As soon as we heard it, our hearts failed, and there was no courage left in any of us because of you. The Lord your God is indeed God in heaven above and on earth below.
Matthew 28:19-20
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.
Words of Grace For Today
To encounter God is an awesome thing,
more terrifying than anything we have imagined or ever could imagine,
which brings our hearts to stop, and all things in us to cease to be, other than what God has given us.
…
When we realize that everything we need for life, abundant life, God has already given to us, then we can but be grateful for all that life has for us
…
and we will be ready to hand on everything that God has given us to others so that they may also live and live abundantly.
So we go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey the commandment Jesus gives us, to love our neighbours as ourselves, and even our enemies, and first that we love God with all our hearts, minds, and strengths.
Even when we see the face of God and hear God’s Word for us, as awesome and fearful as that is for us, we then trust always that God will walk with us to the end of all time.
All courage is given to us by the God that walks with us, each day, no matter how cold, no matter how hot, no matter the challenges our enemies place in our paths.
Let us celebrate each moment all the great wonders of each day.
My holy name I will make known among my people Israel; and I will not let my holy name be profaned any more; and the nations shall know that I am the Lord, the Holy One in Israel.
John 17:26
I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.
Words of Grace For Today
To know God’s name and to keep it holy is a gift given to us all, though we often, more often than we care to admit, we turn our back on the gifts from God and use God’s name in vain, and more as our own avenue for our own selfish wishes. All in vain.
God in God’s name is what brings us to live with grace and hope.
God in God’s name is what brings us to know the love that holds the universe together.
This is the gift that gives us life.
This is the gift that we turn away from when we follow our own ways, deceits, and greed.
This is the gift that God extends to us again and again, each time we turn away from God.
This day, which will it be for us, to turn from God, or to accept God’s grace bring us to return to God?
It will be both and neither, as God wishes.
So we live in God’s favour, blessed and living as we breathe.
Even More Than Those Visible in the Countless Clouds.
The One That Counts Is Each One of Us.
Joel 2:11-12
The Lord utters his voice at the head of his army; how vast is his host! Numberless are those who obey his command. Truly the day of the Lord is great; terrible indeed—who can endure it? Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.
Luke 12:36
Be like those who are waiting for their master to return from the wedding banquet, so that they may open the door for him as soon as he comes and knocks.
Words of Grace For Today
A clean blanket of soft snow gently covers the scars of days past, as the sun forgets to rise, or so one might think if one did not believe …
Doch!
How can one not believe since
God utters his voice at the head of his army; how vast is his host! Numberless are those who obey his command!
We have many a time already returned to God with our whole heart, perhaps with fasting and often with weeping and mourning at our sins, and awestruck by God’s Gracious love that renews full and abundant life in even our worst enemies who have many times tried to bring our death forward to one of these todays.
Who are we not to claim the hope that Christ has provided for us through our baptisms and the gifts of the Holy Spirit,
so that already overfilled with life only by Grace (not by our own merit or effort) we again this Advent (remembering that our waiting is also an every day attitude for us) wait for Jesus’ coming again as we would wait for our master to return from the wedding banquet, so that we may open the door for him as soon as he comes and knocks.
This we do out of complete gratitude and awe for God has also covered us with the clean blanket of Jesus’ soft forgiveness as it gently covers the scars of days past, even if the sun forgets to rise.
How else could we approach each day if not with such a deep faith as we receive and the Spirit nurtures in us?
Moses returned to the Lord and said, ‘Alas, this people has sinned a great sin; they have made for themselves gods of gold. But now, if you will only forgive their sin—but if not, blot me out of the book that you have written.’
Hebrews 3:12-13
Take care, brothers and sisters, that none of you may have an evil, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called ‘today’, so that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
Words of Grace For Today
Moses was more than disappointed in the people. He’d been up the mountain, talking with God, receiving the ten commandments. They had waited, grown impatient and decided to take things into their own hands. Progress. They gather all their gold, give it to Aaron and insist he make them an idol of a god that they can worship, just like the ‘good old days.’
This is quite a step away from God, the God who brought them out of harsh racist slavery (the thanks they receive for their forebearer Joseph’s saving the Egyptians all from drought and widespread death) into the hardships of freedom – in the wilderness – as they learn to live faithful and trusting God so that they are prepared to enter the Promised Land.
This step proves that this generation is not ready to enter the Promised Land and will not. Still God forgives them and goes with them, in the ark of the covenant, as they wander the wilderness, raising another generation who will be prepared to follow God into the Promised Land. Well that generation is as much an unprepared, unfaithful generation as the last, as are all the successive.
Fast forward to after Jesus’ birth, ministry, crucifixion, and resurrection and the leaders of the early church and honest ones in every generation up to today (and all people into the future) know that the temptations to take things into our own hands is overwhelming. People have constantly turned away from God to worship idols of their own making from their own treasures (whatever it is their hearts treasure that is not God’s steadfast love).
The writer of Hebrews does as well as most leaders: he admonishes all the people to exhort each other so that they will not ‘take things into their own hands’ and turn from God. This admonition is futile. Worse it sets the people up to play judge against each other, thus taking God’s Grace and turning it into everything but Grace.
This is God’s Word: fear and love God with all you heart, mind, and strength, yourself, your neighbour and especially your neighbour.
This is God’s Promise: God will forgive us our ‘taking things into our own hands’.
We need not fear God’s judgment. On every day that ends with ‘y’ (including each today) we get to bask in God’s favour, God’s Grace, and in God’s steadfast love. We get to forgive each other and offer each other the gifts of the ‘Promised Land’ that God has showered down on us.
It is he who made the earth by his power, who established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding stretched out the heavens.
Hebrews 11:3
By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the Word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible.
Words of Grace For Today
In the Beginning was the Word.
God’s Word.
God created with Word.
Words are powerful, and
when words belong to God they are the ultimate power.
So many people through all time have wanted proof that God exists and that God created.
God created us so that we can imagine other realities than God … and though they are fiction we are fully capable of losing track of reality and living as if our fictions are actually real. So much so that we have
fake news,
fake science,
science deniers,
antivaxxers,
conspiracy theories,
governments that do conspire to lie and thus control populations,
international corporations that conspire to ‘own’ our private information, lie about everything, and thus control populations and governments,
women and men who gaslight others, especially the ones who love them,
pastors and bishops and religious leaders of all kinds who use religious words to control people and gain an advantage for themselves and their families and their kind (of wacky followers of faked religious words),
judges and lawyers for whom dark is light, light is dark, good is evil, evil is good, and their chaos allows them to continue to issue fake facts, fake decisions, and fake convictions to control hurt, destroy and destory people using the force of the state, which destabilizes society with this barbaric use of force, inviting chaos to overrun society,
and
Covidiots (who with their stupidity are ready to kill so many people and even themselves!)
…
and people who are ready to act illegally for no good reason other than that they can, like cops, bullies, and … well so many people thinking they must get more for themselves to be secure.
All of this fiction lived as reality seems to work …
until it doesn’t and
God’s Word,
God’s Creation,
and
God’s Steadfast Love
start to mess with their supposed ‘advantage’, ‘privilege’, ‘comfort’, ‘status’, ‘power’.
By faith alone, we trust God’s Word …
to have created all that is,
to forgive all that is sinful,
to offer renewed life to all sinners,
to accompany us no matter where or how we journey in life,
and
to promise that all will be well, all will be well, all manner of things will be well.
And we are able to live grateful for everything, beginning with our very breath each minute.
Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart to revere your name.
John 14:6
Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’
Words of Grace For Today
No matter who we are, what history we have, how many sins we have piled up, and no matter how many times God has forgiven us and the Holy Spirit has inspired us to live as God’s saints spreading God’s unconditional and steadfast love to all people …
No matter what challenges we face in our past and in our present and in our future …
No matter anything, God’s Grace pours over us in abundance …
and we still know we need Jesus’ way, truth and life more and more for our hearts are divided between serving Christ and serving our own selfish needs, and so are our decisions each minute.
Decisions.
We make decisions every day, every minute.
We make decisions by engaging in various steps:
1. we asses what the situation is
2. we consider what choices we have
3. we discern what choice best serves our self interest
4. we make the decision by acting on it.
Recent modern thought is that step three is the most important. Thus the common assumption behind modern society brings us to serve our own, greedy, selfish interests, thinking that is the most important thing to do.
Philosophers and thinking people of all generations have long since realized that step one is actually the most important.
Who we are and what we think, how we view the world, is the most important step. Therein we determine what the ‘problem’ is, and that determines everything about what choices we come up with, choose and act on.
When we know that first and foremost when facing decisions our only hope to do something good for us and for other people is to consider everything from the perspetive that God gives us: that God created, we all are free to love (and therefore sin, that is to turn from who God created us to be), that God forgives us our sin and calls us back to ‘see the world’ (and our ‘problems’) as God’s gift to us including our own lives, and then …
then we have some hope of choosing what is in our best self interest, which is always then in the best interest of all people.
It all depends on us knowing God’s creation as God created it to be, and us in that creation as God saves us and inspires us to be: God’s saints.
So we pray: Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart to revere your name! knowing that Jesus is the way, and the truth, and the life.
When Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder had ceased, he sinned once more and hardened his heart, he and his officials.
Romans 2:4
Do you despise the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience? Do you not realize that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?
Words of Grace For Today
When we are in trouble we run to God for help. We make all sorts of promises to God of what we will do, how we will not sin, if God will only help us.
God does help us, but God is not fooled.
Oh, so often, once God has delivered us, we forget everything we promised, and worse we forget all God has done for us.
Pharaoh is hardly the only one who sins again and again, hardening his heart against God’s tender compassion.
God does not want it that way for us, or for anyone. God is gracious and merciful, full of kindness and forbearance and patience, and steadfast in love for us, all so that we, when we are yet again dreadfully hard-hearted sinners, we may know that we can trust God. We can be so humble as to confess our sins and repent, returning to the Lord our God, with hearts filled with grace, kindness, forbearance, patience, and steadfast love for ourselves and all the other hard-hearted, repeat sinners.
Listen to me, my people, and give heed to me, my nation; for a teaching will go out from me, and my justice for a light to the peoples.
1 John 2:8
Yet I am writing you a new commandment that is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.
Words of Grace For Today
The daylight grows shorter each day, at this latitude markedly, as we are only 20 days from the winter solstice. When clouds and precipitation block the light during the few hours the sun is above the horizon the drear and darkness grows on us, as if the end of time were approaching though we trust that is not so. In these times the winter darkness teaches us well what we may or may not know so well from our own experience: that injustice of the nation is prevalent, here and now for so many people, and the injustice of the world order (or chaos as it really is) tears so many people from life, and even more from living a life respected as a full human being.
Then we read the promise that God will bring words of truth to bear on our world, that Christ’s Light shines already bright for all people. We read these words of promise and hope with eager hearts, though hardly more so than the billions who suffer the chaos of injustice worked for the privilege, comfort, and power of the few.
When people recognize the Light of Christ, the world chaos can but fail as Christ’s way replaces human greed.
For this day we wait, for freedom from darkness, for freedom from blatant injustice, for freedom from all evil, and for freedom to serve Christ fully, without reserve, with our whole hearts, minds and strength. For this day we wait. On that day we will celebrate the coming of Christ as we have not ever yet.
This is the advent of awareness: that Christ has come, is come, and will come again, to bring into the light all that is done now as if in darkness, all that is done to throw others as captives into darkness, all that is done to supposedly ‘set things right’ when the actions are more unjust than those they pretend to correct.
This our advent. Advent as we prepare to celebrate Christ’s coming, again.
Moses said to the Lord, ‘If your presence will not go, do not carry us up from here.’
John 10:4
When the shepherd has brought out all his own sheep, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice.
Words of Grace For Today
God sends Moses and the people from Mount Sinai up into the land flowing with milk and honey. God sends Moses and the people and will not go with them, for if God does, the people are a stiff-necked people and God’s presence will consume them.
That does not bode well for the people. From here on they will have to proceed without God’s presence, which has accompanied them since they gathered to leave to cross the Red Sea and come all those years through the wilderness. This is a tremendous change, a change not for the better.
Moses understands, having spent time on the mount with God, collecting the commandments on rock tablets, has wisdom about what the people will loose if God does not continue to accompany them.
God promises to walk with us always, no matter what. So why does God want to send the people on their way … and not go with them? Are the people really so far gone, so stiff-necked that even God cannot fix it, or go with them?
The rest of the story, which is indeed worth knowing, is that Moses convinces God to go with the people, and God does. God is good for God’s promises.
The shepherd, Jesus, continues to fulfill God’s promise to us. More than that Jesus gathers his people from among all the people, and, because we know Jesus’ voice we follow Jesus.
Where we go, Jesus goes with us. More than that we know how to follow Jesus where Jesus leads us. There is nothing more blessed for us.
no matter the tangles of life the intrude on our days
Therefore We are Able to Be God’s Blessings for Others
Deuteronomy 28:1-6
If you will only obey the Lord your God, by diligently observing all his commandments that I am commanding you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth; all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the Lord your God:
Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field.
Blessed shall be the fruit of your womb, the fruit of your ground, and the fruit of your livestock, both the increase of your cattle and the issue of your flock.
Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading-bowl.
Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.
Matthew 12:50
For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.
Words of Grace For Today
Both passages say clearly enough that it is all up to us: if we do the right things, if we obey all God’s commandments, if we do God’s will, then
then we will be blessed in all ways,
then we will be Jesus’ brother, sister or mother.
That certainly is how the world works and how religious authorities have parsed God’s blessings in their attempts to control their followers.
God is not so parsed, not correctly anyway.
God’s blessings are not so parsed, not correctly anyway.
Jesus’ brothers and sisters and mother are not so determined, not correctly anyway.
But this is the way of the world, and it is our self-centred, familiar, assuring and futile way of working God’s will in our world.
Trouble is, it’s not us that works God’s will and this is God’s world.
God’s way, clearly demonstrated in the story of Jesus’ life, ministry, death and resurrection, is that God blesses us, and we either can surrender to that, or work our way out of the blessings by going our own way. Even then God pursues us, relentlessly, promising to forgive us, give us re-newed lives, and send us out again to be God’s blessings for others.
God’s blessings are not tied to how powerful, wealthy, or famous we are. God’s blessings are contained in the God given ability to be able to love, and love completely and unconditionally. For is love, starting with fear and love for God, and then love for ourselves, our neighbours and our enemies … in love we find life, life’s meaning and purpose and a joy that cannot be marred by circumstances, no matter how bad they may be.
The joy that God gives us is familiar to most people. It is like living life being in love. Some know it as a teenager’s 1st love, or as a young adult knowing this is the one person to marry, or as holding your new born infant, or as guiding children as they grow up, or as playing with grandchildren, or as growing old together and sharing memories as you deal with new challenges.
Most all of us experience that being in love, and loving others, gives us a profound joy.
Being in love with God, fearing and loving God, gives us an even more profound joy. All our times of being in love come to an end. Some endings leave us lost, as if the pathways and walls of life itself have crumbled out from under us.
Being in love and fearing God is markedly different because that love never comes to an end since it is determined not by our capacity to love, but by God’s promises to love us always. God loves us always, no matter the twists and turns we take in life. Trusting that God loves us gives a pervasive joy, a foundational joy.
Today we pray, may we live fearing and loving God as God loves us. May we be God’s love for all other people, so that we do not forget how precious God’s love is.
