Encouragement While We Wait

For July 24, 2011
Scriptures are from The Message

Last week we ended by reading Paul’s observation in Romans 8:15-25 that we live in a very imperfect world and hope/wish for/anticipate the time when God’s new creation would be born and all of the bad stuff would be removed from world. He made references to the variety of emotions and physical pain of child birth as an analogy, and we see that idea again today. One vision of this new creation comes from Isaiah 65:17-25 – Look ahead with joy. Anticipate what I'm creating… No more sounds of weeping in the city, no cries of anguish… Today Paul tells us that in the midst of all the imperfections of our present world and our personal tragedies and disappointments – God is with us!

Romans 8:26-28 Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God's Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don't know how or what to pray, it doesn't matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That's why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.

• What is the Spirit’s role in our prayer life? What problems are overcome through this presence? Do we need to have a “correct” form and format for our prayers?
• Can we be praying without even being aware of it? What examples does he give of “non-prayer” prayers? What are your thoughts about this and can you relate to it?
• Describe the depth of knowledge the Spirit has of us. What is done because of that knowledge? What does being kept “present before God” mean to you?
• What part of our lives is “worked into something good” by God? What meaning does this have for you as you travel through your faith journey? What does it tell us about the place Paul thinks that the focus should be for our lives? What will happen to our other priorities if our focus is on loving God?
• Read the following thoughts on prayer – what is your reaction?
The first real step on the road to prayer is to recognize that none of us knows how to pray as we ought. Prayer isn’t rooted in a how but a who. There is no special kit we need buy. Prayer is a life of relationship we live into. As we bring our desires to God, we find the Spirit takes our prayers… (and) our feeble, clumsy, inarticulate prayers are cleansed, (and presented to God).
Trygve David Johnson, chaplain of Hope College in Holland, Michigan.

Romans 8:31-39 (Part 1) So, what do you think? With God on our side like this, how can we lose? If God didn't hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn't gladly and freely do for us? And who would dare tangle with God by messing with one of God's chosen? Who would dare even to point a finger? The One who died for us—who was raised to life for us!—is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us. Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ's love for us?
• Summarize the good news in this scripture, why should we be encouraged? What proof do we have that God is on our side?
• So what do you think? What does Paul mean writing, “With God on our side… how can we lose?” What won’t be lost? As we live our lives are there things that will in fact be lost? How do you resolve this seeming conflict between the promise and reality?
• Similarly, what is meant by God will ‘gladly and freely’ do anything for us? What does that mean as we suffer with the inevitable trials and tragedies of life? What does God give us during those times, what have you experienced during those times, and what did God give you?
• What are some things we know about the nature of Jesus’ love for us? How would you summarize your understanding of that love? What are some ways in which it was demonstrated?
• Who can in fact drive a wedge between Christ and ourselves? Who is the only person who has that power? Even if we separate ourselves from Christ is his love for us diminished or withdrawn?

Paul is not being glib or superficial with the following words; he has experienced all of these things and more in his ministry as he traveled throughout modern day Turkey and Greece and ended with what many believe was execution in Rome. Remember that as you read them.

Romans 8:31-39 (Part 2) There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture:
They kill us in cold blood because they hate you.
We're sitting ducks; they pick us off one by one.
None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us. I'm absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God's love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us.
• What has been your experience of the effect of hard times on your faith? Did it strengthen or weaken? Did ever have a feeling that you were separated from God while undergoing life’s trials?
• What do you think about this observation:
I count at least twenty demons that threaten to undo us mentioned by Paul—suffering, weakness, frustration, bondage to decay, ignorance, trouble, hardship, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, sword, death, life, angels, demons, powers, the present, the future, heights, depths, and as if that were not enough, "anything else in all creation." None of these can separate you from God's love. You can personalize your own list, too: parents, children, your boss, employees, colleagues, foolish choices, bedeviling sins, public failure, private disappointments, anxieties, school, a bad business deal, and on it goes.
Reflections By Dan Clendenin
• Paul remains unfazed by all of his trials, what does that say about him as a person, his spirituality, the focus of his life? Is it possible for us to even approach his level of devotion and focus? Do you think that God makes allowances for our human shortcomings?
• Where are you as you think about what Paul wrote? What encourages you and what questions do you have?

Closing Litany (From Psalm 105)
Thank God! Pray to him by name!
Tell everyone you meet what he has done!
Honor his holy name with Hallelujahs,
you who seek God. Live a happy life!
Keep your eyes open for God, watch for his works;
be alert for signs of his presence.
Remember the world of wonders he has made,
Hallelujah!

Next Week’s Lectionary Scriptures: Genesis 32:22-31 or Isaiah 55:1-5, Psalm 17:1-7, 15 or Psalm 145:8-9, 14-21, Romans 9:1-5, Matthew 14:13-21

Anxious Anticipation

For 7/17/2011
Scriptures are from The Message

Paul has just written in his letter to the church at Rome about the power and freedom that comes with living by the Spirit. Now, after an initial reaffirmation he injects a dose of reality – our faith journey will encounter some serious bumps in the road and we will long for resurrection of ourselves and all of creation.

Romans 8:15-17 This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It's adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike "What's next, Papa?" God's Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children. And we know we are going to get what's coming to us—an unbelievable inheritance! We go through exactly what Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with him, then we're certainly going to go through the good times with him!

· How does he describe our “resurrection life”, what words does he use? How does it speak to us about what we should expect in our congregational life?
· What should we anticipate if we allow ourselves to be led by the Spirit? Do you associate words like “adventurously expectant” to any portion of your faith journey? Can you see this attitude and relationship with God in the way Paul lived his life? Does he set too high a standard for us? Should we be frustrated or encouraged by these promises?
· Is your faith journey in any way based on seeing God as a loving father? What other images or pictures do you use in your relationship with God?
· What inhibits a willingness in us to approach God saying, “What’s next Papa?” Have you ever done anything like that – how did it work out?
· What is the promise that we should remember in our hard times? Who should we expect to be with us during the good and bad? Does the reality that Christ went thru hard and good times have any meaning for you as you experience life?

Paul now leads us back to reality, in the midst of the hope, freedom and power that comes from living by the Spirit exists in a very imperfect world. We have the promise and yet we must wait patiently for the new creation. Early in his ministry Paul believed that this new creation could come about in his lifetime but it seems to have been modified as time went on.

Romans 8:18-21That's why I don't think there's any comparison between the present hard times and the coming good times. The created world itself can hardly wait for what's coming next. Everything in creation is being more or less held back. God reins it in until both creation and all the creatures are ready and can be released at the same moment into the glorious times ahead. Meanwhile, the joyful anticipation deepens.

· What would you include on a list of examples of “the present hard times”? Is this a new phenomenon or is it part of the human condition?
· Are there people in our world who are going through difficult times because of their faith – any examples? How about here in North America? Do you know of people who have sacrificed and taken risks to be God’s good news to others? Think not only of the big things but everyday acts of sacrifice and risk taking.
· Paul anticipates that transformation will occur in all of creation not just in humankind. Does the idea of transforming creation resonate with you? What has occurred in nature during the past year that a new creation would exclude?
· When does Paul tell us this transformation of creation take place? What does it tell you about God? Can we explain why we must wait?
· What needs to be present in our faith life for us to have a sense of “joyful anticipation” about a new creation? Do you have a picture of what that new creation might look like? Isaiah saw it this way:

Selected verses from Isaiah 65:17-25 "Pay close attention now: I'm creating new heavens and a new earth. All the earlier troubles, chaos, and pain are things of the past, to be forgotten. Look ahead with joy. Anticipate what I'm creating… No more sounds of weeping in the city, no cries of anguish; No more babies dying in the cradle, or old people who don't enjoy a full lifetime; No more building a house that some outsider takes over, No more planting fields that some enemy confiscates, For my people will be as long-lived as trees, my chosen ones will have satisfaction in their work… Before they call out, I'll answer. Before they've finished speaking, I'll have heard… Neither animal nor human will hurt or kill anywhere on my Holy Mountain," says God.

As an exercise you might write your own description of what the anticipated new creation. Is it something to long for and really expect God to bring about?

Romans 8:22-25All around us we observe a pregnant creation. The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs. But it's not only around us; it's within us. The Spirit of God is arousing us within. We're also feeling the birth pangs. These sterile and barren bodies of ours are yearning for full deliverance. That is why waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don't see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy.

· Paul uses an analogy of the birth experience to give us a picture of our present situation. What have you seen or experienced happening in the last trimester of pregnancy? What keeps a pregnant mother going during these times?
· One of the reasons expectant mothers have joyful anticipation is the reality that of new life at the end of their pregnancy. Do you believe that God will eventually bring about a new creation? Do you expect to be part of it? Have Paul’s words today had any impact on your faith life? What questions do they raise?
· What about a new creation in our congregational life, what do these words say to us about what we should pray for?

Closing Litany (Matthew 7:12-14)
Don't look for shortcuts to God.
The market is flooded with surefire, easygoing formulas for a successful life that can be practiced in your spare time.
Don't fall for that stuff, even though crowds of people do.
The way to life—to God!—
is vigorous and requires total attention.
Amen

Next Week’s Lectionary Scriptures: Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52, Romans 8:26-39, Psalm 105:1-11, 45b or Psalm 119:129-136, Genesis 29:15-28 or 1 Kings 3:5-12

Our Human Nature Versus Our Spiritual Nature

For 7/13/2011

In Romans 7 Paul laid out a dilemma, that we want to do what is right but something in us causes us to fall short. He ends by saying, “He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different.” Today’s scripture builds on that idea.
Paul uses strong words and images to make his points reflecting both his passion and as a way to penetrate into our thinking. Remember as a Pharisee he is an expert on the real world of living by the letter of the law, knowing it, knowing it’s interpretation, knowing how to apply it to all facets of life.

1-2With the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah, that fateful dilemma is resolved. Those who enter into Christ's being-here-for-us no longer have to live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud. A new power is in operation. The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death.
3-4God went for the jugular when he sent his own Son. He didn't deal with the problem as something remote and unimportant. In his Son, Jesus, he personally took on the human condition, entered the disordered mess of struggling humanity in order to set it right once and for all. The law code, weakened as it always was by fractured human nature, could never have done that. The law always ended up being used as a Band-Aid on sin instead of a deep healing of it. And now what the law code asked for but we couldn't deliver is accomplished as we, instead of redoubling our own efforts, simply embrace what the Spirit is doing in us.

· Paul speaks to us about the solution to the dilemma of living as spiritual people. What must we do to avoid that ‘low-lying black cloud”? Do the words “Christ’s being-here-for-us” have meaning for you?
· Paul speaks of a new power; for review what was the old power? What is the imagery used to illustrate the freedom Christ and the Spirit of Life bring? Can you think of any examples of this “new power” “clearing the air” in your experience?
· What are we freed from and what practical meaning does it have for you? Do you feel that your faith has ever freed you from anything? Are there things that you would like to be freed from?
· What important about the way in which God dealt with humanities’ problem? What does sending Jesus say about God’s approach to dealing with the human condition? How do you feel about that fact?
· We have not overcome the “disordered mess of struggling humanity” as a whole? Why is this? What is keeping God’s good intentions from becoming a reality? Can we be part of the solution – how?
· Is the “deep healing” of the problems of the human condition complex? How do we “embrace what the Spirit is doing in us”? What has to happen in order for this to occur?

Paul with more words on God’s intentions for us:

9-11But if God himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of him. Anyone, of course, who has not welcomed this invisible but clearly present God, the Spirit of Christ, won't know what we're talking about. But for you who welcome him, in whom he dwells—even though you still experience all the limitations of sin—you yourself experience life on God's terms. It stands to reason, doesn't it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he'll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ's!

· The first idea is for God to take up “residence in your life”. Have you ever had anyone do this for you? What was it like, what role did that person take, did it change your behavior? What meaning does Paul intend in these words for our understanding of what a faith life is like?
· What is it clear doesn’t change, if God is in residence does the pull of sin go away? What is different then? What does “experiencing life on God’s terms” mean to you? Whose terms are we experiencing it on if we don’t do this? Practically what difference does God’s presence make when we face the challenges of life? Would we deal with others or handle issues differently?
· The last section speaks to a new life with God’s presence. When you think about Jesus’ resurrection what are the implications of God “bringing you alive to himself”? Have you ever experienced something that made a real difference in your life? Something that changed the way in which you comprehend things, priorities, or sense of your abilities or skills? Can our faith change us in this way?
· How about God living and breathing in us? How does that imagery strike you? Does it come with any reservations? What is the promise for us with that new life within us?
· Paul wrote about this change in many different ways. One was in the letter to the Galatians:

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

This seems like good news to me.

Closing Litany (from Psalm 139)
LORD, you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

Next Week’s Scriptures: Genesis 28:10-19a, Psalm 139:1-12, 23-24, Romans 8:12-25, Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

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Right Living and Pleasing God

For 7/3/2011

Paul’s letter to the church in Rome can be very difficult to follow but contains the most complete recording of his theology as it had evolved over his life. Today’s scripture comes after a difficult discussion of the Jewish law and why it is both holy and a problem. Before Paul’s encounter with Christ on the road to Damascus he was a devout Pharisee, a Jewish sect which sought to live in complete observance of the Jewish Law. Their life centered around knowing every detail of the Jewish Law including all of its interpretations, i.e. what specifically constitutes working on the Sabbath. You can almost sense his struggle to come to terms with his radically different understanding of the role of the Law as something both holy and now irrelevant as you read Romans 7. This may seem only of academic interest but it raises question for us in our times.

Paul and the Law:

Romans 7:6 But now that we're no longer shackled to that domineering mate of sin, and out from under all those oppressive regulations and fine print, we're free to live a new life in the freedom of God. 7 But I can hear you say, "If the law code was as bad as all that, it's no better than sin itself." That's certainly not true. The law code had a perfectly legitimate function. Without its clear guidelines for right and wrong, moral behavior would be mostly guesswork. Apart from the succinct, surgical command, "You shall not covet," I could have dressed covetousness up to look like a virtue and ruined my life with it.

· What problem did Paul have with the law?
· What does he now see as the purpose for the law? Is a moral structure with do’s and don’ts important to us for right living?
· Where did your understanding of right living come from? How much of it developed as a part of your Christian faith?
· What do you feel are the consequences for living outside of your understanding of proper behavior? What do you feel badly or worry about when the inevitable shortcomings occur? Has any consideration of your relationship with God ever occurred.

The following from Paul by C. K. Barrett might help us understand some of Paul’s concerns about relying on the law for a right relationship with God:

Law is in essence religion and religion is a specific way of dealing with the supernatural. It may leave man confident that the supernatural is being kept firmly in its place, that God personifying the supernatural – is being properly handled by the appropriate procedures and will do no harm or even make impossible demands …
· What is your reaction to his observation of a reliance on proper behavior as the basis for a right relationship with God?

In spite of the awareness he has of good and bad living Paul writes of the frustration that he experiences trying to be true to it:

Romans 7:21-23 It happens so regularly that it's predictable. The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. I truly delight in God's commands, but it's pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge.
24I've tried everything and nothing helps. I'm at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn't that the real question?
25The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different.
· What has Paul discovered about himself? Can you relate to this sense of frustration? Paul says that “Parts of me covertly rebel”, are there basic flaws in human nature that cause this to happen?
· In verse 24 Paul says that he is “at the end of my rope.” How important does it appear that inappropriate behavior affects him? Are there particular shortcomings that you carry with you and give you this kind of angst?
· This scripture is the point of departure for Paul to living a spiritual life with God’s saving grace. Has your faith life helped you deal with the “contradictions” he speaks of? Do you think that guilt can be proportional to our desire to serve God?
· What did Jesus do to “set things right”? How are our shortcomings dealt with now? Paul gives us a hint in Galatians 2:21:

I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!"

Honoring the Law is was not restricted to the Jews of Paul’s time, early on in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus gives us his teaching on the law:

Matthew 5:17-18"Don't suppose for a minute that I have come to demolish the Scriptures— either God's Law or the Prophets. I'm not here to demolish but to complete. I am going to put it all together, pull it all together in a vast panorama. God's Law is more real and lasting than the stars in the sky and the ground at your feet. Long after stars burn out and earth wears out, God's Law will be alive and working.
· Jesus seems to place heavy emphasis on compliance with the Law. Does this seem to contradict Paul’s ideas we discussed above? Can you see why the Jerusalem Christian converts might place a strong emphasis on continuing to live in compliance with the Law?
· Jesus tells us he came to complete the Law, what do you think that he meant by that? What might have been missing before Jesus came? Does this make any sense to you?

Maybe a final word from Paul might help:

Romans 12:1-2 So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.
· Where does our understanding of and ability to live in accordance with God’s will come from?
· What have you learned from this, what questions do you have?

Closing Litany

For it is by grace we are saved through faith, it is not our own doing. It is God’s gift, not a reward for work done. We are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for the life of good deeds which God designed for us. Amen From Ephesians 2:8-10

Next Week’s Lectionary Scriptures: Genesis 25:19-34 or Isaiah 55:10-13, Psalm 119:105-112 or Psalm 65:(1-8), 9-13, Romans 8:1-11, Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

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