Psalm 116:12-19

“What shall I return to the Lord for all his bounty to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord, I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people.” vss. 12-14

The psalmist knew that he owed the Lord big time for all the goodness that had come his way. He proposes to offer what sounds like a toast. He will lift the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord. That’s worship talk! In the temple in the presence of all the people he will offer a drink offering, call on the Lord, and everyone will hear his song of praise and hearty thanksgiving. Worship remains one of the best ways available for letting everyone know how grateful we are for all the blessings of God. In fact it’s one of the main reasons we gather. Week after week we come together to sing songs and hymns of praise. We remember the promise and the good news of forgiveness and hope that is ours in Christ Jesus. Even if the sermon is a dud we can offer prayers of thanksgiving and join in the singing. We eat the bread of life and drink from the cup of salvation that feeds our resurrected bodies and gives joy to our souls. And when our worship is over we leave with hearts full of thanksgiving. Our prayers have been heard. Healing has come! And it’s all a gift from God!

Thought for the Day: How will I pay my vows to the Lord?

Psalm 116:1-4

“I love the Lord, because he has heard my voice and my supplications. Because he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live.” vss. 1-2

We’re out of Lent now, surrounded by Easter, and some of us are missing the psalms of lament. Misery loves company and it was strangely consoling to hear the psalmist complain about God and give voice to feelings of depression and forsakenness. But it’s Easter now, and the tone of the assigned psalms has changed. This psalmist has a story to share, and it’s not depressing and sad. Oh, he has endured tough times and has even felt the chilling presence of death, but this time God heard his prayers and delivered him from suffering and pain. What a blessing it is when these days come in our lives! When answers are obvious and we are lifted from despair our thanksgiving is spontaneous and effusive, “Thank you, Jesus! I love you! Thanks for hearing my cry for help!” Too often we forget this side of faith and act as though Easter was just a momentary respite on the mostly dismal road to eternity. But that’s not how it is! Easter is a season and not just a day and it stretches on for as long as we endure. We live in the age of the Risen Christ and there will be regular times for joy on the journey. We should expect to see answers to prayer and signs of God’s reign. Every day is a day of thanksgiving! We have not been abandoned!

Thought for the Day: How have my prayers been answered?

Acts 2:14a, 36-41

“For the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him.” vs. 39

Peter and the other apostles knew one thing: the incredible promise of forgiveness that had been given them in Christ Jesus was meant to be shared! There would be no holding back. Those early followers used every means they could to pass on the good news, first for those within sound of their voices but ultimately for everyone on the planet. And now it’s our turn! It’s that first part of the mission that sometimes gives us fits. We know how important the promise is for us…it gives hope and security now and forever. But we worry about our kids! Will they follow Jesus and be secure in his love, or will they go off on their own, chasing the promises offered by other gods? How gratifying it is when we see them making Jesus connections and living the new life in Christ…and when we see our grandchildren walking in the Way it’s a double blessing. Of course we can’t control outcomes…and we can’t force children to become believers. And it’s good to know that they never fall out of God’s love. Even when they wander off God never leaves their sides…and the promise is always there for them. The best we can do is love them unconditionally in every circumstance. The rest is up to the Holy Spirit.

Thought for the Day: What’s the best way to pass on the faith?

John 20:27-31

“Jesus said to him, ‘Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.’” vs. 29

Thomas saw and believed, not through his own understanding or effort, but because the Risen Jesus came to him, and he was immediately convinced. It was like being hit over the head with a two by four…there wasn’t any consideration given to a continuance of doubt. From that point on he was a believer…and tradition tells us that he went out with the gospel and founded the Church of Christ in India. Doubtless thousands of people came to believe in the Risen Christ through his preaching and teaching. They had not seen as Thomas saw and yet they had become fervent believers, not by their own understanding or effort, but through the influence of the Holy Spirit…and Jesus calls such persons blessed. There has probably been no truer word spoken in all the centuries since. Faith is a blessing! We can see that particularly when we encounter those who live with no faith, those who have no resources to deal with the challenges and questions of life. Such persons seem so lost. They have no one to turn to, no center of their being, no focus for life. In contrast people of faith can be confident in every moment of trial. It’s not that they are never visited by anxiety or worry…those feelings are bound to come…but God’s amazing grace is always present, and blessings abound!

Thought for the Day: How have I been blessed by faith?

John 20:24-26

“So the other disciples told him, ‘We have seen the Lord.’ But he said to them, ‘Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.’” vs. 25

There is an intensely personal dimension to faith. Just because someone has seen Jesus and come to believe does not insure that those who hear the story will also become believers. We might wish that this was not so. We would love it if all who heard our testimony would also believe it. But that’s not how it works. Those things which we say to others about the Christ will fall on deaf ears until the Holy Spirit opens the heart. Maybe that’s what Thomas was missing. He wasn’t there when Jesus breathed the Spirit on the other disciples…and without the Spirit faith was impossible. That’s why Martin Luther wrote in his Small Catechism, “I believe that I cannot by my own understanding or effort believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to him, but the Holy Spirit has called me through the gospel…” Those words remind us that even if we can’t convince people to believe, it’s essential to share the good news of forgiveness and love that comes to us through Jesus. In that gospel message, lived and proclaimed, the Holy Spirit touches hearts and minds, and faith is birthed.

Thought for the Day: How did the Holy Spirit lead me to faith?

John 20:19-23

“If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” vs. 23

According to John after the resurrection Jesus breathed the Holy Spirit into the disciples and told them that they were the extension of his mission. Moreover it is clearly implied that forgiving sins would be their central activity, that nothing was more important. Through the years the church has taken this imperative seriously and forgiveness has always been at the center of its proclamation. In fact there were times in our history when church leaders managed to parlay the forgiveness mandate into a huge money-maker, something that most folks think was not a part of Jesus’s original intention. They could do this because forgiveness is such a big deal in the lives of sinners. All of us sin and all need the assurance of forgiveness…and some were even willing to pay for it! During his ministry Martin Luther spoke against this abuse of God’s greatest gift. He said that forgiveness was costly, but that it was free and available to all who believe. More than that he taught that church leaders weren’t the only ones who could forgive but that any believer could and should freely forgive the sins of others. It’s one of the things we’re called to do in our resurrected life. Jesus freely forgave and so will we. We’ll listen to the confessions of brothers and sisters and offer them the sweet forgiveness that is our gospel legacy.

Thought for the Day: What happens when I forgive others?

1 Peter 1:3-9

“Although you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, for you are receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” vss. 8-9

We believers are a curious lot. Although we never saw Jesus during his earthly sojourn, and even though we don’t now see him in the flesh, guided by the Spirit we continue to trust in his love and serve him with joy. That’s what faith does for us…and that’s why we hang on to it so tightly through our entire lives. As the book of Hebrews puts it, “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen,” and it is undoubtedly our most precious possession. By faith we celebrated the resurrection of Jesus on Easter and by faith we celebrate our own resurrection every single morning. We who have been bought with a price rejoice daily at the generosity of God’s grace and expansive forgiveness. That faith is never diminished or threatened by suffering or pain but instead grows stronger in the face of adversity much as steel is tempered by exposure to fire. Sometimes we might question why we believe while others don’t…and there’s really no good answer. All we can say is that faith is a magnificent blessing. It brings smiles to our faces and joy to our hearts, and we can scarcely ask for anything more!

Thought for the Day: What blessings does faith bring to me?

Psalm 16:7-11

“You show me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy; in your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” vs. 11

Sometimes we forget that we can get a powerful dose of gospel from the Old Testament and today’s passage is a perfect example. What the psalmist describes here is nothing less than the resurrected life that we have in Christ Jesus. During the Easter season we are regularly reminded that Jesus is alive and that we are accompanied and guided by his Spirit along the path of life. The psalmist knew that feeling and reports that there is fullness of joy on that never-ending adventure. We don’t know exactly where the Spirit will take us…as the gospel writer John reports, the Spirit blows where it wills…but we do know that life in Christ will be exciting and purposeful. There will be a mission and our days will have value, not only to ourselves, but to others. And even more that that, there will be pleasure, something that Christians have too often been taught to avoid. How sad it is that the good news has been so terribly distorted that believers think it’s a sin to experience joy and pleasure in this life! We’ve spent so much time talking about the suffering that goes with discipleship that some of us have missed out on the good stuff. There’s laughter and joy aplenty as we take pleasure in our new resurrected lives. This is life as it’s intended to be lived…and behold, it is very good!

Thought for the Day: What gives me pleasure?

Psalm 16:1-6

“Protect me, O God, for in you I take refuge. I say to the Lord, ‘You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you.’” vss. 1-2

Lent is over and Easter has begun. Through these next weeks we’ll be reflecting on the shape of the resurrected life we have in Christ Jesus. Last Sunday it was good to come together for our annual Easter morning pep rally and sing the old familiar songs of triumph and praise. It was a time for scattered families to gather and hear encouraging words, that Jesus is alive and present among us. We saw people at worship that we haven’t seen since last Easter…and it was good to see them. Some were there as a matter of faith…it’s what they do every Sunday. For others worship wasn’t so much conviction as it was tradition…it’s what their family does on Easter. No matter! At least they were there. And if their ears were open they heard the good news that their loving Lord has set them free from every sort of fear, even the fear of death. And more than that, they heard the echo of the psalmist’s claim that the Lord is the proper center of every human life. When our own goodness fails us and we fall prey to the whispered invitations of lesser gods, the Risen Christ renews our hearts with love and through the Spirit continues the work of transformation. We are becoming the people our Creator has made us to be. We have been made alive together with Christ…and through him our Easter continues!

Thought for the Day: How will I celebrate Easter today?

Acts 2:14a, 22-33

“This Jesus God raised up, and of that all of us are witnesses.” vs. 32

There are a lot of explanations for the rapid expansion of Christianity in the first century. Some credit Paul with developing a message that offered freedom and hope to God-seekers, and that appealed to both Jews and Gentiles. Without him, they say, no one would even remember that crucified rabbi from Nazareth. It’s interesting to consider such arguments but the true explanation for the growth is much simpler. Jesus was raised up from the dead by God, and his disciples were transformed by the continuing presence of his Spirit among them. Simple Galilean fishermen staked their lives on the validity of their experience and began to spread the good news of new life in Christ. Some stayed close to home, others took to the road, and within twenty years of Jesus’ death, news of the resurrection had spread all over the Mediterranean area. We can certainly have different perspectives on the nature of the resurrected Jesus and debate the significance of the varying accounts of his appearances that appear in the four gospels, but we can’t deny that something big happened! And what is even more remarkable is that those Jesus encounters have continued into our own age, and now billions of people look to him as their Savior and Lord. And witnesses continue to give their testimony, speaking to family and friends of the God-connection that has come to them through Jesus., “Christ is Risen! He is risen indeed. Alleluia!” Of that all of us are witnesses!

Thought for the Day: What’s my favorite metaphor for the resurrection?