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2017-11-01T11:42:02-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

God Loves the Unlovable

Last updated on: November 1, 2017 at 11:42 am By Fr. Charles Erlandson

Romans 5

“Sweet! I get to write a devotional on Romans 5!” The problem is that there’s too much fruit to pick. Shall I stuff myself on the citrus variety, the lemons, limes, orange, and – or should I go exotic and delight in papayas, mangoes, and star fruit (or “carambola”)?

Maybe later, I’ll digest Romans 5 into more bite-sized pieces, but for today I know what I desire to eat.

What looks good to my eyes and sounds sweet to my ears is verse 2, that through Jesus Christ we have access by faith into the grace of God. Suppose someone gave you Warren Buffett’s (sorry Bill Gates, you’re no longer the fairest in the land, and Carlos Slim is also above you) social security number, bank account and pin numbers, etc. You would have access to his $62 billion. Imagine what you could do with that!

But through faith you have access to something far more valuable and enjoyable: the grace of God, whose value does not go down when there are shortages or wars or panic. Paul’s focus for most of Romans is on faith, so that men do not mistakenly believe they are saved by their works. But behind this faith is something even more powerful: the grace of God, which I take to be the love of God in action.

God loves the unlovable.

Did you know that the love of God has been poured out in your hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to you (by grace)? God is love. We’ve heard this and believe this. But if this is true, knowing the dynamo that is God and His centrifugal love, this love will always flow out of Himself. And so by love the world was created, and by love we were created, and by love we are re-created. The love of God, the most powerful, sweetest elixir known has been poured by the Father into your love through the Son and by the Spirit.

This love is incredible, but a faith that has become used to being bathed in the love of God can become like a human who is born to breathe air. Knowing in our heads that we must have air to breathe, and pausing every decade to give a few seconds of thanks for air, we continue to breathe it as if it were nothing at all but completely invisible and non-existent. We often experience the love of God in a similar way, gladly taking it into ourselves but also taking it for granted and without thanks.

What is this love like, to those of us who need to be reminded? Imagine the most vile, evil, disgusting person you’ve ever known or could even imagine. I’ve led a beatified life and don’t have a lot of creeps in my life who come to mind. John Soper from Peter J. Brennan Junior High School in North Babylon, New York comes to mind (many of you may also have junior high or middle school acquaintances come to mind). Here was a guy who called our Home Ec teacher a “whore,” which he pronounced in his native Long Islandese as “hoo-er.” He went out of his way to do disgusting and obnoxious things to my brother and me, I suppose because we were as low on the social totem pole as he was but were less willing to fight back. I remember him drooling saliva on his middle finger and flicking it on me on many occasions. And although I can’t prove it, I’m pretty sure he’s the one who stole my windbreaker one day.

But there are many worse people out there: you may have met some of them.

The truth is that through God’s eyes we were all John Sopers, only much, much worse. God had every right to be disgusted with us and to want to put several universes between us. How must it feel to be a perfect and holy God who has chosen to make one creature in His image, and we’re what He gets for this act of love?

Occasionally, someone will die for a Mother Teresa. But who among us would die for a John Soper or worse? Yet God loved us when we were unlovable and unloving. God loved us and sent His Son to die for us, the righteous for the unrighteous. This is how we know the love of God. It’s a very humbling thing, and yet a gentle thing that doesn’t crush us but gives us life.

Remember: this is the kind of love that God showed for us when we were still sinners and unreconciled to Him. What kind of love must He even now be pouring out on us through His Spirit, now that He has bought us for Himself and united us to Himself by His Son?! For those whom God has saved by His love (tangibly, overwhelmingly, shown through the Son), the love of God is the air that we breathe, the water that we drink, and the bread that we eat. It is the blue of the sky and the green of the grass, and all of the 64 Crayola colors in the box. It’s the cool dream you wished you could recapture except that it’s already and always here, and it’s the last day of school and the first day of summer vacation. It’s the change of the seasons and your favorite season. The love of God is the time of your life and the members of your family and all the good things the earth has to offer that we take for granted.

How can such death-defying, life-giving, grace-laden love come in such invisible and humble ways? Isn’t it just like God that His love is everywhere in our lives and yet seems nowhere?

But I urge you today to not take this love for granted. Let’s spend a day together, vowing not to take it for granted but to celebrate it. Because we have access by faith into this grace and love of God, let’s rejoice in the hope of glory (verse 2), and when we have tribulations, let’s glory in them because we know that by them the one who loves us is producing perseverance and character and hope. Let’s rejoice in God and His love, having been reconciled, because by this love we shall be saved by His life (verse 11).

Joy is a commandment from God, and it is a grace of the Spirit. It’s also a choice. Living in, basking in, bathing in, and breathing the love of God, let’s choose today to rejoice in the God who is love and has poured in into our hearts and every cell of our lives!

Prayer: Ah Lord God, Thou holy lover of my Soul, when Thou comest into my Soul, all that is within me shall rejoice. Thou art my Glory and the exultation of my heart. Thou art my Hope and Refuge in the day of my trouble.

Set me free from all evil passions, and heal my heart of all inordinate affections, that being cured and thoroughly cleansed, I may be made fit to love, courageous to suffer, steady to persevere. Nothing is sweeter than love, nothing more courageous, nothing fuller or better in heaven and earth; because Love is born of God, and cannot rest but in God, above all created things.

Let me love Thee more than myself, let me love others as Thou wouldst have me do, let all I do show that I truly love Thee, as the law of Love commandeth. Amen. (Thomas a Kempis)

Point for Meditation:

How has God shown you His love? How can you more faithfully accept it and celebrate it?
In what ways is God asking you to share His love with others?

Resolution: I resolve to reflect on and accept the love of God today so that I might seek and find joy.

Cruxifixion – Creative Commons Attribution-Share Generic 2.0 license

justification by faith

2017-09-21T17:10:03-05:00

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How Do You Sing When in Prison?

Last updated on: September 21, 2017 at 5:10 pm By Fr. Charles Erlandson

Acts 16:25-40

I want to know something. I have one question I’d like to ask St. Paul today.

I demand an answer.

“How were you able to be singing hymns to God at midnight, having been falsely accused, thrown into a Roman jail, and having your feet fastened in the stocks?

I want to know how you got from “Having received such a charge, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks” to “But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God.”

Meditating upon this episode in Paul’s life and the rest of what I know about his life and ministry, I think God has revealed some clues. First, right there in the verse about singing hymns, lies part of the answer: Paul and Silas were praying. When I look, uncomprehendingly, at Paul and Silas singing, I have a mental image of them in the stocks in a dark, dank dungeon, feet in wooden stocks, having been humiliated and humbled.

I have, in other words, an entirely human picture of what was going on. But not Paul. While Paul undoubtedly was unaware of his “human condition,” he obviously saw something else.

What He saw was God.

Why else would he pray in such a situation? Me? I think maybe I’d have been stunned at first. I’m sure I’d be praying, out of fear if not anything else, but I’m not sure how long it would take me to get to the singing, if at all.

Why not? What did Paul have that I didn’t? I want some of it!

Paul had a strong sense of the presence of the Lord, even, especially, in difficult times. He had learned that he must suffer for Christ and that in his weakness the strength of Christ was made known.

Paul also had Silas. Every one should have a Silas or a Barnabas or a Timothy or an Epaphroditus. One of the reasons we don’t see God in difficult circumstances is because we attempt to face those circumstances by ourselves. But we’re not made to. We were created for community, for relationships, by one who is in His very essence a relationship of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

My whole life seems like it’s been a slo-mo unfolding understanding of the importance of relationships. In retrospect, the state of my relationships explains a lot about my life: why I had a very happy childhood, with 2 godly parents and 3 great siblings; why I seemed depressed in 4th grade (all my friends from the previous 3 years were in different classes that year); and why I didn’t watch the Super Bowl this last year, even though I had a deep desire to see New England lose.

Huh?

This February at Super Bowl time, I was in England to defend my Ph.D. thesis. Since England is 6 hours ahead of Central Standard Time, the Super Bowl began very late in England. Although my Dad had accompanied me to England, on the night of the Super Bowl he was in Wales, visiting some relatives. I found the one place in all of Lancaster University that seemed to be showing the Super Bowl and stumbled into a room of English uni students watching the game. I scanned for a place to sit, and there weren’t many. But as I plotted where to sit, I felt my interest in the game waning.

I didn’t know anyone in the room. I suddenly realized how much of my enjoyment in life comes from enjoying my experiences with those I love.

In a similar way, we have a need to share our lives in the tough times, too. Why is it that those who have experienced war together have social bonds and relationships that endure? We’re created to experience life together, and to the degree that I am withering under the circumstances of my life I’ve probably not been sharing that experience with others, in spite of the commandment to bear one another’s burdens.

I think another reason Paul could sing in prison was because he had prepared his whole Christian life for moments such as this. Paul’s being thrown in prison wasn’t an isolated incident in his life: he had already had many moments of persecution and resistance. He had already had a lot of experience with suffering with and for His Lord, and so He knew how the Lord would be with him this time.

But too often, we don’t seek the Lord in our afflictions or tough times, and we are always starting on square one. I believe that one of the reasons Jesus Christ was ready for the Cross was that He had been preparing for it His whole life. The Passion and Crucifixion weren’t isolated moments in time: Jesus knew they were coming. He knew what the Father had appointed Him for, and He had practiced an entire life of giving Himself perfectly to the will of the Father.

So Paul prayed, had Silas, and had spent his life obeying the Lord. The result was that he could sing in prison.

The results for others? Most intriguing, we discover that the other prisoners were listening to them (verse 25). Can you imagine the other prisoners, for whom the prison was just a prison and suffering just suffering, hearing these weird prisoners singing hymns to their God? Why would Luke record this? I think it’s highly significant for how we respond to trouble in our lives. Someone is always watching. If you’re a parent, your kids are always watching you. Regardless of who you are and what trouble you have, someone is watching to see how you’ll respond. (And don’t forget the heavenly audience!)

As a result of Paul and Silas’ not fleeing, and, I think, of their singing in prison, the Philippian jailer believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. Because the Philippian jailer believed, his whole household converted.

Last, but not least, what do we find Paul and Silas doing the moment they’re released? They entered into Lydia’s house, saw the brethren, and encouraged them. Do you think this encouragement would have been nearly as great if they had not been thrown in prison and not maintained an attitude of praise?

The suffering and trials in our lives have a significance far, far beyond what we normally ascribe to them. We, too, can sing in our prisons, if we seek God in them.

Prayer: Father, I ask that You would send Your Spirit to me today to be the Spirit of spiritual songs and hymns. By Your grace, teach me to sing Your praises all the day long, songs of thankfulness and songs of joy, so that all who see may also give You praise. Encourage me by the fellowship of the saints, and sustain me by Your daily bread that when the moment of imprisonment comes I may continue to sing. Amen.

Point for Meditation:

Imagine what Paul and Silas were singing about. How can you sing in a similar way in the difficult circumstances in your life?
Find someone in your life with whom God is asking you to share your tough times.

Resolution: I resolve to find occasions to sing to the Lord today, especially during the difficult moments.

2017-09-08T16:35:38-05:00

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The Redemption of St. Mark

Last updated on: September 8, 2017 at 4:35 pm By Fr. Charles Erlandson

Acts 13:13-25

Tucked inconspicuously in today’s lesson, off in the very edges of the picture, we see an incident in the life of a young man. The lesson has 2 main foci, both of which are rather large objects. The first is the continuing missionary journey of Paul and Barnabas, as they make their way Cyprus to the heart of Asia Minor. The second is Paul’s re-telling of God’s dealing with His people from the Exodus until John the Baptist.

But there, right there in the second half of one verse, verse 13, we catch a blur. Did you see him? It’s John Mark. Back in 12:25 we first heard that Paul and Barnabas had taken John Mark with them. He is with them at Antioch, and so he would have witnessed the Holy Spirit setting apart Paul and Barnabas. He goes with them to Cyprus (see 13:5), and would have witnessed firsthand the battle with Elymas and Paul’s striking him dumb.

Who is this young man John Mark, who is privileged to make history with Paul and Barnabas, as they set sail to convert the Gentiles? He came from a believing family, for it was at his mother’s house that the believers in Jerusalem are gathered to pray when Peter is thrown into prison in Acts 12.

And so we come to Acts 13:13, where we read, simply: “and John, departing from them, returned to Jerusalem.” Nothing more. It seems like an extraneous detail, until we continue on to Acts 15:37-39 and we read: “Now Barnabas was determined to take with them (to the cities they had previously visited) John called Mark. But Paul insisted that they should not take with them the one who had departed from them in Pamphylia, and had not gone with them to the work. Then the contention became so sharp that they parted from one another. And so Barnabas took Mark and sailed to Cyprus.”

We’ll never know the precise reason Mark turned back. Maybe he was homesick. Maybe he couldn’t stomach the Gentiles. Maybe he was cowardly. Paul didn’t want to take him in Acts 15 because of his past track record, and throughout the letters of Paul we find that many of his companions abandon him. Barnabas, being a cousin of Mark (Colossians 4:10), wants to take him. From Acts 15 on, Mark goes with Barnabas, and we hear little more about him.

Regardless of the reason for his departure, Luke’s understated description of Mark’s departure haunts me: saying simply that he “had not gone with them to the work” (Acts 15:38). It reminds me of the people who abandoned Paul later, especially at the end of his life. It reminds me of how the disciples abandoned Christ before His Crucifixion. And it reminds me of how alone and abandoned I feel sometimes and incites me to never want to abandon my Lord or His work. What a serious charge, to think that any of us had abandoned the ministry, and to have that assessment recorded for history!

Think about your life. Could it be said of you, where you are now, that in any way you have abandoned the ministry to which God has called you? It’s not likely that you are a missionary in a foreign land, but to what has God called you? To disciple your children? To wash the feet of the saints? To speak of your Lord with your relatives and neighbors? To keep holy in this dark and dying world? To greater faithfulness, listening at His feet?

Mark’s turning back is a warning to us all.

But thank God that Mark’s story didn’t stop there. Actually, it gets does get worse before it gets better, because Mark’s cowardice or selfishness caused a division two years later between Paul and Barnabas (Acts 15:39). Those who turn from the faith or those who go AWOL in God’s army do more harm to the Body of Christ than they know. And those who say they are of Christ but do not do the work of Christ they know they should do help make the Body sick or weak.

But what we mean for selfish purposes, God can still bless. Out of this division of the Dynamic Duo come not one but two missionary teams. And the division between Mark and Paul is not eternal: it didn’t even last to the end of Paul’s life.

In Colossians and Philemon, we first hear a very quiet but very dramatic change in Mark. In Colossians 4:10-11, Paul calls John Mark a fellow worker and comfort to him. Now, 11 years later, Paul can say that Mark, along with Luke, is one of his “fellow laborers” (Philemon 23). We don’t know what happened in young Mark’s life, except to say that he had been restored to the ministry of the gospel by the grace of God.

But the best is saved for last, for here in 2 Timothy 4:11 Paul writes to Timothy: “Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful to me for ministry.” How would you like to have that recorded of your life – that you were useful in ministry to a great apostle? What about listening for the words from your Master: “Well done, thou good and faithful servant”? These are the words we should labor to hear when at the end of our lives, and at the end of each day.

Mark’s story, after we have stitched it together, is a story of redemption. Mark had turned back, but that was not to be the mark of his life, for he also returned to the ministry. We learn from Mark’s life that faith and faithfulness are processes that in this crazy, upside down, embattled world don’t always march in a straight formation. A single step in the wrong direction doesn’t, by itself, undo us, no matter how large. But a lifetime of drifting or wandering in the wrong direction is deadly. At any moment, no matter how much we’ve screwed up in the past, there is hope of redemption, if we’re serious about returning to the Lord and His ministry.

God’s restoration of John Mark is one of the greatest success stories of the Bible. This young man, who might have been the young man who ran away naked when Jesus was arrested, is not only restored to St. Paul’s good graces: he was privileged to be one of only four Gospel writers. This same Mark, who had abandoned Paul when younger, is St. Mark, the writer of a Gospel of Jesus Christ. He was the companion of St. Peter, who calls him his son (1 Peter 5:13). He is also believed by some to be the first Pope of Alexandria by both the Coptic Orthodox Church and the Greek Church of Alexandria.

Every time we read his Gospel or hear his name, we should be reminded of the grace of God in his life and ours.

Prayer: O Almighty God, who hast instructed thy holy Church with the heavenly doctrine of thy Evangelist Saint Mark; Give us grace that, being not like children carried away with every blast of vain doctrine, we may be established in the truth of thy holy Gospel; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Points for Meditation:

In what ways might you be retreating from the ministry to which God has called you? Consider that God is in the business of redemption.
Meditate on examples of those who have persevered in the ministry, despite hardships.
What is your story of redemption? In what ways have you wandered and yet the Good Shepherd has brought you back?

Resolution: I resolve to make one conscience turn back to the ministry of the Lord today, no matter how small.

Antioch Pisidia Map – Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

2017-08-24T17:37:15-05:00

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Was the Stoning of St. Stephen a Good Or a Bad Thing?

Last updated on: August 24, 2017 at 5:37 pm By Fr. Charles Erlandson

Acts 8:5-25

Was the stoning of St. Stephen a good or a bad thing?

Let me re-phrase that: was the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ a good or a bad thing?

The two events are one and the same, united as they are by the Holy Spirit and the unity that Christ promised between Himself and His Body.

But to answer the question, we might go back even further, to the Old Testament. Do you remember the story of Joseph and his brothers? His brothers, being jealous, wanted to kill him but settled for selling him to the Ishmaelites, who sold him to Egypt. Joseph became a servant and wound up in prison, but that’s not the end of the story. As a result of Joseph rising to be second in command of all of Egypt, Israel was saved.

Were the actions of Joseph’s brothers good or bad? Joseph himself, that interpreter of dreams and words, gives us the answer: “But as for you (Joseph’s brothers), you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive” (Genesis 50:20).

I’ll ask you again: was the stoning of Stephen a good or a bad thing? The Jews meant it for evil, but God meant it for good, to save many people alive. This the truth of Good Friday: that what men means for evil, God means for good, so that many might be saved. In his martyrdom, Stephen follows his Master, and God the Father uses it for good, as He did with His own Son. Why shouldn’t He? His Son is now with the Church, the Body of His Son.

And so we learn that as a result of the stoning of Stephen, Saul made havoc of the church, entering every house and dragging off men and women to prison. But those who were scattered went everywhere preaching the Word. How many times in church history has this happened, that God’s people are persecuted, and as a result the Word of God spreads? Countless times, from day of the Crucifixion until the present day.

In Chapter 8, the focus of Acts changes again to Philip, who is Greek, as was Stephen. The Enemy might kill a Stephen but God immediately raises up a Philip. Philip extends the reach of God’s Word and Kingdom even further, taking the gospel to Samaria. Step by step, inch by inch, slowly the Church in the book of Acts fulfills what Christ had commanded in Chapter 1: to begin in Jerusalem and move to Judea, Samaria, and finally to the ends of the earth. In the book of Acts, the good news of Jesus Christ moves with the Church and the love of God equally to those who were ethnic Jews, rich, men, and the “righteous” to those who are poor, women, and sinners. From these, Jesus Christ goes with His Church to the Hellenistic Jews and the proselytes, the circumcised non-ethnic Jews. He goes, here in Chapter 8, to the Samaritans as He loved to do while on earth and beyond them to the God-fearers, the uncircumcised devout Gentiles. In time, He comes even to the pagans, the uncircumcised Gentiles who still worshipped idols.

Once again, here in Chapter 8, Jesus Christ conquers by serving. He comes through Philip to bring the good news of life to the Samaritan dogs who didn’t deserve it. In the end, there was great joy in that city, since the multitudes with one accord heeded the things spoken by Philip (verses 6 and 8).

Was the stoning of Stephen a good thing? Not in itself, it could never be, but transformed by God it was, because the Father delights in taking the evil of men and turning it into good. Far greater than the miracle of turning water into wine is the miracle of turning evil into good, especially the greatest miracle of all: turning evil men into good men.

This is the miracle that we, together, have been asked to perform. To you and to me have been entrusted the words of life and the Bread of Life, and our Master is asking us to distribute to the hungry among us so that they might live. Each of us has a part in this sacred miracle, which often occurs in slow motion and which is often distributed among many Christians who have participated in it.

But there is another, more common, miracle that God delights to perform in our lives each and every day, and that is to take the evil things in our lives that cause suffering and transform them into good in our lives. I believe that He did this with Joseph and Israel, and I know He did it with Jesus Christ.

So why do I have such a difficult time believing and knowing His power in my life when He comes to offer the humble daily miracle of taking my suffering or weakness or losses and redeeming them? How many times are we not physically well, and how many times are we sick in our souls? How many times are we frustrated and discouraged, and how many relationships that we are in are in need of a physician?

As many times as any of these occur, that is how often God is willing to work His miracle. But, as in the Gospels, He works those miracles only in those who have faith, in those who turn from themselves and cry out to Him for help. Sometimes, this faith, seen in the prayer of pain, is tested, and He tarries. Sometimes Lazarus dies first before we see His glory and power. Sometimes, the miracle is performed in slow motion, and it is up to us to see His entire work in our lives.

Stephen, like His Lord, truly died. Devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation over him. But from that death came the joy of the Samaritans and many others.

As you take up your cross today, whatever size and shape He has ordained for you, embrace it, not as the evil that men do but as the miraculous good that the Father desires to work in your life today.

Prayer: Grant, O Lord, that, in all our sufferings here upon earth for the testimony of Your truth, we may steadfastly look up to heaven, and by faith behold the glory that shall be revealed. Being filled with the Holy Spirit, may we learn to love and bless our persecutors by the example of the first martyr St. Stephen, who prayed for his murderers to You. Grant that we may, through the Holy Spirit, be made Your faithful disciples and filled with faith and power, O blessed Jesus, who stands on the right hand of God to help all those who suffer for You, our only Mediator and Advocate. Amen.

Points for Meditation:

Think of some times in your life when what was evil or painful was turned to good by the Lord.
What evil or painful things in your life today have you not given to the Lord, that He might bring good from them?

Resolution: I resolve to find one way in my life in which God desires to redeem the evil that men do. When I find God at work in this evil, I resolve to give praise and thanks.

Rembrandt, Stoning of St. Stephen – U.S. Public Domain

stoning of St. Stephen

2017-08-06T16:44:07-05:00

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True Christian Spirituality

Last updated on: August 6, 2017 at 4:44 pm By Fr. Charles Erlandson

Acts 1

“The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began to do and teach . . . ” (Acts 1:1).

I find this to be one of the most illuminating verses in the New Testament. Yes, it is a little strange to think so, but then if you’ve been reading Give Us This Day you have seen strangeness and oddity (and even weirdness) bubble up from the surfaces of the page, like crude oil, black gold, Texas tea, bubbling up in Jed Clampett’s back yard.

Luke’s “former account,” is, of course, the Gospel According to St. Luke, and if you read Luke 24 and Acts 1 back to back you’ll realize they belong together like man and wife, like peanut butter and jelly (or banana). What does Luke say about his Gospel? That in it he wrote about the things that Jesus Christ began to do and to teach. This can only mean that in his present book (“The Acts of the Apostles”, which some later editor added) he will be writing about the things that Jesus Christ continues to do and to teach.

Which brings us to verse 9. In verse 9, Jesus ascends into heaven, never to be seen in the flesh again until we get to heaven. But this presents an interesting little tension in the lives of Christians: how can Jesus Christ be around to continue to do and to teach when He’s sitting at the right hand of the Father?

The answer to this question is why I think this little, odd verse is so illuminating. In the book of Acts, St. Luke is writing about the words and works of Jesus Christ as the Spirit of Christ lives in the Body of Christ to be the presence of Christ on the earth. The main character of the book of Acts is therefore not St. Peter or St. Paul, the greatest tag team in history, but Jesus Christ Himself, as He works through the Holy Spirit who indwells His Body, the Church.

This is true Christian spirituality: the life of Jesus Christ communicated to the Body of Christ by the Spirit of Christ.

But sacred history doesn’t end with Paul in prison on page 1875 (in my Bible): it continues through our lives. The same Jesus Christ who changed water into wine, healed the blind, deaf, and dumb, and raised Lazarus from the dead is the same Jesus Christ who had Peter and John heal a lame man and had Paul stand preaching on Mars Hill is the same Jesus Christ who helps me to write Give Us This Day every day and helps you to raise your kids. In fact, now that the Body of Jesus Christ has been broken and blessed and is distributed throughout the world and even populates Paradise again, the truth of Jesus words become clear: “he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father” (John 14:12).

The Ascension of Jesus Christ is the turning point in the life of Christ and His Church. The Ascension marks the changing of the guard from Jesus Christ of Nazareth in a local body to Jesus Christ ruling the earth through His mystical Body. In reality, the work of Christ can’t be separated: the Incarnation, His life, His Passion, His Crucifixion, His Resurrection, His Ascension, and His Session are all part of the same centrifugal love that has come down to redeem those He loves.

Sometimes Catholics may over-emphasize the Incarnation, Evangelicals may over-emphasize the Cross, and Charismatics may over-emphasize Pentecost. But they all hang together.

But the Ascension is a very visible and dramatic change in how God works on the earth. At the Ascension, Jesus Christ is glorified and seen for who He is. At the Ascension, man enters heaven for the first time, in the person of Christ, and He is the firstfruit of many more to come. What in heaven’s name is Jesus doing in heaven? He is preparing a place for us (John 14). He is acting as our High Priest and from heaven makes intercession for us. One of the things I’ll bet He’s most fervently praying is that we may do His will on earth as He does it in heaven!

It is with the Ascension, which is but the transition to Christ’s Session or sitting at the right hand of the Father, that Jesus takes his rightful place on the throne and begins to rule. This is why, since we are united to Him, we also are kings and rule with Him. Primarily, we are the kingdom which is ours to rule, and when we rule ourselves and own households well, then we get promoted and can begin to rule other parts of the creation. It is, therefore, through us that Christ now reigns on the earth. This is the significance of the Incarnation and Ascension and all other parts of Christ’s ministry among us and with us.

Christ’s ascension to heaven is also the ultimate reminder that heaven is most truly our home, and His being there is the sure promise that it is our eternal home as well.

It’s because Christ ascended to heaven that He sent the Holy Spirit, and all of the events of Acts 2 and Pentecost and our lives proceed from His life and work. As He sends His Holy Spirit to us, He is with us, as He promised. As His Holy Spirit dwells in us, we become His Temple and Body that do His heavenly will and participate in the establishment and manifestation of His heavenly kingdom here on earth.

The unity and power and glory that comes from Christ’s presence in us by the Spirit is manifested in the dynamic, creative, inspired relationship between the Church and the Gospel. It’s not entirely accurate to say that the Bible came first, is it? If you remember your church history, you’ll remember that Peter, Paul, and others speak of the resurrected Christ and begin acting as the Church before the New Testament was written down. In order for there to even be a Word of God for us to receive, there must have been a Church, a body of God’s people who heard God speak, were gathered together, and who eventually wrote down what God inspired them to write. It was in the life of the Church, and never apart from it, that the Scriptures were written, shaped, and received.

But the Word of God, originally oral but now written down, is not only birthed by the Church but also births the Church. For from hearing the Word of God, as delivered by the Church and her ministers, others receive the gift of faith and believe and bring new life to the Church.

Look for this godly dynamic between Church and Gospel throughout the book of Acts and in your lives.

The Gospels, then, are about what Jesus Christ began to do and teach, while Acts and our lives are about what He is continuing to do through us, by the Spirit. If only we could recognize and remember how close the Lord actually is to us and how united we are to Him, the reputation and power and glory of the Church, and especially of Jesus Christ, might be something more than we see it in our day.

What a wonder: that Jesus Christ, who is my Lord and my God, not only lives in me but has also chosen to work and to teach through me! Such a wonder deserves, demands, a wonderful response of faith and faithfulness, of love and humility.

Prayer: Grant, we beseech thee, Almighty God, that like as we do believe thy only-begotten Son our Lord, Jesus Christ to have ascended into the heavens; so we may also in heart and mind thither ascend, and with him continually dwell, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.

Points for Meditation:

What was the response of the apostles to Jesus’ Ascension? What should your response be to the Ascension?
In what ways has Jesus Christ worked and taught in your life?
In what ways does Jesus Christ desire to work and teach in your life?

Resolution: I resolve to remember to praise Jesus Christ for His Ascension and His work in my life all throughout the day today.

Pentecost, San Marco Milan – By permission of copyright holder

2016-04-13T17:25:43-05:00

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Thursday of 2nd Sunday after Easter – 1 Peter 4:12-19

Last updated on: April 13, 2016 at 5:25 pm By Fr. Charles Erlandson

1 Peter 4:12-19

It seems to be strange, hearing Peter talk about Christians suffering after Easter, after we’ve celebrated the Resurrection of Christ. But because we are still in this fallen world, though Christ has passed into glory, we are still living out a movie, our life story that might be called The Passion of Christians.

The truth is that we as Christians suffer. As our Lord first suffered, we must suffer. This isn’t a very popular teaching. You won’t hear many other preachers preaching about it these days. But it’s one of the most profound and potent truths that God wants to teach us through His Son.

I want to preface all that I will say by making a qualification.

Much of what the New Testament has to say about suffering is that it is the result of our own sin. If that’s the case, then we’d better deal with it by confession and repentance. And much of what the New Testament has to say about suffering is about suffering that comes from persecution, and especially the reward that comes with this.

But I will be talking about the ordinary suffering that most of us undergo in life, the kind of daily suffering that many, if not all, of you face each day.

I can’t claim that God will miraculously take away all of your suffering this morning.

But I can claim, prophesying in the name of the Lord, that if you hear and believe His voice this morning, as He speaks about the suffering in your life, that He has the power to miraculously transform it by the power of His Son. I can proclaim that even the most mundane suffering in your life is overflowing with meaning and power – if only you would learn to suffer with and for Jesus Christ.

The most important truths about suffering for the Christian are these:

We are united to Christ in suffering
We are sanctified by Christ in suffering
We are glorified in Christ by suffering.

First, we are united to Christ through suffering. Through baptism and by faith, we are united to Jesus Christ. Guess what? When we’re so united to Him, we get all of Him. His resurrection, yes, but first His sufferings. We are united to Jesus Christ in His suffering.

Jesus Christ suffered for us. As Peter puts it: “Christ suffered that we might be saved” (1 Peter 2:24). We know that He suffered for us because He loves us – but so what? He suffered that He might bring us to God (1 Peter 3:18). His suffering unites us to God, but we must participate in this suffering.

How? By suffering with and for Him. If we really are one with Jesus Christ, then we really share in His suffering. We all know how it is possible for a husband or wife or father or mother to suffer sympathetically with one they love: the suffering of the beloved is the suffering of the lover. This is especially true of Jesus Christ and His Church.

Peter assumes that we are partakers of Christ’s sufferings (1 Peter 4:13). How? Our suffering becomes His suffering. We share His suffering, but even better is that He shares our suffering with us. He suffered throughout His life – especially on the Cross – for your sins and mine. But as our High Priest, He still shares in your suffering. When we suffer, we suffer with Christ, and He with us: this is the mystery or our union with Him. And most of the time we miss it.

What’s more – our suffering actually brings us to Him. I don’t know about you, but when I’m in trouble, it leads me to rely on Him and cry out to Him (except for the times I’m being blind and foolish).

In your suffering, and I believe this applies to all of your suffering, and not just the supererogatory acts of suffering, you are united with Jesus Christ. When you remember that you are united to Jesus in your suffering, then you are never alone in your suffering. Jesus is with you. He was there, in suffering, before you, and He’s there now in your suffering.

This is how we can accept suffering, and, as Sts. Paul and James discovered, even rejoice in it!

It’s not just that we theoretically are united with Jesus in our suffering: there is real power to sanctify, and power to save us. We share in His suffering, and He in ours – not usually as punishment but as a means of grace, of Him sanctifying us and making us holy and obedient, as Jesus Christ Himself had to learn.

Without Christ, when we suffer, we are bearing the consequences of our sin or the sinful and fallen nature of the world. It’s because of our sinful passions that we suffer.

But when we suffer with Christ, and through Him, then our suffering takes on a redemptive nature because we are united with Him. Our suffering sanctifies us because it leads us to God Himself, that we might be holy as He is holy.

Our suffering leads us to God. Hopefully, it leads us to obedience, as even Christ learned obedience by what He suffered (Hebrews 5:8). In His humanity, His obedience wasn’t automatic: He had to learn to actively be submissive, for example, to Joseph and Mary, and in the Garden of Gethsemane He had to actively learn to obey – partially through what He suffered.

Your suffering, if you allow God to use it for His loving purposes – will drive you to obedience.

Suffering also leads to faith. In 1 Peter 1:6-9 we see the pattern that suffering leads to faith which leads to salvation. In 1:7, Peter teaches that the testing of suffering refines your faith. Suffering is God’s sanctifying, purifying fire. I’ve seen this firsthand in the lives of the saints.

Suffering leads to consolation. In 2 Corinthians 1:7 Paul reminds us that if we are partakers of the sufferings of Christ, we will be partakers of His consolation. Where our suffering abounds, Gods’ grace and goodness to us abound even more. As St. Augustine said, in his famous Confessions: “greater suffering produces greater joy.”

Suffering leads us to God. In learning obedience, in crying for help, in giving thanks for deliverance and consolation, suffering is meant by God to lead us to Him. The goal is to submit our wills to His and learn obedience, that is, to be made like the Son.

Commit your soul to God when you suffer, Peter says in 4:19. Now where did He learn this? From Christ, who said, in His Passion: “Into thy hands I commit my spirit.”

We are glorified in Christ through suffering. Our suffering, if we suffer with Christ and for Him and if we are sanctified by our suffering, leads to glory for Christ and for us in Him. If we are truly united with Him and if we truly share all things, then in the end we will also share in His glory. If we cling to His Cross, His Resurrection will take hold of us. If we fast with Him in Lent and suffer on Good Friday, then Easter will certainly come! Even the prophets could see that Christ must suffer first and then receive glory (1 Peter 1:11), and His life is the pattern for our life in Him.

Therefore, even in this life we should “Rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy” (4:13). Christ is our hope of glory, and where He has gone we will one day go.

In this life of suffering, you must suffer with Christ – or surely you will suffer without Him.

I know some of your suffering of a few of you, and I want nothing more than for it to be used to bring you closer to God. But God knows all of the suffering of all of you, and He desires for you to receive it for the good of your soul.

Who among you, if you were watching in person the Passion and suffering of your Lord, wouldn’t gladly carry His cross for Him for an hour – or more?

In the same way, learn to bear whatever cross He has given you in this life.

If you learn to think of your suffering this way, as a suffering redeemed by Jesus Christ in the presence of Jesus Christ, then the Passion of Jesus Christ will become your passion.

If you learn to suffer through and for Him, then God’s promise is this: that the Jesus who suffered and died for you will be with you in your suffering, and out of it, He will bring health and life to your soul.

Prayer: Heavenly Father, You created me and most lovingly care for me. I accept all my sufferings most willingly, and as a truly obedient child I resign myself to your holy will. Grant me the strength to accept generously your loving visitation, and never let me grieve your faithful heart by giving in to impatience and discouragement. Lord Jesus, for love of You I desire to suffer all things, because for love of me You endured such cruel torments. Jesus, I unite my pains with the ones which You suffered and I make an offering of them to the Father. O Jesus, out of the abundance of your divine goodness give me the virtues of meekness and patience, so that I may willingly carry my cross after You. Amen.

Point for Meditation: Meditate on the ways in which God desires to use your suffering to bless you by bringing you closer to Him: by disciplining you, teaching you obedience, uniting you with Him, consoling you in suffering, etc.

Resolution: I resolve to find one way today in which God intends to bless me through my suffering and to find Him in my suffering that I may be united to Him.

Give Us This Day

1 Peter 4

bearing our cross

commit your soul to God

partakers of Christ’s suffering

suffering and glory

suffering with Christ

The Passion of Christians

2017-08-01T22:05:43-05:00

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Where Do We See Jesus Today?

Last updated on: August 1, 2017 at 10:05 pm By Fr. Charles Erlandson

John 20:24-31

“Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed” (John 20:29).

That’s us: we have not seen Jesus Christ in the flesh, and yet we believe. If this is true for you today, then you are blessed!

And yet how often are we like St. Thomas after all. How often we have witnessed the testimony of Jesus Christ in our lives and yet seem unable to see Him. How often do we believe, and yet we don’t believe?

How can we learn from St. Thomas today? I wish it were as easy as having Jesus appear before each of us and allowing us to see the mark of the nails in His flesh and to thrust our hands into His sides. Of course, having such direct testimony wouldn’t require as much faith.

Still, I’d like to be able to do it.

And yet Jesus Himself says that we are blessed if we believe without having seen in this way. Having the Holy Spirit in a way that Thomas did not yet have, desiring faith and yet desiring to see Him, and yet having Him be in heaven – how can we see Him and yet have faith? Can we have the blessing of Thomas without doubting like Thomas?

What if we were able to see the marks of the nails and the Crucifixion and able to put our hands into His body?

I think we can. But it requires faith.

What if we saw Thomas’ request not in terms of the physical body of Jesus Christ, now at the right hand of the Father, but in terms of His Body here on earth – the Church? Suddenly, marvelous possibilities for faith and blessing manifest themselves.

First, there is Jesus Christ on the altar during every Lord’s Supper: do you see Him? No, He’s not spread out like a patient etherized upon a table, but I swear that He’s there. When we presume to come to the Lord in His sacred Supper, do we have faith that He’s really there? Do we see Him offering Himself to us, or only a human who politely asks us to try and remember Jesus? Is it Jesus of whom we are partaking, or is it only bread and wine, or grape juice and crackers?

Maybe there’s a reason that the priest or elder gives us the bread and the wine, rather than us presuming to take it, and maybe that reason is because Jesus Christ is acting through the priest or pastor. Isn’t the whole idea of the Church that Jesus Christ is truly present in us to do His will and speak His Word?

Is this so strange to us? Do we not in other parts of our Christian life believe that it is Jesus Christ acting through us? Then why, when we come to the Lord’s Supper, of all places and all times, do we suddenly become agnostic or atheistic?

The Lord who had the nails pounded into His flesh and the spear thrust into His side is there at His table. He’s there on His altar, not being sacrificed again, but offering and re-presenting the one full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, once offered. By eating His Body and drinking His blood, we believe, though we have not seen, and thus receive His blessing.

But what is true specifically for the Sacrament of the Holy Communion is true generally for the life of the Church (see Erlandson’s Special and General Theories of Sacramentality from a previous Daily Bread). What if we saw the nails and put our hands in His Body, by seeing Him in His Church?

Do you not see a suffering Church today, a suffering Jesus Christ? If you look at all of Him, you will see this suffering in the persecuted church (“Why do you persecute me?”) But you will also see and feel Him in the suffering present in your local Body of Christ. There are suffering servants of the Lord in your midst, and their suffering is showing forth Jesus Christ to you. They are walking, talking reminders of the tragedy of sin and its ravages in our lives. And those who are enduring their suffering patiently, as if they are the sufferings of Christ, are speaking to you of a glory that awaits those united to Him in His suffering.

But, having come to the Body of Christ, with its nail prints and torn side, we are squeamish about putting our hands in Him to touch this suffering. We prefer to stay safely outside, as if by so doing we can avoid it. But by separating the suffering in our lives and the lives of others from our lives in Christ, we are, in actuality, preventing ourselves from fully seeing Him. We must, therefore, embrace the suffering, not as a good thing in and of itself, but as a means of embracing the One who suffered for us and who sacrificed Himself for us.

There is still more to see, however. The Jesus who Thomas saw, marked hands and open side and all, was not only wounded and dead but is also now alive. Those marks are not just the marks of a suffering Church and suffering Christians but also marks of the Resurrection from the dead and ultimate deliverance from suffering. For though we don’t see Him in all of His glory now, and though we aren’t healed from all of our suffering, every point of suffering in the lives of the saints and every death is now a reminder of the One who has triumphed over suffering and death.

Even in this life, we have all witnessed the resurrected Lord, complete with the signs of His suffering and death. After the suffering, and sometimes even through it, we see His mighty deliverance and healing in our lives.

Suffering is therefore no longer just suffering but also a blessing because it leads us to the Lord. It is the hand of the One with the nail prints in His hands upon us, touching us, becoming one with us, and blessing us. And it is our suffering, nail-printed hands, which we, along with Thomas, put in His side, partaking of both His death and life, His suffering and His glory.

Easter is partially Easter because we have first experienced Good Friday.

“Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.”

Point for Meditation:

Reflect upon the suffering in your life or in the life of another. How may you allow Jesus to use this as a means of blessing you?
Reflect upon the ways in which the Lord has delivered you or another from suffering and blessed you.

Prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, by your patience in suffering you hallowed earthly pain and gave us the example of obedience to your Father’s will: Be near me in my time of weakness and pain; sustain me by your grace, that my strength and courage may not fail; heal me according to your will; and help me always to believe that what happens to me here is of little account if you hold me in eternal life, my Lord and my God. Amen.

Resolution: I resolve to find one way to see Jesus Christ today, especially through the suffering in my life today.

Thursday of Easter Week

2017-07-31T21:48:24-05:00

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Cowardice and the En-Courage-r

Last updated on: July 31, 2017 at 9:48 pm By Fr. Charles Erlandson

John 20:19-23

I might as well admit it right now: I’m secretly a 32nd degree Chicken. If you’ve seen the back of my car, you might have noticed the telltale logo: a bird awkwardly running away from perceived danger.

Some men are born fearless: either that, or just plain stupid. It seems as if nothing intimidates them and there isn’t any challenge they aren’t willing to take on.

Not me. I’m not exactly a Barney Fife character, and to some my joyfully taking on a life of raising 5 children may seem like the height of courage (or folly). But there are many times in my life when I lack courage and confidence in what I’m doing. Even small things get to me sometimes, and I am concerned because I’m afraid I won’t do things right or to the satisfaction of others.

One of the things that stands out, however, in the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus Christ, is that when He appears to His disciples, whatever chickenness or grief or sorrow they have vanishes.

Left to herself, Mary Magdalene can only grieve at the absence of her Lord. But in His blessed presence, her sorrow is turned to joy. In today’s lesson, we find the disciples gathered together. But it isn’t the love and peace and joy of Jesus Christ that is binding them together but fear, fear of the Jews. For on the night of the day in which He rose from the dead, the disciples were gathered together in the upper room, and the doors were shut, for fear of the Jews.

This is the natural condition we find ourselves in, without the presence and grace of Jesus Christ. But then Jesus comes to His disciples, and the world is changed once again. When He comes to them, He comes and says, simply: “Peace be to you.” And He who created the world by His Word now re-creates His disciples by His Word. For He has only to say the Word, and they will be healed. He has only to say the word “Peace,” and peace is created in their lives.

After He has said this and revealed Himself to them, the fear of the cowardly disciples is turned into joy and gladness. “Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord.”

This is to be our experience with Jesus as well. Although it’s unlikely that Charles the Chicken-Hearted will have to fear persecution to the point of torture, imprisonment, or death, I will face things in this life that make me fear or lose heart (many of them). I will cower in the upper room, sometimes in my little Erlandson ghetto at home, or even at church, afraid of the larger world and the many dangers. I will lose heart even in those purposes to which I know the Lord Himself has called me.

But that is not where I am meant to be. I’m meant to be in the presence of Jesus once again. I am to wait for Him to come to me, or even to venture out and seek Him wherever He may be found. When I am cowardly or chicken, or suffering or grieving, He is waiting for me to come to Him, so that He may speak to me and reveal Himself to me, and I will be filled with joy and peace once again.

How is it that this joy and peace and courage can come to us, even in a world that intimidates us? This is the work of the Holy Spirit, who is the En-courage-r. He is the presence of the Lord in our lives, and He is the one who will give courage to the cowardly and fearful, peace to the troubled, and healing to the suffering.

Jesus is calling you to peace and joy and faith, and to this end, He breathes out His Holy Spirit in your life, just as He did with the disciples in the upper room. Whatever He has called you to do, He will equip you to do, by His Holy Spirit.

“Even as my Father has sent Me, so send I you.” This is a terrifying commission, even in our better moments. But Jesus tells the chickenly disciples this shortly after they were just fearful of the Jews. How can they receive such an intimidating commission? Because as soon as Jesus gave them this great commission, He breathed out His Holy Spirit among them.

It may appear from this passage that whenever we are fearful chickens, all we have to do is to pray to Jesus, and He’ll immediately come and make things feel better. But we know this isn’t true.

I see more in this passage. It’s rather ironic that one of the things that comforts and encourages the disciples is the hands and side of Jesus. Ironic, because these are the marks of His terrible Passion and Crucifixion. It’s as if He is saying to us, “You, too, will experience pain and suffering in this world, for My sake. Nevertheless, be strong and of good courage. I AM!”

I see in this, I see in the very Body of my Lord, that this promise of the Encourager and courage is no easy thing. It’s not a promise of deliverance from all suffering or doubt or fear: in fact, it’s a guarantee that we will be tempted by these very things. In fact, if I didn’t need courage, He would have no occasion to send the Encourager. If I didn’t need help, He would have no reason to send the Helper. But I need all of these things, and, by His grace, He is willing to give them to me.

But the certainty of suffering or doubt or fear in this life is accompanied by God’s promise that in that suffering or doubt or fear, He will be with us, blessing us through it all.

And this leads me to my personal definition of courage, one which I have tried to impart to my beloved children: “Courage is doing what’s right, even when you don’t feel like doing it.” It’s this kind of courage that compelled Jesus to march to Calvary, in spite of the anguish of Gethsemane. It’s this kind of courage that transformed the disciples from those who were huddled together behind closed doors out of fear of the Jews into those who went out into the world and turned it upside down.

And this is the kind of humble courage my Lord offers to me, the 32nd degree Chicken. He doesn’t promise to take away everything that may trouble my heart or cause me pain. But He does promise to be with me whenever I come to Him and am ready to receive Him. He doesn’t even always make it feel good. But He does always give me courage so that even when I don’t feel like it, I am enabled to do what He would have me to do.

And what He would have me to do, most of all, is to come and be with Him, so that in due time I may receive His grace and peace and joy and blessing.

Prayer: Let us not seek out of thee what we can only find in thee, O Lord.

Peace and rest and joy and bliss,

which abide only in thine abiding joy.

Lift up our souls above the weary round of harassing thoughts to thy eternal presence.

Lift up our minds to the pure, bright serene atmosphere of thy presence,

that we may breathe freely,

there repose in thy love,

there be at rest from ourselves

and from all things that weary us:

and thence return, arrayed in thy peace,

to do and to bear whatsoever shall best please thee,

O blessed Lord. Amen.

Point for Meditation:

In what things am I fearful? In what things am I failing to trust the Lord? In what things am I suffering?

Resolution: I resolve to come to my Lord and spend time with Him until I have given Him my fear and suffering and doubt and received His promise of blessing.

Cowardly Lion – U.S. Public Domain

the Encourager Holy Spirit

2016-03-25T21:17:33-05:00

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Easter Even – Romans 6:3-11

Last updated on: March 25, 2016 at 9:17 pm By Fr. Charles Erlandson

Romans 6:3-11

Our individual identity is something very precious to each of us. Unfortunately, in our culture we find that often people don’t know who they are. So they try counseling and alternative lifestyles. They change hair and clothing styles. Tattoos and body piercings are also attempts to create an identity.

Jackie’s favorite channel on TV (which she rarely watches) is the TLC channel. In a way, Trading Spaces, her favorite show, is about identity. Makeover shows are reminders that we often want a different identity, and I understand there is even one called Body Works about plastic surgery.

In Shakespeare’s Henry IV Part 2, Prince Hal is a character with an identity crisis. Through most of the play, he is a playboy rogue who spends his days drinking with the likes of Sir John Falstaff. He cares nothing for his identity as the future king of England. But by the end of the play, and especially in Henry V, we find a man ready to assert his identity as king and lead his nation to glory.

Over time, Prince Hal grows up to be King Henry.

The apostle Paul, in the 6th Chapter of Romans, suggests that many Christians also have an identity crisis. We act as if we are slaves to sin, when the reality is that our identity is found in our union with Jesus Christ. We act as if we’re no different than anybody else in the world. More specifically, Paul says that our identity is found in Christ in 2 ways: we’re united with Him in His Crucifixion, and we’re united with Him in His Resurrection.

First, we are identified, given our identity, with Christ in His Crucifixion. Gob back and read Romans 6:3, 6, 8, and you’ll discover that you are baptized, crucified, and dead with Christ.

There are 2 sides to our being crucified with Christ: first, we have been crucified with Christ (past and passive), and second, we ourselves are to put to death the sin in our lives (present and active).

We have been crucified with Christ, if we are united to Him in baptism, for our baptism unites us with Christ. For “we have been planted together in the likeness of His death” (literally “grown together,” verse 5). We are like living tissue that has been grafted onto the life of another tree – and that tree is Christ! We are so closely united with Him, that what is true for Him becomes true for us. His life and identity become ours.

Therefore, we die with Jesus Christ. We are one with Him because as He was crucified and put to death, so our old man has been crucified with Christ on the Cross. Paul teaches in verse 6 that your old man (being your old self in Adam, the one enslaved to sin) is crucified with Christ. If you’re a Christian, your old identity is done away with, your old identity of Adam, sin, and death.

So your old identity has been killed so that you are no longer who you were: a slave to sin. But you’ve been given a new identity, which is Jesus Christ. Though God has been at work in killing your old man, you aren’t supposed to remain passive in your life in Christ. One of my father’s favorite verses when I was growing up in Christ in the Erlandson household was Philippians 2:12-13: “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who is at work in you both to will and to do His good pleasure.”

There are 2 sides to the life of a Christian, to the life of one united with Christ. There is the work of God, who has united you with His Son and has conquered sin and death in you. But Paul also speaks of your work, and so he tells you to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” You must “make good” on your baptism. You are the one who must actively obey God and thereby appropriate the promises of God.

You are to actively put to death – to crucify – your flesh. Reckon, or consider, yourselves dead to sin, and do not let sin reign in your life (verse 11-12). You put your sinful nature to death by denying your self. This is the process called mortification. “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it” (Mark 8:34-35).

Crucifying yourself means putting to death the old man in you, the flesh, the sinful nature. Your ID is that you are a Christian, a disciple of Jesus Christ, someone baptized into Jesus Christ. You are one who crucifies himself, if you want to be a Christian. Therefore, through the Holy Spirit, God has given you the ability to follow Him in denying yourself, as He did.

But how do we do this? Many objections ally themselves against this most fundamental of Christian endeavors. The key, I believe, is to start small. Start small, and if you are faithful, God will bless you with the ability to manage more.

Let me issue you a simple, daily challenge as a practical way to begin denying yourself: as a way to crucify the sinful nature:

What if every little humiliation of each day: all of the city traffic; the times you are wronged each day; the little things that go wrong that so easily frustrate you; the burnt toast and spoilt milk . . . meant by God and used by you as a means of crucifying your sinful nature?

What if the physical ailments each of you has: the stiff joints that ache; the weak muscles that drop things; the forgetful mind that seems to turn against itself; the body whose energy and life force have been robbed from it . . . were God’s way of getting your attention each day?

What if instead of muttering under your breath, or holding it all in until you explode, or whatever your favorite venting technique is . . .you accepted it as God’s appointed means for training you to deny yourself and seek Him?

Imagine: every day God has built in to your day dozens of chances to crucify yourself and offer yourself up to God as living sacrifice!

I know some of your sufferings, and I would never wish them upon the people I love. But God desires to use them for good in your life – if you will see them as a way to suffer with Jesus Christ, who suffered for you.

Learn to see your sufferings, your failings, your weaknesses, as a reminder to crucify what is sinful in you – and to remember the promise of the Resurrection. For by such small sacrifices of self you will crucify yourself and remember your identity as one united to Jesus Christ.

You need to start today. Choose one thing in your life that bugs you all the time – and use it as a way to deny yourself the right to be mad or to grumble – and as a way to turn to God.

And then, when you have taken this small step, begin to look for signs of the Resurrection all around you in your life. For if you have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly you also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection (verse 5). You didn’t think that your Lord, after having been raised Himself, would leave you on the Cross, did you?

This is the pattern our Lord Himself laid down for Himself: death, and then resurrection. Why should we expect anything less for ourselves, if we are truly united with Him? You have not been united with Christ and resurrected with Him, however, to serve ourselves but to live for God. If you’re just going to keep living for yourself, then why bother dying to self in the first place and putting on Christ?!

You are made and are being made like Christ in all things. You were buried and raised with Him (verse 4) so that you also, like Christ, should walk in newness of life. You were made to live so that you would live in and for Him (verse 8), for Jesus Christ died so that He might live unto God (verse 10).

It’s time for Prince Hal to grow up and act like King Henry. It’s time for you, too, to grow up, into the likeness of Christ. And so set your face like flint to meet your crucifixion today, the crucifixion that comes to you in a thousand small ways today. Embrace the Cross, His Cross, as it is incarnated into the sufferings and sorrows prepared for you today, so that you might also participate in the Resurrection.

For if you are united to Him in His death, you shall surely be united to Him in His resurrection and life.

Prayer: Grant, O Lord, that as we are baptized into the death of thy blessed Son our Saviour Jesus Christ, so by continual mortifying our corrupt affections we may be buried with him; and that through the grave, and gate of death, we may pass to our joyful resurrection; for his merits, who died, and was buried, and rose again for us, thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Point for Meditation:

What are the sufferings you are likely to experience today? What are the disappointments that you are likely to experience today? Go into the day armed to use these experiences as the instruments of the crucifixion of your old man.
As you experience suffering and disappointment today and use it as a means of uniting yourself to Christ’s death, pay attention. In what ways is God already showing you His resurrection?

Resolution: I resolve to prepare to meet the suffering and disappointment in my life today as a means of crucifying myself, that I might be raised with Christ.

Give Us This Day

crucified with Christ

2016-03-20T16:48:47-05:00

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Monday of Holy Week – John 14:15-31

Last updated on: March 20, 2016 at 4:48 pm By Fr. Charles Erlandson

John 14:15-31

As Jesus prepared to leave this world and ascend into heaven, He made sure that His ministry would continue from heaven. To that end, the Spirit was sent by the Father through the Son to earth, so that the disciples of Jesus Christ may be blessed. Entire theological treatises could and have been written on the importance of this point, but there’s one point we should all grasp this morning, and it is this: the Holy Spirit is nothing less than the presence of Jesus Christ with His people.

Imagine that you are one of the 12 disciples of Jesus Christ. It is the week before Jesus’ death, and He has some difficult things to say to you, His disciples, the most difficult of which is that He must shortly leave you. Later, you realize that He is referring not only to His Crucifixion, but especially to His Ascension into heaven and His departing from you in His flesh. But He recognizes your fears and says to you: “I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.”

In this He recognizes that one of man’s greatest fears is that of being left alone.

Some time ago, a movie came out called Home Alone (with the obligatory sequels) that humorously preyed upon this fear, and horror movies are filled with true fear about the things that may happen when we are alone. God Himself told Adam, “It is not good for man to be alone.” I was very dependent on my parents growing up, even to a relatively late age, and had a fear that they would die before I was 21 and could make it to manhood. (Thank God they are still alive. As for me, I’m still working on the manhood thing!)

The disciples express this deep, human fear. Many times throughout their life with Jesus, the disciples had known fear, and they had learned to trust Him for all things (though not perfectly). He is the one who has calmed all their fears: fear of persecution, fear from want, fear from drowning, and the like. But perhaps their greatest fear of all was to be left by their Lord, from whom they were now inseparable, and who was the source of all their security in this world and the next.

This was the Lord for whom they had forsaken and left all else, and now He was telling them that He was leaving them.

But Jesus, even when His own soul is so troubled, comforts them and takes time to teach them. He also encourages and equips them for their future ministry, and He does all of this by promising the Holy Spirit.

Now if you put yourself in the disciples’ place for a moment, you might begin to realize what they’re going through. It’s simple for Jesus to say that He will send another Comforter or Helper (verse 16), but it’s not so simple for the disciples to accept it. It’s almost as if you tell a child, “I have to leave you forever now, but don’t worry, I’ll send another father to replace me later.” Even though they trust the relationship, this would not be easy, and there is no substitute for the human, fleshly presence.

But is this enough? To make sure it is enough, He also says, in verse 18, “I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.” Now what does He mean, “I will come to you”? In the context, He can only mean that though He is going, He will also come. I don’t think He means His Second Coming: that would provide no comfort for the disciples then and there.

He means that though He will soon physically ascend into heaven, shortly after that, at Pentecost, He will send His Spirit to be with them in His place. In verse 19, He continues to make His meaning clear: “A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me.”

How can they see Him while the world does not? If this referred to only the Resurrection, the world could see that. But if it refers to the sending of the Spirit – only His disciples can see that.

Now here is where theology becomes very practical (as true theology always must). Jesus is leaving the disciples, and they need to be en-couraged. Jesus can only do this by sending them someone of equal value to Himself, someone who is, in fact, Him. Since Jesus promises to be with them, and He promises to send the Spirit as well, we find that the doctrine of the Trinity and the equality of the Son and the Spirit suddenly becomes very real and personal.

In other words, the Holy Spirit, as Peter tells us in his epistle, is the Spirit of Christ. Jesus can promise to be with His disciples because He is sending them His Spirit, the Holy Spirit, for The Holy Spirit is the very presence of Jesus with His people.

“But what about me?” I ask this morning.

What about you? What was true for Jesus’ disciples the week before His Crucifixion is just as true for us today. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ who is Jesus’ presence with His people. Like the disciples, we are prone to think it is an inferior thing for Christ to be gone in the body. “If only He were here in person, in the flesh,” we are tempted to think, “then things would be different.”

I hear people say, “I can’t wait to be with Jesus,” and certainly, it’s true that the joys of heaven are unsurpassed . . . . But I tell you that Jesus of Nazareth, the same one who walked the shores of the Holy Land 2000 years ago, and who will be with you in heaven . . . is with us – with you today. And He’s here through His Spirit that He sent first on Pentecost.

Wherever we find the Holy Spirit, there we find Jesus Christ Himself . . . because the Holy Spirit is the very presence of Jesus in your life. It is even proper to say that God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit dwells within you! Look at what Jesus says in verse 23. “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.”

I’m sorry, but WOW!

Therefore, it is a far better thing that Jesus ascended into heaven and sent the Spirit. While on earth, in the flesh, Jesus was limited. Only a relatively few people were graced with His presence. But now, through the Spirit, Jesus Christ comes to millions upon millions all at the same time. It’s like the miracle of the feeding of the 5000 where earthly food was multiplied, except that by the Holy Spirit, the Bread of Heaven Himself rises and is multiplied and made available to the whole Church universal!

It is a far better thing as well because we not only have the presence of Christ standing beside us, as did the disciples: we also have the presence of Christ, through the Spirit, dwelling within us. We are now made God’s holy temple: God truly dwells with man, and His glory inhabits each of you, because by the Holy Pentecost the presence of Jesus Christ lives in each of you!

The miracles of the Incarnation, the Resurrection, and Pentecost reside in each of us each day!

Just where do we see Jesus Christ, through the Holy Spirit today? What do we find the Holy Spirit doing for us, as the Spirit of Christ? We find Him doing the very same things Jesus Christ did while here in the flesh.

The Holy Spirit therefore extends and completes the work of Christ, and He does it through you and me! As Jesus comforted His disciples, He comforts you, through His Spirit. He comforts us because Christ is present with you, and He comforts us especially through the Christians, or Christ-bearers, that He puts in our lives.

In our lives, the Spirit of Truth teaches Truth, and He does it once again through those in whom He dwells, that is, the saints. Through the Spirit, the Master encourages and equips the Church for ministry, just as He did His more famous disciples 2000 years ago.

Sometimes, we think, and even desire, that the Holy Spirit would work in a magical kind of way. But instead, we find that our King comes to us lowly and riding on a donkey and that the Holy Spirit does what He does through us humans.

And why? For the same reason that the Son became flesh: because of His love for

humanity and because of the glory it brings Him to do His will through sinners and weaklings like you and me!

Through the Holy Spirit, the Son was incarnate in the human flesh of Jesus Christ. And through the Holy Spirit, the Son is incarnated in the flesh of the Church, which is His Body. You, therefore, (and this is the extremely practical lesson of Pentecost) you, the Body of Christ, are the very presence of Christ here on earth. And so you too must continue His ministry of comfort and love, of encouragement and equipping.

The Spirit is the presence of Jesus Christ, and He is in you. Therefore, do the works of the Spirit; do the things Jesus Christ did. And rejoice, that the Lord, though He has ascended, is with us!

Prayer: O God, who dost teach the hearts of thy faithful people by sending to them the light of thy Holy Spirit: grant us by the same Spirit to have a right judgment in all things and evermore to rejoice in his holy comfort; through the merits of Christ Jesus our Saviour, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the same Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Point for Meditation:

If you truly saw that the Jesus Christ and the Spirit work through the people of God in your life, how has Jesus come to you today? How has He come to you in the past?
How is He asking you to go in His name and serve Him today, as His presence on earth?

Resolution: I resolve to spend today looking for how Christ and the Spirit come to me today through the saints in my life.

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