Scattering Seeds of Grace

In 722 BC, the Assyrian Empire conquered the Northern Kingdom of Israel after a three year siege of its capital city, Samaria.

The Assyrian practice was to deport the people of a conquered territory to other corners of their empire and repopulate that evacuated territory with foreigners.

So the Old Testament tribes that had inhabited the Northern Kingdom were relocated, lost their identity and are now lost to history.

The foreigners who were relocated to the Holy Land brought their pagan worship practices with them. They built their altars and offered their sacrifices to their foreign gods.

This displeased the God of Israel as His Holy Land was being violated by idolatry. So he punished these relocated foreigners.

They cried out to the Assyrian king for help. In response, a priest of the God of Israel was drafted to return to Israel and teach these foreigners how to worship God properly.

I don't suspect that this priest relished his assignment. True, he was able to return to his homeland. But now it was occupied by foreigners who were not at all like him.

Nevertheless, he did his job. No doubt he not only taught them the way to worship the God of Israel, but also why they ought to worship Him.

He would teach the story of creation and God's love for His first children, even after they rebelled against Him.

He would teach about God's judgment of a wicked world but His mercy for a man named Noah.

He would teach them about the covenant that God established with Abraham, the promise of land that God swore to give to Abraham's descendants.

He would teach that God rescued His people from slavery in Egypt through the leadership of Moses and how He brought them into the Holy Land under the leadership of Joshua.

This priest's teaching yielded mixed results. Although the foreigners began to worship the true God, they continued their pagan worship practices as well. Nice try, nameless priest. (2 Kings 17)

Fast forward 750 years to the ministry of Jesus. The descendants of those ancient foreigners became known as Samaritans. By Jesus' time they had long forsaken their idolatrous ways. They worshiped God according to the teachings of Moses and were eager for the coming of the Messiah.

Jesus spent time in conversation with one of these Samaritans, a woman, who came to realize that Jesus was more than a prophet. He was, in fact, the Messiah she was waiting for. She became her town's first evangelist and invited her neighbors to see this Jesus. (John 4)

When Jesus healed a group of lepers, only one came back to Him, praising God and offering his thanks to Jesus. That one was a Samaritan. (Luke 17)

Is it too far a stretch to think that the seeds of grace sown by a nameless priest, added to and watered by others over the generations, took root and bore fruit 750 years later? I don't think that's a stretch at all.

As Greg Finke writes in his book Joining Jesus on His Mission, "Jesus speaks of little seeds through which God grows mighty works. Our job is not the mighty works; our job is the little seeds."

A nameless priest planted little seeds 700 years before Jesus was born. God grew the mighty works.

What seeds can you plant today?

Why Jesus Wants Us To Love Our Enemies

I have always loved the story of Naaman (2 Kings 5).

It's the story of the commander of the Syrian army who is afflicted with leprosy. He has a servant girl in his household who had been taken captive during a Syrian raid on the nation of Israel. She advises that Naaman consult the prophet Elisha in Israel to be cured of his leprosy.

Naaman pursues that course and travels to Israel. When Elisha, through a messenger, prescribes a series of seven baths in the Jordan River, Naaman is enraged and ready to head home. He had expected a personal audience with the esteemed prophet and some serious hocus-pocus. Bathing in the waters of the Jordan was beneath him.

However, the servants with him urge Naaman to follow the prophet's instructions. He does so and is cured of his leprosy.

I love this story because it's a pointer to the power of the waters of Holy Baptism -- water wedded to the Word of God works a miracle.

I love this story because it celebrates the nameless heroes of the faith -- the servant girl and the other servant who urged Naaman to consult and listen to Elisha.

I also love this story because it puts flesh and blood on the teaching of Jesus that we are to love our enemies.

This servant girl had no reason whatsoever to want to help Naaman. He and his soldiers had kidnaped her from her home and family. She was a slave in his household, living in a foreign land. Naaman was her enemy and the enemy of her people.

Nevertheless, she wants good for Naaman. She helps him to be cured of a terrible affliction. She shows love for her enemy.

As a result of his cure, Naaman becomes a believer in the God of Israel. He even takes soil from Israel back to Syria so he can erect an altar to the true God on holy ground.

One could ask, if Naaman became a believer in the Lord, would he also become sympathetic toward His people? Would his newfound faith influence how he advised the Syrian king when it came to Israel?

If so, the big picture of this story is that loving one's enemies, which is such an unnatural thing to do, can lead to those enemies becoming believers in the Lord and allies of His people.

Truly a story to be loved.

Marching as to War -- Against Whom?

My sister asked me why we don't sing some of the old standard hymns in church anymore. We sang them years ago. Why not now? One title she mentioned as an example was "Onward, Christian Soldiers."

I replied that hymns are generally chosen to fit the theme of the worship service, not just because we haven't sung them for awhile.

But then I commented specifically on her example of "Onward, Christian Soldiers." I told her that I personally don't like the militaristic tone of the hymn as it urges us to go "marching as to war."

Don't mistake what I am saying. I believe that the Church on earth is the Church Militant, the Church in battle. I likewise believe in the reality of spiritual warfare and that the Church has an enemy whose every effort is bent on the Church's destruction.

Nevertheless, I also guard strongly against any notion, thought, or inkling that people are to be treated like the enemy. I am concerned that an overly militaristic fervor might have us targeting the wrong foe.

The enemy is not the LGBTQ community. The enemy is not pornographers and sex peddlers. The enemy is not radical atheists. The enemy is not street gangs. In short, the enemy is not people.

St. Paul reminds us that the Church's struggle is against spiritual forces of evil, not against flesh and blood.

Those who have not known the love of God, or worse, have rejected it, are not the ones we are to war against. They are Prisoners of War, victims of the Church's true enemy, Satan.

Those who stand opposed to Jesus are still people for whom Jesus died. They are still people that Jesus tells us to love, just as He loves them.

In a wayward culture that is drifting further away from the truth of God's Word and the practice of God's love, the Church needs more than ever to hold fast to the teachings of Jesus. We need to be ready at all times to speak a massive amount of God's truth, delivered with a mega-dose of God's love.

But we need to regard that same wayward culture as our mission field, not our battlefield. The Church's warfare is always spiritual, and the battles are best fought not on Twitter nor on Facebook, but on our knees.

A Lesson from King Solomon

King Solomon, the son of David, was a golden boy. Ruling a kingdom of unrivaled peace, wealth, and prosperity. World leaders coming to Jerusalem to hear Solomon's wisdom and to enter into lucrative trade agreements. In short, he had it ALL!

We are told in 1 Kings 11, "King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women."

That became his downfall, and the downfall of his nation.

These foreign women brought with them their foreign gods.

Solomon catered to his wives, established places of worship for their gods, and himself became an idolater.

As a result the Golden Era of Israel would end with Solomon and his kingdom would be torn in two following his death.

Let's take a lesson from King Solomon. That lesson is: the Lord asks one thing of us -- faithfulness.

Revelation 2:10 plainly states, "Be faithful unto death and I will give you the crown of life."

We are not told that we have to earn the favor of our Lord. That favor is offered freely as a gift of divine grace, with no strings attached. All that is asked of us is that we receive the gift and remain faithful.

Just as a husband desires his wife's faithful love, so the Lord Jesus asks the same of His bride, the Church.

So can we be surprised at the decline of the Church at large in our culture when 1) our culture is drifting away from God in general and 2) the Church is drifting away from her Bridegroom, Jesus.

One can suspect that there is a "cause and effect" relationship between 1 and 2. And I would argue that the Church is the cause.

I offer for consideration a simple truth: As goes the Church, so goes the nation.

When the Church's faithful presence and proclamation decline, when the salt loses its saltiness and the lamp gets hidden, the culture cannot help but become darker and tasteless.

We in the Church bemoan the decline of the culture or the country. The sad truth is that it's not solely the culture's fault.

More often than not, it's because the Church has quit being the Church. We have lost our first love. We, like Solomon, have loved what is foreign.

In the Arena

On April 23, 1910, President Theodore Roosevelt delivered an address at the Sorbonne in Paris, France, entitled "Citizenship in a Republic."

Early in his address was a passage that is referred to as "The Man in the Arena."

It begins: It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly.

"It is not the critic who counts."

The job of the critic is to critique, even to criticize. We often call it being the "Monday morning quarterback."

Whether the arena is sports, art, food, or movies, the critic's job is always the same: make careful observations and render his or her opinion of the performance.

Roosevelt would remind us, however, that it is not the critic who counts, but the person in the arena itself.

Jesus was always the person in the arena.

He enters the home of a prominent Pharisee on a Sabbath Day and all eyes are on Him to see if He will dare to heal a man in violation of Sabbath laws (Luke 14:1-6).

The crowd brings before Him a woman caught in adultery to see if he will uphold the law and consent to her being stoned to death for her sin (John 8:1-11).

The religious leaders complain that Jesus doesn't teach His followers to follow the Jewish purification rituals (Mark 7:1-8).

When the crowd in the Nazareth synagogue takes issue with Jesus' assertion that He is the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy, they attempt to toss Him over a cliff at the edge of the city (Luke 4:16-30).

Jesus was always the person in the arena. He always had critical eyes focused on Him.

So do His followers.

If you as a follower of Jesus have friends, neighbors, relatives, or co-workers who are not followers of Jesus, be assured that you have critical eyes focused on you.

People who don't follow Jesus watch His followers to see how we will respond and react to the events in our lives.

Do we complain about the boss? Do we curse at the computer or copy machine? Do we speak disrespectfully of our spouse? Do we grouse about our children? Do we gossip about the next door neighbor? Do we lie or cheat or steal?

We become the gauge by which people evaluate Jesus and those who claim to follow Him.

As it was with Jesus, so it is with us. We are always in the arena.

Jesus didn't win friends when in the arena. His compassion for the hurting and disregard for religious rules and traditions earned Him the hatred of His critics.

Likewise, Jesus' followers, those who choose compassion over complaint, mercy over malice, and right over wrong, might earn the contempt of their critics.

But they should know what Jesus and Teddy Roosevelt also knew. It is not the critic who counts. Rather, it is the person in the arena.

What are your arenas? And how will you conduct yourself in those arenas? The critics are watching.

Top Ten Reasons to Do Disaster Response Ministry

Hurricane Katrina is where I cut my teeth in Disaster Response Ministry. I helped the Indiana District of our national church body, the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod, plan its response to that disaster.

Over my years since Katrina I have learned a lot about disasters. I have been LERT (Lutheran Early Response Team) trained and CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) trained. I've learned about Incident Command and Disaster Preparedness. All of that training has been valuable and I've been able to share much of what I've learned with others.

I've also learned what I'm good at in a disaster. For example, I don't handle a chainsaw. I generally handle a Comfort Dog and spend time with the victims of disaster. I've learned that I'm better with people than with power tools.

I've especially learned that there's a lot that I still need to learn.

Nevertheless, I have come up with a list of the Top Ten Reasons to Do Disaster Response Ministry.

10. You travel to new places. Granted, you may not see these places at their best, but every deployment gives the opportunity to visit a part of the country that may be new to you. Even in driving from one shelter to another, you see the sights along the way. I've enjoyed beignets in the French Quarter, seen from afar the Statue of Liberty, felt the damp chill of New England in December, and paid my respects at the memorial to the victims of the 1995 Murrah Federal Building bombing in Oklahoma City.

9. You meet great everyday heroes: police officers and firefighters, EMS crews and 911 dispatchers, ER nurses, volunteers from across the nation, and local residents who all pitch in to help in the crisis.

8. You hear powerful stories of faith and courage in the face of overwhelming adversity. These stories will inspire when you hear them and will inspire others when you share them.

7. You are privileged to work side by side with others whose hearts overflow with compassion for the hurting. Friendships are forged in the course of serving in a disaster. You are part of a team and you grow close to your teammates as you rely on each other during the deployment.

6. At the end of each day, your heart is filled with gratitude for the blessings that God has bestowed on you. Caring for the hurting, the grieving, the confused, and the frightened puts your life in perspective and keeps you from taking God's goodness for granted.

5. In my case, I get to partner with the Comfort Dogs from Lutheran Church Charities. These highly trained and skilled golden retrievers serve as the bridge for Disaster Response Ministry. The comfort that they provide to the victims of disaster has to be seen to be understood. With their unconditional love and the gift of hope they inspire, these dogs bring healing to hurting spirits.

4. You marvel at the "God Moments" that occur each day of the deployment. The day may begin with "Why are we spending time at this location?" The day will end with "That's why God had us go there."

3. Caring for people in disaster increases your capacity to notice and care for the people in need that you encounter each and every day. That neighbor or co-worker or friend may be in their own personal crisis. It won't make the headlines, and they may not bring it up to you, but you will learn to recognize the look in the eye or the body language that cries out, "Help me!"

2. You hone your Christian caregiving skills. Phrases like "How can I help you in prayer?" become natural. So does using your ears more than your mouth. You discover the healing power of a hug or a hand on a shoulder. You find your "go to" Bible passages that speak hope to the hurting. (Mine is Psalm 23, "The Lord is my shepherd ... ")

And the Number 1 Reason to Do Disaster Response Ministry is: You receive the blessing of being the vessel that brings the Compassion, Mercy, Presence, and Proclamation of Christ to those who are hurting. You make a difference in the name of Jesus. What more could you want at the end of the day?

Health Tip for Today: Do the will of the One who sent you

Healthy Eating! It's all the rage in a nation that wrestles with obesity.

On a daily basis we are told by the experts what foods are the best for us (as in the "Top 10 Healthiest Foods" pictured here) and in what portions we should eat them and how many times a day we should eat them and how we should prepare them and on and on and on...
Even though there may be disagreements about the details of healthy eating, one thing that everyone who eats agrees on is this: in order to be healthy, we need to eat food.

The same can be said of our spiritual health. It also requires food. Jesus even tells us what food we should eat to nourish our spirits.

I know that some of you are assuming that I'm referring to the Word of God. That would be a good assumption.

Others of you might have the Lord's Supper in mind. Another good possibility.

In fact, our spiritual life depends on God's Word and the Lord's Supper as indispensable means through which God gives us His grace. To remove them from our spiritual diet is to starve our soul to (eternal) death.

But in John 4, while the woman at the well is off telling her fellow villagers about this man she met who told her everything she had done in her life, Jesus has a chit-chat with His disciples. They have urged Him to eat some of the food they have purchased. In response He tells them that He has food that they don't know about. They think that someone gave Him some food in their absence. He explains that His food is to do the will of the One who sent Him.

In other words, what nourished Jesus spiritually, what kept Him healthy in His soul, was to obey His Father's will and finish His work.

Jesus then pointed to the mission of reaping the harvest of people in whom the promises of God had been planted. The fields, He explained, were ripe and just waiting to be harvested. People were ready to be gathered into eternal life.

Jesus says His food is to do the will and work of God and links it with the mission of the church. If the will and work of God and the reaping of the mission harvest nourished Jesus, they will also nourish His followers.

Simply put, if you want to be spiritually fed, be in mission.

If you want to be spiritually healthy, be in mission.

If you want to do the will and work of God, be in mission.