Five Little Ducks

Luke 13: 31-35

³¹At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.” ³²He said to them, “Go and tell that fox for me, ‘Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work. ³³Yet today, tomorrow, and the next day I must be on my way, because it is impossible for a prophet to be killed outside of Jerusalem.’ ³⁴Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!³⁵See, your house is left to you. And I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say, ‘Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.’”

I have had the camp song “Five Little Ducks” in my head all week.  If you are unfamiliar with the song it goes like this:

Five little ducks went out to play,
Over the hill and far away;
Mother duck said, “Quack, quack, quack, quack.”
But only four little ducks came back.

Four little ducks went out to play,
Over the hill and far away;
Mother duck said, “Quack, quack, quack, quack.”
But only three little ducks came back.

Three little ducks went out to play,
Over the hill and far away;
Mother duck said, “Quack, quack, quack, quack.”
But only two little ducks came back.

Two little ducks went out to play,
Over the hill and far away;
Mother duck said, “Quack, quack, quack, quack.”
But only one little duck came back.

One little duck went out to play,
Over the hill and far away;
Mother duck said, “Quack, quack, quack, quack.”
But none of the five little ducks came back.

But when the father duck called,

“QUACK, QUACK, QUACK!!”

Five little ducks came running back.

I like this song because it shows just how much the mother duck loved her little ones. The mother duck never gave up on her little ducks.  She called them and called them and called them, and eventually they came home.

I think this song is a good comparison with the Gospel story today.   Jesus said, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.” Jesus, like a mother hen, calls us his children all the time.  Even when we wonder off, Jesus is there calling us to come home.  Jesus never gives up on us no matter how far we stray away.

In the end of the song, when the “father duck” comes calling- I think that is God also calling us.  Sometimes God’s call might be a little louder.  But the call is still the same.  Come home, I miss you, I love you, Come home.

Dear God,

Thank you for never giving up on us.  Thank you for calling us no matter how far we stray from home.  Amen.

Hypocrisy, Wisdom, and Lament

From Matthew 23:37-39

“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! See, your house is left to you, desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.’ “

I have to be honest about this particular passage.  When I saw that this was my “assigned” passage for this week’s commentary my initial reaction was “oh goody.”  It wasn’t the good “oh goody,” but rather the slightly sarcastic one that sometimes comes out of my mouth.  But, there is a lot to this small little passage.

This passage comes after a long diatribe that Jesus has against the Pharisees and the Scribes of Israel.  He yells at them for their hypocrisy and through this warns us as well of not being like them.  He criticizes how they don’t practice what they preach, how they “lock people out of heaven,” how they focus on gold rather than people, how they ignore justice and mercy, how they portray a holier than thou attitude when they are just as broken as everyone else, etc.  Gulp!  The warning is for us as Jesus points at the Pharisees.  Don’t be like them is the warning.

Then at the end of this, comes today’s reading.  Jesus’ desire to protect his people from these Pharisees is evident, but also a reminder of the book of Proverbs is there.  In Proverbs, Wisdom is the focus and images of God’s Wisdom, as well as advice.  It is the opening of Proverbs that Jesus is referring to in this particular part of Scripture.  Where Wisdom is described as a woman who raises her voice in a crowded street and how Wisdom is ignored until it is too late.  This is what Jesus laments.

Jesus’ lament is that the Pharisees have so poisoned the people’s minds with hypocrisy that they are missing who he is.  He laments that the synagogues (“their houses”) are now empty because of this hypocrisy amongst the leaders. It is a sad and harsh lesson with a strong warning- don’t lose God because of this.

Jesus though is the mother hen who has gathered us back to God through his sacrifice on the cross.  It is Jesus that we look at as the example.  It is Jesus who forgives us all when we act like hypocrites, when we ignore justice, when we focus on gold rather than the cross, etc.  All we have to do is repent for our sins and ask for forgiveness and grace will abound!

Lord Jesus, Thank you for your grace.  We are a broken people who lose sight of who you want us to be.  We don’t act the way you would like us to act.  We ignore justice.  We ignore peace.  We are hypocrites.  Gather us back to you and remind us of what you want us to be.  Help us to serve you and neighbor.  Help us to keep our focus on your cross.  Help us to speak out for justice.  Help our actions to match our intent.  Thank you Lord for your grace.  Amen

That’s Grace!

Scripture Passage: Romans 3:21-31

“…since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by his graces as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood effective through faith.”

These words that the apostle Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans get at the heart of our Lenten journey.  As we continue to walk toward Jerusalem and the cross, Paul reminds us today why we are on this journey in the first place.  The reason is simple and straight forward.  We are sinners.  We are all sinners.  There are no exceptions.  Each and every one of us has fallen short of the glory of God.  We were created in God’s image and, therefore, in God’s glory.  But we have fallen short.  We have failed to live in ways that illumine that glory.

Knowing that we are all sinners, God sent Jesus Christ into the word to be a sacrifice for our sin.  We could not pay the price for our sin on our own.  But nothing, not even God’s own Son was too costly of a price to pay to save us.  So God put forward Jesus Christ to die on the cross.  Now, through his death and by his blood that was shed, we are saved.  We are recreated in God’s image and glory.  That’s grace! 

Let us pray,

Gracious God, we come before you today as those who have sinned and fallen far short of your glory in which we have been created.  We give thanks for your gift of grace that you freely give to us.  As we continue on our Lenten journey, turn our eyes towards the cross and the sacrifice of your son who brought your gift of grace into the world.  Amen.

Lord, I am not worthy … or am I?

Scripture Passage: Luke 21:34-22:6

Just a week into our Lenten fasts and observances, we encounter Jesus exhorting a crowd of his followers to “be on guard,” to not be weighed down by drunkenness or worries, but rather to be alert and praying for strength. Advice to those who are suffering from and struggling with fasts? Not quite (though it surely could apply!). Rather, these are words of warning that Jesus offers to his followers just prior to his Passion, when his disciples will famously let down their spiritual guard and succumb to worry, fatigue, and weakness. And after chapters of proclaiming the coming of the Kingdom of God, with all its righteousness, justice, and mercy, Jesus here invokes the much more apocalyptic Son of Man imagery. Something is a-stirrin’.

Luke doesn’t leave us wondering for long what precisely might be stirring. We read in Luke 22:2 that “the chief priests and the scribes were looking for a way to put Jesus to death,” but that is nothing new. On several occasions Luke has told us of the feathers that Jesus has ruffled among the religious elite who want nothing more than his elimination. But what is new is the return of Satan – whom we saw tempting Jesus in Sunday’s Gospel text from Luke 4. Luke 22:3 tells us that Satan entered into Judas, who “conferred with the chief priests … about how he might betray [Jesus] to them.” Having failed with Jesus, Satan goes after the low hanging fruit of human weakness.

One minute Jesus is exhorting his followers to be strong. The next minute one of his followers is betraying him. A day later Peter, the one whom Jesus called a rock, denies Jesus, and the other disciples scatter. But the Good News is – am I getting ahead of myself? It’s only the first week of Lent, after all – the Good News is that it ain’t about us. We’re going to fail.

But still. Jesus bids us to pray for the strength to escape persecutions and trials, and to stand before the Son of Man. How could we ever find such strength to do such things, to stand before our Lord?

He is the one who, handed over to a death he freely accepted,
in order to destroy death, to break the bonds of the evil one,
to crush hell underfoot, to give light to the righteous,
to establish his covenant, and to show forth the resurrection,
taking bread and giving thanks to you, said:
Take and eat; this is my body, given for you.
Do this for the remembrance of me.

In the same way he took the cup, gave thanks,
and gave it for all to drink, saying:
This cup is the new covenant in my blood,
shed for you and for all people for the forgiveness of sin.
Do this for the remembrance of me.

Remembering, then, his death and resurrection,
we take this bread and cup,
giving you thanks that you have made us worthy
to stand before you and to serve you as your priestly people.

- from Eucharistic Prayer XI from Evangelical Lutheran Worship, a translation of the Eucharistic Prayer of Hippolytus, 2nd century

“Worthy to stand before you,” the prayer contends. Us, worthy? Yes, us, but not because of our own strength, or our ability to stay awake, sober or faithful. Rather, we are worthy only because our Lord Jesus Christ – who destroys death, breaks the bonds of the evil one, crushes hell underfoot and establishes his covenant – makes us worthy. Our worthiness is his work, his gift, his grace.

Lord, I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the word and I shall be healed.
(Traditional liturgical formula said by the congregation in response to the invitation to receive the sacrament, derived from Matthew 8:8)

The crooked and straight

2 Peter 2:4-21

“sent them to hell“, “gloomy dungeons“, “ungodly“, “condemned“, “burning them to ashes“, “punishment“…these are just some of the words and phrases that our text for today starts out with.  And if you read on some more you will notice a similar tone throughout chapter 2 of 2 Peter.  This chapter in my Bible is titled “False teachers and their destruction”.  Oops, sorry…I forgot that lovely word, “destruction“.  Don’t you just love it when a devotion starts with such words?  But we are reading the Bible, and those words, phrases and stories are there.  God’s judgment is spoken about in scripture.  God’s wrath is uttered in many places.  There is no sugar-coating the truth.

I once saw a one line sermon on a church sign that read “The Law tells me how crooked I am — grace straightens me out”.  Next to the requirements of the Law I am an “ungodly” person.  I am worthy of punishment.  I am deserving of condemnation.  We all are.  We don’t measure up.  As Paul says in Romans 3 all have sinned and have fallen short of God’s glory.  How true that is.  We can’t make ourselves righteous through our actions, but rather Jesus makes us righteous through the cross.  We don’t earn salvation, but rather we are the beneficiaries of grace.  We are deserving of death, but through faith in Christ, we receive life.  So because of this gift of life, we follow the Law out of love for God and our neighbor.  We are crooked, but made straight through God’s love.

Let us pray,
Loving God, full of grace, you showed your love and grace through Jesus Christ.  You made straight our crooked ways.  You shine your light in our lives.  May we be beacons of that love so others may come to know you and give you praise, glory and honor, through Jesus Christ we pray, Amen.

Friends and Enemies

Then David said to Gad, “I am in great distress; let me fall into the hand of the Lord, for his mercy is very great; but let me not fall into human hands.”  from 1 Chronicles 21:1-17

When King David has his sin brought before him, he is given three choices on behalf of his people.  God offers three years of famine, three months of devastation by their political rivals and ethnic enemies, or  three days of “the sword of the Lord”, which is identified as a plague.  That David is even offered a choice in this case speaks to his special relationship with God, and the concern that God has for the people of Israel and the king God appointed.  But the eternal truth remains as well, there are consequences to decisions, even decisions that seem perfectly reasonable.

What was the flawed decision?  David is tempted by Satan, encouraged to see where he stands in the world, and to trust in the might of the arms he controls.  David’s census enacts the kind of accounting that made taxation possible (the vigorous pursuit of which led to trouble for his son Solomon).  The census would also demonstrate how powerful the King’s fighting forces were, and perhaps encourage him to push the boundaries of his kingdom further (another thing that led to trouble for Solomon).  These are not the actions of a people whose protector was the Lord.  These are not the actions of a people who were once conscripted as fighters and then as laboring slaves in Egypt.

The sin that Satan incites here is a loss of trust in God to protect and guard the people.  We too are tempted, to overextend our time and talent, working more for less; to hold fast to our treasure, forgetting entirely where it came from; and to seek things that are beyond our reach (perhaps through debt).  Satan would love for us to take stock of our strengths and weaknesses without accounting for God.

Faced with the inevitability of the consequences, David chooses to place his crown and his kingdom in God’s hands, knowing the devastation of famine or war to be far greater and without mercy.  David remembers the mercy of God in the midst of the consequences of his own bad judgment.

During this season of repentance and reflection, we may be knee-deep in the consequences of our decisions.  We may realize that we have failed to take God into account when we figured what we had going for us.  There is no better place to remember God’s mercy.

Follow the Leader

Whoever says, “I abide in him,” ought to walk just as he walked – 1 John 2:6

1 John 2:1-6

It has been quiet a few years since I last played follow the leader.  I can’t quiet remember the exact rules, if there were any exact rules other than you tried to imitate doing what the leader did.  I do remember one school yard playmate who would call you out if you did not do the exact same thing, and I do mean the exact same thing.  If you walked slightly too fast or did not jump to the same height or if your step was too long or too short, she would call you out and either make you go to the end of the line or stop following.  You would lose at playing follow the leader, therefore I learned fairly quickly that I did not like playing follow the leader when she was the leader. No matter how hard you tried, no matter how much attention you paid to her feats and then your own it was never the same.

The same can be said about following Jesus.  We can never exactly follow Jesus.  We will always fall short of walking as he walked.

But we can try!

And Jesus will not call us out when we fail to live up to his standards, he will not get mad that we can not do things as he did.  Instead he loves us as we try to obey his commandments, as we try to try to listen to his words, as we try to follow his teachings.  He loves us as followers.

Loving Lord, thank you for leading us.  Guide us in all that we do and help keep us in your footsteps, trying to follow where ever you lead.  Amen

The Wilderness

Luke 4: 1-13

I have to admit I love being in the wilderness.  Growing up I spent a good amount of time hiking, camping, generally being outdoors.  I did this mainly through Boy Scouts, and my time at Camp Calumet.

However, in all my times in the woods, I can’t say that I ever fasted for 40 days.  Now if I did, I have to be honest; if I was tempted by the devil, with food, or power I might of taken the devil up on his offer!

We can sit back and say — “I would never give into the devil” -  “It must of been so easy for Jesus”

I honestly do not think that it was easy for Jesus, remember Jesus was not only fully divine but he was fully human as well.
Think back to the last time that you were “really hungry” – I am sure that it was not 40 days or even 40 hours between your last meal.  I know for me once something is off physically, I start to get cranky, irritated, and if one of my kids comes up to me and asks something and I don’t want to deal with it, I am usually more agreeable.

How about you?

I say all that to say this…..

Whenever I read the Bible and try to put myself in to Jesus’ “shoes” I have more and more respect for what Jesus did/does for us.

Jesus shows me over and over again how amazing he is and Jesus shows me over and over again how far I need to go in my life.

I am continually tempted and I continually fail.

Instead of getting up early and going to work out.  I am tempted by more sleep, so I turn the alarm clock off.

Instead of following all the traffic laws, I am tempted by speed (because I am usually late) I tend to drive fast.

Instead of watching what I eat, I am tempted by cookies, cakes, or sausage gravy with biscuits and I enjoy my share.

I know that I have a long way to go, I know that I am not perfect when it comes to temptation in my life.

But I also know this……

I have a God who loves me, I have a God who cares for me no matter how fast I drive, or how many times I turn off the alarm clock or how many cookies I eat.  God knows i am sinful, and not perfect and God gave me Jesus anyway.  God gave me a chance to be loved and forgiven.

As we venture into our first full week of Lent, let us think about the temptation that Jesus went through and all the temptations in our lives.  Let us be thankful for a God who is with us before, during and after the temptations in our lives, no matter how we fare.

Dear God,

Thank you for being with us, thank you for your presence in our lives.  Be with us Lord, in with and under all the temptations in our lives.  Give us the strength to make it through the difficult decisions in our life.  Help us when we are confronted by evil in our lives. Let us know of your unending and unfailing love in our lives.  Amen

A Troubled Soul

John 12:27-36

“Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say — ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die. The crowd answered him, “We have heard from the law that the Messiah remains forever. How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?” Jesus said to them, “The light is with you for a little longer. Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you. If you walk in the darkness, you do not know where you are going. While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of light.”

I have often asked myself what was Jesus feeling when he walked into Jerusalem?  Here we are in today’s reading, just after the Palm Sunday celebration and right before the Passover betrayal.  The smell of the perfume that Mary poured on Jesus is clinging to him and the cheers of the people are dying off as Jesus walks to what is coming.  What was he feeling?

His “soul was troubled” probably puts it right into context.  Bible translations may not agree, but almost every translation uses the same word: troubled.  After all, he knew where he was headed, he knew what needed to be done, what was he troubled about?  It wasn’t God’s plan that was his worry, I don’t think.  I think what troubled his soul was whether or not his disciples and followers would continue and realize what had happened.  After all, here he is in his final hours, a voice from heaven answers Jesus, and yet the followers still question what Jesus is saying.  “Who is this Son of Man?” and “I thought Scripture told us the Messiah would be around forever.”  These are troubling statements and questions.

Jesus trusted though.  He trusted the disciples and the followers that they would continue in his mission.  He walked toward the cross and fulfilled God’s plan.  It is this trust that he now lays at our feet as followers of Christ.  Will we share his message of grace and salvation?  Will we help bring people to know him?  Will we help others walk in the light of Christ?

Heavenly Father, Thank you for trusting us with this important task of spreading the message of Christ.  Allow our hands, our feet, our voices, and our bodies continue the work that he started.  Help us to be children of the light, shining the light of Christ into places where darkness still dwells.  Help us trust you as much as you trust us.  Amen

Being Real with God

Scripture Reading: Exodus 5:10-23

I love Moses!  He is the only person throughout the history of the world to have actually received a burning bush from God.  In that bush he received a crystal clear message from God as to what he was to do with his life.  God told Moses that he was to go to Pharaoh to bring God’s people out of Egypt.  Moses was called by God to God’s work and God promised to provide him with all he needed to get that work done.  Really, does it get any better than this?

Anyone who has ever wondered what to do with their life has to be at least a little jealous of good old Moses and his call.  Many people can go their whole lives without such clarity about what their life’s work should be about.  Most of us have, at one point or another, begged and pleaded with God to send a burning bush to us. 

Yet here, in today’s reading from Exodus, we see Moses question God.  “O Lord,” Moses says, “why have you mistreated this people?  Why did you ever send me?”  The people to whom Moses is referring are the people of Israel who are now being forced by Pharaoh to make bricks without straw.  Making bricks with straw was hard enough.  Making bricks without straw, well that was nearly an impossible task.  So Moses questions God’s call.  Moses questions God’s plan for his life.  Even having heard God’s voice in the burning bush, Moses still isn’t sure he is on board with God’s plan.

This is really why I love Moses.  Moses stands up to God.  Moses talks back to God.  Moses lets God know how he really feels about things.  And, in doing so, Moses invites us to have that same kind of relationship with God.  We are given permission to stand up, to talk back, to question, and to let God know how we really feel.  Moses shows us that we don’t have to be prim and proper with God.  We don’t always have to be on our best behavior. We can be ourselves – frustrations, hurt, pain and all – with God.  We can be in an intimate relationship with God where there is real conversation.  And the best part, is that God will talk back to us! 

(If you are wondering how God responded to Moses, read the first few verses of Exodus 6.)

Prayer: God of Love, sometimes we strive to be prim and proper in our conversations with you and try to hide how we really feel.  We give thanks that you are a God who invites us into conversation with you just how we are.  That we can be real with you and that you will respond by being real to us.  We ask that you would give us this day not what we want or desire, but what we need.  Equip us to do the work that you have called us to do, even if we are still trying to figure out what that work might be.  We pray in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.