Exod. 19:1-16; Col. 1:1-14; Matt. 3:7-12

In Exodus, Moses calls the Lord from Mt. Sinai.  The Lord comes in a dense cloud, so that the people will hear him speaking with Moses and will always put their trust in the Lord.

In Colossians, Paul opens by thanking God for the people there and the love they have for all the saints.  He speaks of the dominion of darkness and Christ as the centerpiece of becoming an inheritor of the saints in the kingdom of light.

In the gospel of Matthew, John the Baptist points the finger at the Pharisees and Sadducees, calling them a brood of vipers and speaking of his own baptism of one of repentance, and the one who comes after him baptizing in fire, through the Holy Spirit.  “His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing flood, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

Scripture often makes distinctions – separations one from another.  We separate sheep from goats, good from bad, foreigners from natives, darkness from light, clean versus unclean.  Today Moses and Paul are both making distinctions about who is following and who is not.

Ironically, the separations in scripture are often not meant to divide, but to bring together.  Sheep and goats were separated in the context of a parable or in apocalyptic language.  It was meant to persuade and change hearts NOW.  Rarely does scripture condemn the past, but invites people into the future.

Today is no exception.  Paul speaks of being inheritors of the saints in the kingdom of light.  He puts words together so beautifully.  And in doing so he reminds us that in Christ, we have all experienced this light.  It is a letter of rejoicing, as well as demanding more.  We have time to revel and be filled with the awe and wonder of the love already shown to us.

I have had the privilege to stand on a threshing floor in Israel.  It was one of the threshing floors in Bethlehem, where Ruth most likely met Boaz.  Standing there, Matthew’s words from today’s lesson came to mind – wheat goes in the barn, and the chaff gets burned in the unquenchable fire.  But I also thought about Ruth – a foreigner, the most unlikely of candidates for God’s grace, but she experienced a welcome. She turned a separation into an indelible connection that would never be forgotten.

I hope that as we live out today, God finds ways to turn the chaff of our life into productive wheat, and we are bathed in the light of the gospel’s effervescent joy.

-Matt

P.S. The picture above is one of the threshing floors outside Jerusalem, in continuous use for thousands of years and probably used by Ruth and Boaz.  I have had the privilege of standing there, and you can too if you want to go with me to Israel.  www.fpcokc.org/trips

Exod. 18:13-27; 1 Pet. 5:1-14; Matt. (1:1-17),3:1-6

Are you familiar with Jethro?  If not, take a moment to read our Old Testament story.

Moses has proven in previously that he is an effective leader.  Oh, decidedly that.  He is a great leader!  He has led folks out of the land of Egypt, done all God says, helped enter a new phase of being fed with manna and quail, and brought water from the rock.  Now people know he is wise and come to him to seek God’s will.

Jethro, Moses father-in-law, catches wind of this.  He sees how Moses sits to serve as judge from morning till evening.  And Moses is doing a good job.  But Jethro wisely objects: “What you are doing is not good.  You and these people who come to you will only wear yourselves out.  The work is too heavy for you; you cannot handle it alone.  Find others to do most of this work.”

Isn’t this so often the case in your life?!  Burdened with too much work, we need help.

There are principles of church growth that come into play with regard to church leadership.  Sometimes churches plateau – they get stuck not growing – despite the excellent leadership of a pastor or great board of elders.  A pastor can greatly add or subtract from the overall mission of the church to spread the good news.

It is often said that a pastor, in his/her first few years, will shrink or expand a church to fit the pastor’s own abilities.  That means if I am a pastor who can only handle a 500 member congregation and I come to a church of 1000 members, I will quickly find subconscious ways to derail and shrink staff and programs until I am comfortable with the new structures.  And I have seen this happen first hand.  The inverse is also true.  Pretty scary to think about huh?

This is happening to Moses today.  Jethro takes a step back and says, “This job is too big.”  Yeah, he was doing fine now, but what about burnout?  What about cultivating leadership?  What happens if you die tomorrow?  Who is in a position to take up where you left off?  It turns out the “excellent” leadership of Moses wasn’t quite as excellent.

I am sure there are aspects of your life that intersect with Moses or Jethro.  Our culture is very anti-sabbath.  It is almost a sin in American culture to think about taking a break.  “And why would we train assistants to do our job?  That would be corporate waste and take my personnel figures over budget!  It would also make me vulnerable to being let go!  I know, I will just work 70 hour work weeks, and forget about my own needs, my family, and my friends!”

If any of this sounds familiar, join the club!  I hear these kinds of statements every week in my office – folks struggling with a balance of their personal, professional, and spiritual lives.  And I am one of the worst offenders some days.

How difficult it can be to let go sometimes.  But that is part of what it means to be Christian.  If we are all in this ship together, it makes sense that very few things are “mine” and nearly everything is “ours.”  It is one of the reasons I like corporate confessions and the Nicene Creed which uses “we” and not “I”.  Christendom has never been an “I” society.

May we live this day in the “we”.

-Matt

Exod. 16:23-36; 1 Pet. 3:13-4:6; John 16:1-15

Up until today I had been avoiding our 1 Peter readings like a plague, hoping it would go away.  These are the kinds of passages misread by misogynistic men who want to find biblical excuses to treat their wives (or women in general) like dirt.  If you are one who thinks the biblical writers haven’t been influenced by the culture around them, it might be time to read that Bible again – it is obvious at times.

Today Peter redeems himself.

When people quote to me the “Wives must be submissive to their husbands,” which began chapter 3, I am always tempted to say, “Yes, but read on!”  Not a few verses later it says “Husbands, in the same way, be considerate as you live with your wives.”  Nevertheless, it is troubling to people like me who see through biblical record that the early church was run mainly by women, being a religion based in the homes and centered around meals, where 1^st Century customs clearly dictated this was the woman’s domain.  The Bible is clear – women were in leadership, and transformed the early church in stunning ways.  There are times when men were shocked and fearful of this reality and were doing everything they could to hold onto power.

Sin entered the church, and in many ways, is still around today.  Shocking, huh?

Today Peter spells out rules for behavior that mesh with the culture of the day, and now expands the idea of “submission” outward into ever increasing circles.  “Finally, all of you, live in harmony with one another…so that you may inherit the blessing.”

While it sounds a lot like “works righteousness,” it is also surprisingly similar to the mission of Christ.  As I read those words I see Jesus washing the feet of the disciples.  That was not an act of kindness, but one of submission, almost humiliation.  That was woman’s work!  That was done on your knees!  That was not for your wife to do, but a woman SLAVE!  Heavens!  What is Jesus doing?

Jesus is setting a tone for excellence, saying that if you want to follow me, then you will be a slave, and submit to those in your care.  If you are a leader, you will submit all the more.

This is what Peter means when he refers to their “hearts set apart in Christ as Lord.”  Of course we are not going to act maliciously to our brothers and sisters; of course we are not going to act from fear; of course we are going to exhibit good behavior, because we are submitting to our Lord and to others, as he submitted to the world.

This is the bizarreness of Christendom, and it is partly why I am a Christian.  This is such a strange ethic it could not have been made up by delusional apostles – this is God at work, strengthening the fold in a way that is almost absurd to human standards.

Thanks be to God!

-Matt

Exod. 16:10-22; 1 Pet. 2:11-25; John 15:12-27

Abundance spills over as a theme for today’s passages.

Manna and Quail fill our Exodus story: “In the evening quails come up and covered the camp; and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp.  When the layer of dew lifted, there on the surface of the wilderness was a fine flaky substance.”

This story is a reminder of the “daily bread” we can expect from our Lord, something that made the Israelites a little nervous, and left them trying to store up more for later.  Eating is central.  But so is trust.  The Lord demands both.

In our Gospel reading, John falls back into his standard ways of discourse, which are pretty windy arguments that become difficult to decipher and follow.  A number of streams intertwine: “You didn’t choose me, but I chose you;” “All of this is given so that you may love one another;” “If they persecute or hate you, remember they did the same to me first;” and “Servants are not greater than their masters, but now I call you friends, not servants.”

All of this is troubling.  Where is he going?  What is he saying?  On one level this is simple to translate Greek, but because of his style of discourse, ideas are weaving and building.  Here’s what I’ve decided this passage means: “We do not belong to the world.  We are different because of our affiliation with Christ.”

As we live into this separation, we encounter an abundance of love that supersedes even bread from heaven.  We encounter a freedom from bondage above and beyond any Old Testament writer could have imagined.  The abundance of love means that our daily lives are changed, and that everywhere we see those bearing the fruit of God’s love, experiencing that abundance and fruit through the acts of love we see in each other.

We can also find comfort in knowing that if the outside world is confused or downright disagrees with what we are doing, we don’t listen to that, but only to Christ.  This is not the business world, where only corporate profits or efficiency or sales growth count.  The only growth we are interested in is growth of the fruit of the spirit.

Now that makes for some struggles, for if you want in Noah’s ark sometimes one realizes it is a smelly ark, with its own inadequacies.  But we are all in this together on a ship of grace that overcomes the world itself, breaking the rules, and inviting everyone to become enveloped in love unbounded.

-Matt

Exod. 15:22-16:10; 1 Pet. 2:1-10; John 15:1-11

Food is all over in the Bible.  If it isn’t food, it is a reference to growth.  Our Exodus passage contains two passages today reflecting the Wandering in the Wilderness period: bitter water is made sweet and bread rains from heaven in the form of manna.

In John’s gospel, Jesus portrays himself as the true vine and his Father as the vinegrower.  Branches from him that do not bear fruit are cut off, so that it can bear more fruit.

Much has been made of the words in this chapter.  Many see it as focusing on the destruction of the unfaithful.  They focus only on the branches that are pruned, and often spend too much time focused on words like “cleanse”.  That is the Greek word for prune, and I don’t get too worked up about it.

What I know of pruning is that with great skill and good timing, the right pruner can turn even a mediocre vine into a source of immense production.  When Jesus says, “You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you” he is saying that all those words in the two previous chapters have “grafted you into my vine.”  He is declaring and expanding on the ideas that if you live into the love of Jesus, you will see love grow almost limitlessly.

To abide in his love means to have joy made complete.  There is all this talk about keeping commandments, but one must not be tempted to think he means the Old Testament codes, for a verse later he declares, “And this is my commandment: that you love one another as I have loved you.”

So this whole discourse on vine, branches, commandments, and cleansing is about loving more and more.  In other words: Abundance in love

I don’t know if you have seen the movie Pay It Forward.  Every time I read this passage I think of that movie.  This little kid, I think in 8^th Grade Social Studies, decides to make the world a better place by doing something radically life-changing for three different people.  The only catch is that those three, then, instead of paying him back, must pay it forward by doing a nice thing to three other people.  His utopian goal is partially realized as his mother, teacher, and grandmother all get touched by this forward payment.

This is the kind of love Jesus speaks of – a kind that moves forward and grows in love.  That which does not produce love must be redirected into the ultimate goal.  And here is the kicker – this is the essence of loving God.  This is why we say as Christians that a community is essential.

Coming back to food, one of the central characteristics of the first three centuries of Christianity was equal sharing of food and wealth within the community.  I don’t think this is a mistake.  With things like the Feeding of the Five Thousand, the Lord’s Supper, and Manna in the Wilderness, Jesus set a pace for sharing, and Christians have always sought to show love through nourishment to all, without regard to class.

May today be one of growing in love.  A concrete example of that may be to invite a friend over for dinner.  Community, love, and food – the essentials.  Being a Christian is fun, ain’t it!?

-Matt

Exod. 15:1-21; 1 Pet. 1:13-25; John 14:18-31

Exodus is such a rich book.  Having gone through years of bondage, the Israelites have had enough.  God’s escape plan has not been going fast enough.  The Plagues have come.  Now it is Pharaoh who has had enough.  God gave directions for Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread was completed.  Moses and the gang have marched through the Red Sea, and the pursuers have been drowned – “So the people feared the Lord and believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses.”

Today we see what happens next.  The people burst into song.  The Song of Moses, which recounts the events of the previous chapter, is beautiful.  The narration is not meant to be a sequential understanding, but is rich in poetic verse, parallelism, and appears to be quite ancient.  It is indeed a song!

As a church musician, and now a pastor, I am always intrigued by the process of singing.  No other instrument is so exposing and personal.  I am aware there are some who don’t feel they are good at it, so they stand there smugly in worship, arms folded, and wait for it to be done.  What a sad state of affairs!  This is no concert!  This is all of us joining in praise to the one who saved us – in this case saved us from bondage, delivered us from the hands of the Egyptians, saved us from the Red Sea, and then delivered us from death by God’s Son, Jesus Christ.  How can we not share some sort of excitement about that?

Now I understand not everyone is Julie Andrews, and when they get happy they don’t feel like spinning on top of a mountain, singing their hearts out, and acting like a crazy person.  I know.  I understand.  But I have a confession: I am not a singer either.  I do it because I cannot help myself.  And I am not the greatest singer.  But God has awakened in me a sense of joy that cannot be contained, and I am thankful for that.  So I make a joyful NOISE.  And you all have to put up with it.

As the Song of Moses recounted his plight, I also realized that song can be a record of theology, the highlights of the community and what they meant.  In that sense, our hymnal, and WHAT we sing, is a reflection of our theology – our beliefs about God and how we interact with God.

When I get in my car, the “burnt out musician” in me comes out.  I don’t listen to music anymore.  It is actually quite sad.  NPR….NPR….NPR.  That is about it.  But to those of you that do listen to music, what does that say to you?  How does it impact your daily thoughts?  Might it also shape your beliefs about others?  You?  God?

My prayer is that when you get to church on Sunday, you will let go of those inhibitions. Sing your heart out!  Show joy and praise to all the world!  Give back to God that “dancing on a mountain top like a crazy person” kind of singing.  Who knows, it may open up a new path of thanksgiving and praise in you you have never known.

-Matt

Exod. 14:21-31; 1 Pet. 1:1-12; John 14:(1-7)8-17

I remember studying in Israel and longing to go to the coast, see the Mediterranean Sea, and swim in it.  I remember asking some of my Jewish friends if they wanted to go.  There was more than one of them that said, “Oh Matt, Jews don’t do water.”  What?  Why not?  I inquired if it was modesty thing from their religious culture.  No.  And it’s not a hair thing?  No.  “So what is it?” I asked.  “Oh Matt, go read your Bible,” one of my friends said dismissively.

Well, today I may have finally found the answer!  And it is in today’s Exodus reading.  This is a central story to Jewish identity.  Moses, with outstretched hand, is leading the people across the Red Sea.  The Egyptians are following.  The wall of water forms.  The Lord turns part of the sea into dry land, and they pass on dry ground.

You know how the story ends.  The Egyptians are trapped in the sea, and eventually drowned.

Part of the reason for my friends joking about their aversion to water may have to do with the fact that the story of Jewish identity, in fact all of our identity, comes about through the dry land/dry ground distinctions of our faith.  In Genesis, those of us on dry land are set apart in God’s creation.  Here in Exodus, the “dry landers” become those chosen as God’s people.  In Joshua, dry land leads the people to the promised land.  With the East wind, the strength of the Lord, and the guidance of Moses, the identity of God’s Chosen people is hewn.

In Jonah we also see the sea as a force, and as a metaphor of chaos and death.  To be on the rock, or on sure footing, or on dry land is seen as blessing and power.  It certainly was for Noah.

Time and time again we see a consistency in the story.  Frankly it is good writing.  It is easy for children to remember and track.  It makes for good bedtime stories.

It also leads us on a journey to discover God at work more deeply in our lives.  Where are the waters of chaos in our lives?  What is dry land going to look like for us spiritually?  Where and how will I find that dry land?

These are the questions that God is asking us.  And as we remember the goodness and the guidance God has already given us, let us be thankful for the dry land we have, and continue to seek out the dry land we need.

-Matt