storm? The next time Jesus takes you into a "storm," ask yourself, "What can I learn about him through this experience?" There is so much about Jesus we will never know first hand if we never go with him into a "storm."
May we also remember that it is only Jesus who can calm the storm. Only Jesus can bring peace into the marriage of that couple you are counseling. Have you been counseling them as if it were up to you? It's exhausting, isn't it? Only Jesus can bring peace between the members of your church who are feuding over a building program, or some other element of the church's ministry. Have you been trying to bring a peaceful resolution on your own? Don't do it, for without Christ's help you are bound to get hurt. If the disciples had tried to calm the storm by themselves, what are the chances that at least a few of them might have drowned?
Jesus asks us: Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith? What is your answer? I know what mine is: "Lord, I'm sorry, but my faith is so weak." Only Jesus can grow and strengthen our faith. The greatest growth in faith usually takes place in a storm.
If you are going through a "storm" of some kind in your ministry right now (or maybe it is in your personal life), be assured that Jesus is with you. Cry out to him for courage and faith. Perhaps you are about to be filled with great awe!
A Pastor's Prayer:
Dear Lord,
You know the storm that I am in right now. Please protect me and grow my faith in you through this storm. Thank you that you will bring peace and calm at just the right time. Thank you for not sending me into ministry alone, but that everything you call me to do is about us. Lord, I stand in awe of your power and authority over the storms of life. May I rest in you and follow only your plans for me. Thank you. Amen.
2 Corinthians 6:1-13
In our Gospel Lesson we took note of how our Lord invites us to join him in his plans for us. In this lesson, Paul was encouraging the Corinthian church to work together with him (or Christ). Immediately preceding this text, in chapter 5, Paul wrote that we are ambassadors for Christ (2 Corinthians 5:20). In other words, we are to represent him before others, whether in our own community, our nation, or around the world. Pastors are certainly ambassadors for Christ. The very nature of our call, along with the Great Commission, is to work together with him.
As the church works together with Christ, it is urged not to accept the grace of God in vain. People receive God's grace in vain when they hear it but refuse to respond to it by faith. Perhaps we also receive God's grace in vain when we take it lightly. I have noticed that people who have lived a life of gross sin and evil, but come to faith in Christ later in life, are deeply appreciative and moved by the grace of God toward them. Those of us who have grown up in Christian homes, have heard about God's grace since we were children, and have lived relatively "good" lives, don't nearly appreciate God's grace as we ought, for we haven't regarded ourselves as all that sinful. That is outright arrogant and proud! We are just as damned under God's Holy Law as the worst sinner imaginable. We need God's grace as much as they do. His grace ought to be just as precious to us as it is to a new believer in Christ.
How critical it is that we agree with Paul when he wrote: now is the day of salvation! The significance of that statement for us is twofold. First, now is the day of salvation for us! Now is the day for us to get right with God, if there is sin standing between him and us. Now is the day to make sure we are in a right, saving relationship with him. Being a pastor does not guarantee us eternal life in heaven. It give us no advantage over anyone else in terms of salvation. We, too, must come to that point of humble repentance, confession of faith, and personal belief in Christ alone for salvation and eternal life. So I urge you to take time right now to get right with God if there is any possibility that you are not.
Secondly, the statement, now is the day of salvation, has significance for us in terms of what we ought to be proclaiming. Some may feel this is alarmist theology and say something to this effect: "Why press people to believe? It's been 2,000 years since Christ left this earth; apparently he is in no hurry to come back. We have more urgent things to think about and preach on." Due to the fact that the return of Christ has always been imminent, this message has always been urgent. This imminence and urgency hasn't diminished one bit in God's eyes, nor should it in ours. But there is also the reality that anyone could die at any moment. Who sat in your worship service last Sunday that will not be there this Sunday, due to death? Were they ready to die? Who might be there this Sunday, but pass away before next Sunday? Are they ready to die?
Granted, salvation is a work of the Holy Spirit. We can't make people believe and be saved, but we have been given the awesome responsibility of proclaiming God's Word faithfully and with authority so that people are without excuse for not believing.
The faithful proclamation of God's Word is no picnic, as Paul pointed out. Can you identify with any of what he had experienced, when he mentioned afflictions, hardships, and sleepless nights for proclaiming the gospel? If not, maybe you are not preaching a balanced law/grace message. For when we do, we are going to prick people's consciences and many will rebel against that -- taking out their anger on us for the guilt we stirred up within them.
Paul certainly knew how to fight the good fight of faith and faithfully proclaim the gospel without getting discouraged and giving up. May we be known for doing the same.
A Pastor's Prayer:
Dear Lord,
I desire that there be nothing standing between you and me. Please forgive me my sins. Thank you for saving my soul, Lord. Help me to proclaim your word in a law/grace balance, and as urgently as if this were the last Sunday that people will hear your word. May many come to faith in you before it is too late. Amen.
Who's "calling the shots" in your ministry? Is it you? Is it your spouse? Is it your church council, your district president, or your bishop? Or, is it the Lord? We would all like to believe it is the Lord, but is it really? One way to determine that is to re-evaluate how you and your church make decisions. Are decisions made on the basis of long meetings with people in debate, or long meetings with God in prayer? Do the decisions generally fit your comfort level and serve you, or do they stretch you and serve God?
Notice how Jesus addressed his plans with the disciples that evening, as they ended another day of ministry: Let us go across to the other side. God never tells us to do something on our own. His plans are always about us. Let us go and visit that shut-in or inmate at the jail. Let us preach on this or that difficult subject or text. Let us deal with this particularly difficult person in the church. Let us go into this congregational meeting together. Let us pick up from here and move to another congregation. Let us do something other than parish ministry for a while. Never does he send us into his work alone. It's always us. When we feel alone, it is either because of sin in our life or we have run ahead of him into something that is not his will or plan for us. Jesus is always inviting us to join him in his plans. Are we listening?
Sometimes his call to join him involves leaving our comfort zone. It might be to leave the people we feel most comfortable around. It might be a call to go to a dangerous mission field. It might be to minister to someone who makes us really uncomfortable. It might be a call to preach on a text or subject that makes us nervous. The call might come in the evening, when we are tired and would just as soon call it a day. What will you do? How will you respond? The disciples got in the boat. Will you?
It is always risky to go with Jesus. Seldom are we given the details of the mission. Seldom do we see the "storms" on the horizon. So why does he lead us into danger? Why does he call us to churches that have the potential to "chew us up and spit us out"? Why does he send people to us who cause us stress and fatigue? Have you ever asked the question the disciples asked: Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?
What was one thing in particular that the disciples learned that evening? It was about the power and authority of Jesus to calm storms. How would they have known this about him if he had not taken them into a storm? The next time Jesus takes you into a "storm," ask yourself, "What can I learn about him through this experience?" There is so much about Jesus we will never know first hand if we never go with him into a "storm."
May we also remember that it is only Jesus who can calm the storm. Only Jesus can bring peace into the marriage of that couple you are counseling. Have you been counseling them as if it were up to you? It's exhausting, isn't it? Only Jesus can bring peace between the members of your church who are feuding over a building program, or some other element of the church's ministry. Have you been trying to bring a peaceful resolution on your own? Don't do it, for without Christ's help you are bound to get hurt. If the disciples had tried to calm the storm by themselves, what are the chances that at least a few of them might have drowned?
Jesus asks us: Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith? What is your answer? I know what mine is: "Lord, I'm sorry, but my faith is so weak." Only Jesus can grow and strengthen our faith. The greatest growth in faith usually takes place in a storm.
If you are going through a "storm" of some kind in your ministry right now (or maybe it is in your personal life), be assured that Jesus is with you. Cry out to him for courage and faith. Perhaps you are about to be filled with great awe!
A Pastor's Prayer:
Dear Lord,
You know the storm that I am in right now. Please protect me and grow my faith in you through this storm. Thank you that you will bring peace and calm at just the right time. Thank you for not sending me into ministry alone, but that everything you call me to do is about us. Lord, I stand in awe of your power and authority over the storms of life. May I rest in you and follow only your plans for me. Thank you. Amen.
2 Corinthians 6:1-13
In our Gospel Lesson we took note of how our Lord invites us to join him in his plans for us. In this lesson, Paul was encouraging the Corinthian church to work together with him (or Christ). Immediately preceding this text, in chapter 5, Paul wrote that we are ambassadors for Christ (2 Corinthians 5:20). In other words, we are to represent him before others, whether in our own community, our nation, or around the world. Pastors are certainly ambassadors for Christ. The very nature of our call, along with the Great Commission, is to work together with him.
As the church works together with Christ, it is urged not to accept the grace of God in vain. People receive God's grace in vain when they hear it but refuse to respond to it by faith. Perhaps we also receive God's grace in vain when we take it lightly. I have noticed that people who have lived a life of gross sin and evil, but come to faith in Christ later in life, are deeply appreciative and moved by the grace of God toward them. Those of us who have grown up in Christian homes, have heard about God's grace since we were children, and have lived relatively "good" lives, don't nearly appreciate God's grace as we ought, for we haven't regarded ourselves as all that sinful. That is outright arrogant and proud! We are just as damned under God's Holy Law as the worst sinner imaginable. We need God's grace as much as they do. His grace ought to be just as precious to us as it is to a new believer in Christ.
How critical it is that we agree with Paul when he wrote: now is the day of salvation! The significance of that statement for us is twofold. First, now is the day of salvation for us! Now is the day for us to get right with God, if there is sin standing between him and us. Now is the day to make sure we are in a right, saving relationship with him. Being a pastor does not guarantee us eternal life in heaven. It give us no advantage over anyone else in terms of salvation. We, too, must come to that point of humble repentance, confession of faith, and personal belief in Christ alone for salvation and eternal life. So I urge you to take time right now to get right with God if there is any possibility that you are not.
Secondly, the statement, now is the day of salvation, has significance for us in terms of what we ought to be proclaiming. Some may feel this is alarmist theology and say something to this effect: "Why press people to believe? It's been 2,000 years since Christ left this earth; apparently he is in no hurry to come back. We have more urgent things to think about and preach on." Due to the fact that the return of Christ has always been imminent, this message has always been urgent. This imminence and urgency hasn't diminished one bit in God's eyes, nor should it in ours. But there is also the reality that anyone could die at any moment. Who sat in your worship service last Sunday that will not be there this Sunday, due to death? Were they ready to die? Who might be there this Sunday, but pass away before next Sunday? Are they ready to die?
Granted, salvation is a work of the Holy Spirit. We can't make people believe and be saved, but we have been given the awesome responsibility of proclaiming God's Word faithfully and with authority so that people are without excuse for not believing.
The faithful proclamation of God's Word is no picnic, as Paul pointed out. Can you identify with any of what he had experienced, when he mentioned afflictions, hardships, and sleepless nights for proclaiming the gospel? If not, maybe you are not preaching a balanced law/grace message. For when we do, we are going to prick people's consciences and many will rebel against that -- taking out their anger on us for the guilt we stirred up within them.
Paul certainly knew how to fight the good fight of faith and faithfully proclaim the gospel without getting discouraged and giving up. May we be known for doing the same.
A Pastor's Prayer:
Dear Lord,
I desire that there be nothing standing between you and me. Please forgive me my sins. Thank you for saving my soul, Lord. Help me to proclaim your word in a law/grace balance, and as urgently as if this were the last Sunday that people will hear your word. May many come to faith in you before it is too late. Amen.
