Loving Jesus Style

Yesterday, some person or persons unknown thought it would be a good idea to place bombs at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. Today all we can do is pray for the victims and for all the citizens of this nation and world to embrace peace and justice. O Lord, you are the creator of this world and all the worlds in this universe. We praise you for your obvious overflowing love for all your creatures. While it is true that darkness and evil exist in our world we know that we humans enticed by Satan and his Demons incite evil acts such as yesterday's bombing. Help us dear God to learn to reject the evil and choose the good. May we learn to celebrate the image of God that exists within each member of this human race. Help us to love our neighbors with that same love you showed on Calvary. A love so strong it can bend even the most evil deed toward the peace and justice that God desires for this universe. Teach us to reject all cynicism that would cause us to doubt you. Help u...

Mini Devotion for Good Friday Psalm 118:24 (NRSV) 24 This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. Meditation: I went outside today and found a beautiful spring day. The sun was shining, the birds were singing and all I could think about was that the weatherperson had said that it was going to get colder again in a few days. That’s when God smacked me upside the head and said today is the day I have made just for you. I wanted to make you happy but I guess nothing will make you happy. Sure it will be colder in a few days, it’ll be so hot you fry and egg on the sidewalk in July, and it will be freezing again in nine months. But you don’t know that you will live to see any of that do you? So rejoice in this day because I’ve given it to you to enjoy right now, right here. As I reflected on this I thought about what Good Friday stands for. Jesus dying a humiliating death on a cross. I wondered how I was given the gift of enjoying a beautiful d...

Scripture: Matthew 27:1–61 (NRSV) Selected Verses 27 When morning came, all the chief priests and the elders of the people conferred together against Jesus in order to bring about his death. 2  They bound him, led him away, and handed him over to Pilate the governor. 11  Now Jesus stood before the governor; and the governor asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus said, “You say so.” 12  But when he was accused by the chief priests and elders, he did not answer. 13  Then Pilate said to him, “Do you not hear how many accusations they make against you?” 14  But he gave him no answer, not even to a single charge, so that the governor was greatly amazed. 26  So he released Barabbas for them; and after flogging Jesus, he handed him over to be crucified. 27  Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor’s headquarters, and they gathered the whole cohort around him. 28  They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, ...

Scripture: Matthew 26:36–42 (NRSV) 36  Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane; and he said to his disciples, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” 37  He took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be grieved and agitated. 38  Then he said to them, “I am deeply grieved, even to death; remain here, and stay awake with me.” 39  And going a little farther, he threw himself on the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not what I want but what you want.” 40  Then he came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and he said to Peter, “So, could you not stay awake with me one hour? 41  Stay awake and pray that you may not come into the time of trial; the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” 42  Again he went away for the second time and prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.” Meditation:     ...

Scripture: Luke 15:1–2 (NRSV) 15 Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. 2  And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.” Meditation:             I hear a lot of grumbling in the church today. I read complaints in my inbox daily about how this Christian leader or that Christian leader is eating with sinners of one type or another. It is enough to make me break down into tears. Table fellowship and peacemaking fit together like a hand in a glove. Jesus knew this that is why he invited himself to dinner with tax collectors like Zacchaeus and Matthew. Because Jesus wanted intimate relationships with those who were not religious he deliberately chose to eat with them.             So who today are the tax collectors and sinners that Jesus would have us eat with. Well ...

Scripture: Romans 2:1 (NRSV) 2 Therefore you have no excuse, whoever you are, when you judge others; for in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, are doing the very same things. Meditation:             I want to talk today about peacemaking and sexual brokenness. Not just about homosexuality although all that I say will likely be judged by that standard. As David Fitch and Geoff Holsclaw write in their new book Prodigal Christianity “Among Christians in North America, the issue of same-sex sexual relations has become the test case for what kind of Christian a person is. “Are you an evangelical who hates gays?” one side asks. “You must be a progressive who stands for nothing,” the other side responds. No matter what position you take, you are immediately shoved into one of these two groups and ostracized by the other. We talk past each other. And we fail many times to respond to thos...

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 13:4–7 (NRSV) 4  Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant 5  or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6  it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. 7  It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. Meditation:             These few verses from Paul’s famous chapter on Love in First Corinthians are a key to the inner life of the peacemaker. Those who desire to be peacemakers are pushed and pulled in all the same directions as the rest of mankind. The temptation to be arrogant or rude to someone certainly does not disappear just because one desires to become a peacemaker for the sake of Jesus and the Gospel.             In fact those who have walked that road ahead of us know that the temptations to ...