Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Give Us This Day

Home
Evangelical

2015-04-05T16:49:50-05:00

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.

Easter Monday – Luke 24:1-12

Last updated on: April 5, 2015 at 4:49 pm By Fr. Charles Erlandson

Luke 24:1-12

2 + 2 = 4.

Neil Armstrong was the 1st man on the moon.

The ratio of your HDL cholesterol to your LDL cholesterol is known as your cardiac risk factor.

Facts, facts, facts. Our lives are filled with facts such as these.

In school we memorize thousands of facts, and every day we swim in a sea of facts in which we live and move and have our being. Facts about sports games and facts about what celebrities have done; facts that are crucial, and facts that are trivial.

We may sometimes rightly wonder about the relevance of these facts. When I was a teacher, my students were constantly asking – whether about algebra or history, and sometimes even the Bible – “Why is this important?” “Why should I care?” “So what?”

Some facts, such as how to find the second derivative in calculus are not very relevant to most of us. Others may be relatively important: what your name is; matches ignite when lit; and particularly important: the anniversary of your wedding.

But there is one fact among so many that is truly significant. There is one fact that has more relevance than most of the other facts all combined. There is one fact in your life that is truly a matter of life and death.

That fact is the fact that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, resurrected from the dead 2000 years ago.

“He is not here, but is risen!” (Luke 24:6.)

Easter is, first of all, a fact. It is a recorded fact of history as certain as, if not more certain than, any event in ancient history. There are more manuscripts confirming the New Testament account of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ than for any other writing of the ancient world.

Many people, especially since the 19th century, have attempted to deny that the Resurrection of Jesus Christ is a historical fact. Some say that Jesus only swooned on the Cross; others say that the disciples conspired to make up the story of Jesus resurrecting, when they knew full well He hadn’t; still others say it was all a hallucination. But none of these theories holds water: there are simply too many facts the Gospels record to establish the Resurrection as a real, historical, fact.

The fact of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ separates Christians from everyone else in the world. Every other religion, every system of atheism denies this undeniable fact: that Jesus Christ rose from the dead. But it is belief in this fact that indeed makes us Christians and has life-changing implications for all.

“So what?” “Why do I need to know this?” Isn’t this the question we all ask of every fact that comes our way? And we Americans are a very pragmatic people. What good does this do me?

If I tell you that a match ignites when lit, I have told you a fact. But I haven’t told you the relevance or importance of that fact. “So what?’ Matches ignite. Next I must tell you the relevance or importance of that fact that matches ignite. We’ve all have told our children not to play with matches. Why? Because matches ignite, and when they ignite they get very hot and burn. This is an important fact.

So why is the Resurrection relevant? Why do we bother to celebrate Easter every year – indeed, why does the season of Easter last for several weeks?

First, The fact that Jesus rose from the dead means that His payment on the Cross for your sins was truly effective and that God the Father received it.

On Good Friday on the Cross, Jesus Christ took upon Himself the sins of the whole world. He paid the penalty for every sin that has ever been committed. But what good would it have done if He had remained in the grave – able to take on our sins, but unable to save Himself? The Cross and the Resurrection go hand in hand. They work together and are without power without each other.

Furthermore, the fact that Jesus rose from the dead means that He truly conquered sin and death. The greatest enemies of mankind are not war and injustice, as great as these are: our greatest enemies are sin and death. The sin that separates us from God. The sin that causes wars and injustice. The sin, whose wages are death.

It is another relevant fact that we will all die. Our bodies will one day wear out and cease to exist in their present forms. The wages or reward for sin is not merely the death of the body but the death of the soul. The just punishment for a life of sin and rebellion against our God and Creator is separation from God and eternal death in the flames of Hell.

But thanks be to God that on Easter Jesus rose from the dead and conquered sin and death for all those who believe in Him. This is the theological relevance of Easter.

But you may still be shrugging your shoulders and saying: “So what? This is all too abstract.” “What does all of this have to do with me?”

G.K. Chesterton, in his book Orthodoxy, once imagined someone asking an intelligent man “Why do you prefer civilization to savagery?” To which Chesterton’s man would have trouble responding. He would look wildly around at object after object and would only be able to answer vaguely: “Why . . . there is that bookcase . . . and pianos . . . and policemen . . . .”

In a similar way, if someone were to ask me why Easter is relevant, why it’s important to Christians that Christ rose from the dead, I might stumble over myself trying to list all the reasons. As Chesterton said, when one is really convinced of something, everything seems to prove it.

So what difference does Easter make to you?

First, Jesus conquered sin and death, not merely in general or in the abstract: He conquered your sins and death in you. Jesus doesn’t save people hypothetically: He saves them really, in the flesh, and for all eternity. The penalty for your sins has been paid. Christ conquered your sins by rising from the dead.

It’s true that you might not see all of them conquered all at once or even in this lifetime: but Jesus Christ has conquered your sins. Jesus Christ has conquered death . . . in your body. Death is not merely an abstraction, a lifeless thing that is personified for effect. Death is in reality the individual deaths of billions of humans, each of whom is destined to die in this life.

Jesus Christ has not conquered a mere figure of speech: He has conquered death in you as an individual person. By the fact of His Resurrection, He has purchased for you eternal life. Though your present body will one day die, if you have faith in Jesus Christ, if you lay hold of the power of His Resurrection by believing in Him and living for Him, then He holds out for you the promise of eternal life.

The second very personal way in which the Resurrection of Jesus Christ is relevant and meaningful to you, then, is that through it sin and death in your life have not only been conquered but you also have the gift of eternal life.

Just as it would not have been enough for Jesus to have died on the Cross, never to have risen again, it is not enough that God tells us that our sins are forgiven and that Death in general has been conquered. God must also make this real to each one of us in our lives. God makes this very real to us because He has promised that if Jesus Christ rose from the dead, then we who truly believe will also certainly rise again.

The Resurrection, and our celebration of it in Easter, is therefore not only about Jesus Christ 2000 years ago: it applies to everyone who truly believes in Him, and it applies starting today. Beginning today, this day of Resurrection, we all have life everlasting, for we have been promised a Resurrection. Your resurrection is not a deception, it’s not a hallucination, and it’s not a myth. It is a fact as certain as the fact of the Resurrection of our Lord.

This brings me to the third way the Resurrection is personally relevant to each of you: the Resurrection of Jesus Christ means that He not only gives you eternal life, as if this were an abstraction. The Resurrection of Jesus Christ means to you that He is your life.

How many times does Jesus Himself teach us this? “I am the bread of life . . . if any man eats of this bread he shall live for ever” (John 6:50-51.) “Because I live, you shall live also” (John 14:29.) “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me shall never die” (John 11:25.)

“For you are dead, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then you also shall appear with Him in glory” (Colossians 3:3)

Did you catch that? Your life is hidden with Christ . . . Christ is your life.” Your entire life, whether you realize it or not, is tied up in His life. All your dreams, all your hopes, all your aspirations ought to acknowledge the Lord who died for you . . . the Lord who is your very life.

The Resurrection means that you have a life full of meaning. It is one of the ultimate facts of your existence, to which everything else relates and must be submitted. Do you go about your daily tasks each day, as if nothing of relevance happened to Jesus after the Crucifixion? Do you seem to have a dull life in which you are on your own, filling up your days with routine activity and simply waiting for the dull sentence of death to be passed upon you?

These things should never be so for those who believe in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ and therefore believe in their own resurrection from death.

I don’t know about you, but I want a life that is so full of meaning that it gushes out spontaneously to all those around me.

I want a life that counts for something, and I want to know that when all is said and done, when I leave this world, that it was all worthwhile.

I want desperately to be part of something larger than myself, something much more beautiful and glorious . . . more immense and more eternal.

I want to live forever and to have life more abundantly.

And I don’t think that I’m alone in wanting these things.

Our lives are filled with a vast multitude of facts. But the Resurrection of Jesus Christ is the most significant and relevant fact in your life.

Christ the Lord is risen! The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Prayer: “O God, Who for our redemption didst give Thine only begotten Son to the death of the Cross, and by His glorious resurrection hast delivered us from the power of the enemy: Grant us so to die daily unto sin, that we may evermore live with Him in the joy of His resurrection; through the same Thy Son Christ our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.”

Point for Meditation: Look for ways to remember the Resurrection today: the waking of your body from sleep; the rising of the sun; the return of Spring; the life of flowers and animals; the presence of the saints in your life.

Resolution: I resolve to rejoice today, because Christ is risen from the dead and I am risen with Him.

Book of Common Prayer

Easter

Facts

Fr. Charles Erlandson

G.K. Chesterton

Give Us This Day daily devotional

2017-07-27T17:25:03-05:00

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.

Easter Even – John 19:38-42

Last updated on: July 27, 2017 at 5:25 pm By Fr. Charles Erlandson

John 19:38-42

Easter Even or Holy Saturday is a quiet and conflicted day. Sandwiched between the suffering and sadness of Good Friday and the glory and gladness of Easter Sunday, it reminds me of my life in this world.

I, too, seem suspended between two worlds that threaten to tear me apart. I still dwell in the world of sin that crucified my Lord, and I still suffer in various ways. Sometimes it even seems as if Easter Sunday never came. But I am also seated in the heavenlies with Christ, my sins have been washed away, and God has made me righteous through the sacrifice of His Son!

Like my life, Easter Even was a quiet day. No miracles today, nothing spectacular. Jesus died, but life still went on. Somebody had to come and get the body. That somebody was someone we would least expect: a rich member of the Sanhedrin named Joseph of Arimathea. He’s a quiet man who doesn’t get much attention. But he does what needed to be done. (For more on this amazing, quiet man, see the Give Us This Day meditation for Thursday of Trinity 12, on Luke 23:50-24:12.)

Even after Jesus has risen from the dead, things seem to go on as normal. In John 20:10, having just seen evidence that Christ was no longer in the tomb, what do the disciples do? Get busy forming the first church and zealously evangelize the world out of spontaneous joy in their resurrected Lord? Actually, “the disciples went away again to their own homes” (verse 10) because “as yet they did not know the Scripture that He must rise again from the dead” (verse 9.)

Even after Peter believed and Jesus had convinced even doubting Thomas, Peter goes back to fishing, as if he had no idea what else he should do (21:3.)

On Easter Even, which is like our lives, having known the Scriptures that Christ did rise from the dead, we sometimes go on with life as if nothing had happened. Even Easter comes and goes and we get happy for a few hours, and then life goes on as normal.

Easter Even reminds me of the painting Landscape with the Fall of Icarus by Brueghel. In it, Icarus, who had of course flown too high to the sun, has plummeted into the waters, with only his cute little legs unobtrusively sticking out of the water. He is over to the side in the water, and no one notices, while a large peasant in the foreground goes about his daily task unaware that great Icarus has fallen. Significantly, the painting is titled Landscape with the Fall of Icarus, as if the landscape is the main subject with Icarus merely decoration. You can see it here: http://www.artchive.com/artchive/B/bruegel/icarus.jpg.html.

Our lives are sometimes a Landscape with the Crucifixion of Christ. Our plows and fields are what’s important and what get all the attention. It’s business as usual that occupies our time and thoughts. And, oh yes, in the corner somewhere is a little cross or maybe a little fish logo on the bumper of our car.

But even when things seem the darkest, even when life is an Easter Even, and Easter and resurrection and Jesus are difficult to see, God has placed reminders of the reality of the Resurrection. In verse 41 of John 19 we discover that in the place where Jesus was crucified there was a garden, and in this garden a new tomb in which Jesus was laid.

In this tomb, the Seed of the Woman was planted. In this tomb, death died. From this Seed came new life on Easter, and that life has been propagating itself ever since.

In John 20:15, after the Seed has been raised to life imperishable, Mary mistakes Him for the gardener. But in a way, He is the gardener. Man was born in a garden and died in a garden, but the New Man, the Second Adam died in a garden but was reborn in the same garden. And He is the firstfruits of this garden, God’s garden, which is His people whom He has planted and cared for.

And so today on Easter Even, we experience both Good Friday and Easter, for in this life you can’t have one without the other. In this life, we still see both at work. But in the twinkling of an eye, one day, it will all be Easter for all eternity.

On Easter Even, Satan was still whooping it up with a bunch of the boys in the Pandemonium Saloon. He, too, had plans to go back to business as usual after the revelry: seduction, deception, warfare, lust, envy, pride, and the like. He, too, had not yet remembered the Scripture that the Christ must rise again from the dead.

But on Easter Morning, Satan woke up, saying “I have a terrific headache!” Only it wasn’t a hangover: his head was bleeding profusely, and his skull had been crushed by the Seed of the Woman as He walked out of the tomb!

Prayer: Grant, O Lord, that as we are baptized into the death of thy blessed Son our Saviour Jesus Christ, so by continually 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.

Resolution and Point for Meditation: This is the last day of Lent. I resolve to reflect on how well I have used Lent to prepare for Easter. If I have slept through Lent and not kept my Lenten vows as a means to draw me closer to God, I resolve to repent of this. If I have not fully acknowledged and confessed my sins, I vow to do that today. If I have not examined my life before the Lord, I vow to do that today. Whatever I know in my life is keeping me from a fuller life in Christ, I resolve to nail it to the Cross today.

Landscape with the Fall of Icarus

Satan’s head is crushed

tomb of Christ

2017-07-26T17:33:31-05:00

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.

The Satanic Scripture Scholars – John 19:1-37

Last updated on: July 26, 2017 at 5:33 pm By Fr. Charles Erlandson

John 19:1-37

Though the Morning Prayer lesson for this morning is John 18, I’ve chosen to meditate on John 19 instead, which is the Proper lesson for the Good Friday service.

“Why do the nations rage, and the people plot a vain thing?’

The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together,

Against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying,

‘Let us break their bonds in pieces and cast away their cords from us’” (Psalm 2:1-3.)

Satan had been plotting His revenge for three years. He had gotten quite used to ruling the earth. His initial success in the Garden Campaign millennia ago had proved so utterly successful that he had scarcely believed it himself. Bracing himself for some divine onslaught, he was surprised to see how easy and complete his victory seemed to be. His battle plan had been carried out to perfection and every one of his objectives accomplished.

“Seduce the woman by turning God’s commandment into a question.” Check.
“Use the man’s created protecting instinct and the magnetic attraction of marriage to make the man follow the woman into temptation.”
“Bring in sin and death through this temptation.”
“Sit back and let God do the rest. He will be forced, by His own character to judge them for disobeying. He will have to keep His promise to kill them and banish them from His presence.”

He had discovered the weakness in the Heavenly Tyrant: he has to be true to who he is and true to his word.

Satan suspected that the Heavenly Tyrant planned another counter-offensive, but in the beginning all Satan could see that he had to worry about was one vague, minor promise that Satan would bruise the heel of the seed of the woman and that the seed of the woman would bruise his head. It worried Satan a little that this promise of the Heavenly Tyrant’s was a little vague and poetic, for Satan had never been very good at poetry, and the Heavenly Tyrant usually spoke so plainly. He had commissioned his scholars to look at it, and some were worried that “bruise” might mean more than just a surface wound, but the consensus was that the worst-case scenario was that the war would continue perhaps indefinitely. Satan could live with that, though he hoped for complete victory.

In fact, Satan was a great scholar of the Jewish scriptures, and he had teams constantly working on figuring out God’s curious riddles. (Much later, after today’s story, in the 19th century, he came up with the idea of planting doubt in the minds of the Heavenly Tyrant’s subjects by offering pseudo-scientific theories “proving” the Heavenly Tyrant’s word could not be trusted.) So far, they had pieced together a theory that the Heavenly Tyrant would make one final effort at defeating Satan. They were pretty sure it had something to do with the greatest prophet the Heavenly Tyrant would ever send, as well as with the greatest earthly king he would send. But it was all pretty vague, especially the parts about this anointed one somehow suffering. The Satanic Scripture Scholars (S.S.S.) all agreed that there would be heavy casualties on both sides but that this anointed one would be killed in the end.

One day, news came to Satan that this mysterious anointed one had finally been born and that he was, indeed, a man, the seed of the woman. Long ago, Satan had installed some of his earthly allies in places of power in Israel, since that seemed a likely place for the anointed one to first appear. By a stroke of luck, he discovered that the anointed one had been born in Bethlehem, and he sent Herod to kill him and to kill any likely boy who fit the description of age and geography.

But Herod had bungled the job, and Satan vowed to do the job Himself next time.

He had to wait almost 30 years, but finally, the time came. When the anointed one had been born, Satan knew it would be easier to kill him when still a baby, and so he tried. Now he waited for another time of strategic importance and weakness. He found it when Jesus of Nazareth was baptized by John the Prophet: this may have been the moment of anointing. Satan saw him go into the wilderness to fast and pray, and he waited. He waited until there was evidence that the time of fasting in the wilderness would end. And he pounced, at the moment of greatest weakness and hunger.

Satan wouldn’t talk about the encounter with the anointed one afterwards and ordered that any mention of the incident in any volume of the Hellish Histories was strictly forbidden. But already, he was working on a plan, and he had many friends on earth in strategic places. He had even cultivated a spy among Jesus’ closest friends and used him to spring the trap.

Three years later, after the defeat that Satan would not even permit himself to mention, all had been made ready. Though it took some doing, he managed to get the Pharisees and Sadducees, and the Jews and the Romans, to work together on this case. Everything was going according to plan. Right at the moment when the anointed one was celebrating the holiest feast, right when he was having the deepest fellowship with his friends, Satan himself entered into one of them. How delicious to be able to do it at precisely this time!

He had even solved the mystery of suffering – the son of the Heavenly Tyrant would suffer in every conceivable way before he died. He suffered betrayal by one of his closest friends that he himself had chosen; the rest of the friends ran away scared, and the one he called the Rock had crumbled and denied him; Satan clapped and roared with infernal laughter to see the anointed one be mocked by a bunch of dumb soldiers; and his own people, the Jews, rejected him. All of the prophecies, as far as Satan could see, had been fulfilled, even down to some obscure details, and Satan felt even more reassured.

He thought about letting the scourger do Jesus in with a few extra strokes, but controlled himself and allowed the “King of the Jews” to suffer the most excruciating and ignoble death yet invented: crucifixion.

Still half-expecting some deus ex machina to come down and deliver the anointed one at the last minute, Satan watched as Jesus cried out that the Heavenly Tyrant had abandoned him. Satan rose to his feet when Jesus cried “It is finished.” And when he died, Pandemonium broke out in Hell.

In his being drunk with victory, even the nagging question of the prophecy of the seed and his own head was forgotten by Satan. And the Satanic Scripture Scholars were all too dense or darkened or drunk to have discovered that the place where Jesus was crucified was called Golgotha or Calvary, both of which mean “The Place of the Skull.”

And death and decay held illimitable dominion over all.

“He who sits in the heavens shall laugh;

the Lord shall hold them in derision.

Then He shall speak to them in His wrath,

and distress them in His deep displeasure:

“Yet I have set My King

on My holy hill of Zion” (Psalm 2:4-6.)

Prayer: Almighty God, we beseech thee graciously to behold this thy family, for whom our Lord Jesus Christ was contented to be betrayed, and given into the hands of sinners, and to suffer death upon the cross; who now liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Point for Meditation:

Meditate on the love of Jesus in giving up Himself for you. Every mocking and every scorn, every humiliation and every torment, was suffered for you.
Meditate on what your response should be to the God who gave His life for you.

Resolution: I resolve to lament my sins and confess them all today, remembering that for these sins, the Son of God died.

Crucifixion of Christ, Matthias Grunewald – in U.S. Public Domain

the temptation of Christ

the Word of God

2015-04-01T19:30:25-05:00

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.

Maundy Thursday – John 13:18-34

Last updated on: April 1, 2015 at 7:30 pm By Fr. Charles Erlandson

John 13:18-34

Jesus says to you today: “A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.” “Maundy Thursday” comes from the Latin words mandatum novum, or “new commandment,” taken from this verse (John 13:34.)

Now why is love a new commandment? The commandments to love God and love your neighbor as yourself come from the Old Testament. But they are hidden away among 612 other commandments. Each of these is either about loving God or loving neighbor, and yet it is easy to miss. So Jesus gives us a new commandment – in fact, the commandment above all others: the commandment to love. He gives it in a new way because it is through Jesus Christ Himself that we see the love incarnated that we are commanded to have.

On Maundy Thursday, in John 13, even before the ultimate story of love found in Good Friday, we find a complete teaching on love. For on Maundy Thursday, Jesus gives us the example of love, the commandment of love, and the strength to love.

Though the entire life of Jesus was an act of sacrificial love, on Maundy Thursday, Jesus gave His disciples – and that includes us – a striking example of love. For on the night in which He was betrayed, He did not demand that His disciples serve Him . . . . He didn’t pamper Himself . . . . He didn’t give His body rest and luxury to prepare for the exhausting and most trying day ahead.

On the night in which He was betrayed, which was also the night He was tried and sentenced, before He did anything else . . . He washed His disciples’ feet.

Now we may not appreciate the significance of this job in 21st century America, but in Jesus’ day, this was one of the lowest jobs around, reserved for common servants. You may not appreciate how humbling it is to wash another person’s feet, especially in a culture where sandals were worn every day and baths were only as frequent as new moons. But feet in the 1st century – who are we kidding? – feet in every century – are dirty, stinky, and smelly. As a parent of young children, I see that every day. (That’s right, blame the kids!)

I remember once in eighth grade when I was on a youth leadership retreat, and the leaders of the youth group decided to have a foot-washing ceremony one night. Earlier that day, I had gone off by myself to explore and play. I seem to remember something about a tire swing on a tree and a bunch of really wet mud all around it. But I digress.

We gathered in a circle to wash each other’s feet. Slowly, the bowl and towel passed around the circle, until it was Christina Cathcart’s turn to wash someone’s feet: mine. When I took off my shoes and socks, I embarrassingly discovered a ring of black all around my ankles and suddenly remembered the tire swing and pool of mud. I may have been embarrassed, but Christina Cathcart was mortified. How humbling to her, and yet more than anyone else that night she had an opportunity to understand love.

But what if the person washing your feet were Jesus Christ Himself, wiping your feet with His own clothing? This was only one among many acts of love He performed in a life that was a living, walking advertisement for love. As John writes of Jesus, “having loved his own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end.”

When Peter learned the lesson of love, He asked to have not only His feet but His whole body washed. And we, who are His disciples, are to have our whole bodies and souls washed by Him. This is what He does for us in baptism, coming to us in love, and offering to cleanse us. This is what He does in the Lord’s Supper. In the Prayer of Humble Access we pray: “Grant us, therefore, gracious Lord, so to eat the flesh of thy dear Son Jesus Christ, and to drink his blood, that our sinful bodies may be made clean by his body, and our souls washed through his most precious blood.”

Here, on Maundy Thursday, then, we see both Baptism and the Holy Communion, as Jesus offers Himself to us that we might live in love.

How humbling, that the Lord who washed His disciples’ dirty, stinking feet in the upper room, has washed your sinful soul – much, much dirtier and stinkier than feet can ever get. How humbling, that the King of Glory should come to His disciples this way, and dirty Himself with the stains of our darkest sins, day after day, broken commandment after broken commandment of dirty, slimy sin!

Notice that Jesus gives the example of love first, and then the commandment – as if to say to us: “anyone can tell you to love, but let me show you first that you will truly understand.” Which is easier? To say “Love one another” or to actually love and then say “Love as I have loved you”? Jesus follows up His humble example with a concrete commandment, John 13:34 – “A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.”

It’s not enough for us to simply have our feet washed by our Lord: He washes us so that we might become like Him. He washed their feet, so that they might learn love. And He washes your body and soul, so that you might learn to love and serve, as He did.

This love that was so real in the life of Jesus must be made just as real in the life of His disciples. Palm Sunday taught that the Kingdom of God is a Kingdom of humility, service, and love. And Jesus says “If you want to be great in the Kingdom of heaven, then learn to be the servant of all.” “No disciple is greater than His master but strives to be like Him in all things.” And now: “Love one another, as I have loved you.”

It is your Christian duty – and a duty that should proceed spontaneously from a washed soul – to wash the feet of the saints. “Love one another, as I have loved you.”

Look for opportunities to serve; make yourself the most humble person you know; take the lowest job in the room. Anoint the Body of your Lord Jesus Christ – anoint His Body, the Church – by loving one another, as He first loved you. The new commandment to love one another begins by loving God but must continue by loving the saints. But it must conclude by loving those not like you. Love those who are not like you and who may not reciprocate the favor. Love those who hate you. Remember that Jesus washed the feet and offered His love feast to the very one who betrayed Him.

If we keep opening our arms and doors of our churches, God’s communities of love, we will get some different, strange people come through those doors – and we must love them. We might get some teenagers and young people who don’t dress quite like us or talk just like us or who might say or do some startling things. And we must love them. We might meet neighbors who will eat our food, and play our games, and hear our music – and never even think about coming into God’s house – and we must love them too.

“As I have loved you, you also love one another.”

But how shall we ever find the strength within ourselves for such an impossible task – to love as our Lord loved us? Jesus was able to love perfectly, in spite of the pain He endured, in spite of being rejected, not just because He was God but because His human nature actively choose to obey the Father and was sustained by the Holy Spirit. That is where He found His strength.

We can only obey this great commandment of Jesus – to love as He loved us – through the same strength that Jesus Christ found: the strength of God the Father through Jesus Christ and by the Holy Spirit.

There are many ways to find the strength of God, but all of them are only through Jesus Christ. But Jesus gave His disciples a special way to celebrate His love and be strengthened to love with His love and power: His supper. After Jesus had shown His disciples the example of love, and after He had given them the commandment of love. He gave them the power of love through the sacramental meal He ate with them. He gave Himself to them, just as He would on the Cross a short time later.

Here before us, on the Lord’s Table whenever we partake, is liquid and solid love – given for you. Here is the power to keep His commandment. And here before us every day, in all of the ways that Jesus offers Himself to us each day, we have Jesus Christ, love incarnate and the power to love.

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.”

Prayer: Father, as You have loved us by sending Your Son; Jesus, as You have loved us by giving up Your life for us; so may You give us the gift of love through Your Spirit that we may obey Your commandment to love and be made like our Master in all things. Amen.

Points for Meditation:

As you meditate on the Gospel narratives of Christ’s betrayal, Passion, Crucifixion, and Resurrection, meditate on the love of God as He gives them through the life of Christ.
As you prepare to partake of the Lord’s Supper this week, take extra care to prepare yourself by meditating on the Lord in His Supper.

Resolution: I resolve to find one specific way to love today.

Book of Common Prayer

foot washing

Fr. Charles Erlandson

Give Us This Day daily devotional

Lord’s Supper

love

Maundy Thursday

2015-03-30T23:37:50-05:00

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.

Tuesday Before Easter, Holy Week – John 15:1-16

Last updated on: March 30, 2015 at 11:37 pm By Fr. Charles Erlandson

John 15:1-16

In John 15, Jesus teaches us that we are to abide in Him as the branches abide in the vine. This is an image of the continuous life of feasting on Christ that we are to have, and there are 3 main truths about abiding in Christ for us to eat this morning.

First, abiding in Christ means feeding off Him. As the branch only has life as it comes from the vine, we only have our spiritual life to the degree that it is Christ who lives in us. He is our heavenly food, the Bread of Heaven, as He offers Himself to us each day. If we feed off Him, then we become spiritually alive and healthy and bear fruit. But if we don’t, then we are like the dead branches we’ve all seen on trees that are still attached to the tree and look like they’re alive, but when you touch them you realize they are dead and brittle and will soon be broken off.

Sometimes, we seem to assume that this abiding in Christ by feeding will happen automatically, without our choosing to eat Christ. But in the Christian life, there is no IV drip, which enables us to lie comatose so that Christ feeds us regardless of our efforts to seek Him. As with the manna in the wilderness, we have to go out and gather it daily.

It’s true that by the grace of the one who planted us in Christ, we have a direct connection to the Vine who is the source of our life. Jesus Christ is in every sphere of our lives, offering Himself to us that we might abide in Him and be fed by and become like Him. But we have to come to Him in order to abide in Him.

Rather than seeing each day as something that just happens or as something that we ourselves direct, what if we began to see each day as the daily bread that Christ is giving us? Furthermore, what if we learned that each day, and all of its events, is the very way that Christ comes to us?

When we awake in the morning and when we go to sleep in the evening, Christ is there to greet us, offering Himself to us as our daily bread, our heavenly food. And we insist on choosing coffee and toast or milk and Lucky Charms instead. Every earthly food that we eat is to be a reminder that Christ is feeding us and that we must lift our mouths and eyes and ears to Him to take Him into us so that we might become Him. And so some of us remember to give thanks for our earthly food, that we might feed off Christ.

But it’s not just the eating of food where Christ is present but every activity of your every day. Each new activity of every day is an activity to which Christ is calling you and is one of His means of feeding you, if only you will abide in Him. It’s been my intention to offer a brief prayer before I begin every new activity of the day so that I may continually feed off Christ and see Him in all things. I realize how imperfectly I’ve been doing this the last several weeks, and so I’ll begin again.

Andrew Murray wrote: “We begin to number our days not from the sun’s rising over the world, or by the work we do or the food we eat, but the daily renewal of the miracle of the manna – the blessedness of daily fellowship with Him who is the Life and the Light of the world.”

Second, abiding in Christ means being pruned by the Father (verse 2.) God’s pruning of us, also known as His loving discipline, and which comes in the many species of suffering and not getting what we want – is to teach us to abide in Him and to help us to bear more fruit. Without the suffering in our lives, we are much too likely to think that we have gotten the good things in our lives by ourselves – that we are autotrophs who produce their own food. If God doesn’t prune us, we grow chaotically for the sake of growth, and all of our growth is self-directed; all of God’s good gifts go to make us obese on His goodness because we have not expended His heavenly food on others, which is the fruit of love.

The suffering in your life is one of the greatest ways to abide in Christ and live in Him. If it’s true that our life is in Christ and that He abides in us and we in Him, then we get all of Christ: the glory, yes, but also the suffering. This week above all other weeks should remind us of this principle: first comes the suffering of the Crucifixion, and then the glory of the Resurrection. First comes Good Friday, and then Easter.

The suffering that is in your life is the suffering that God has assigned you. It is a personalized cross, lovingly measured and handcrafted by the Master Carpenter just for you. Your cross, the suffering in your life, becomes the means of participating in and abiding in Christ and His Cross, to which you are united. But only if you seek Christ through it; otherwise, suffering is just suffering (which stinketh!)

Therefore, when you see suffering in your life, greet it as Jesus Christ Himself, who is coming with His Cross for you.

Finally, abiding in Christ means bearing fruit. “As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me” (verse 4.) “By this is My Father glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples” (verse 8.)

A vine is planted for the fruit it yields, and it is judged on this basis. The vine and the branches do not exist only for themselves. What, then, is the fruit of which Christ speaks and which we are to bear? Primarily, it is to be made like Christ in all things. If you abide in Jesus Christ and feed off Him daily and minutely, then you will bear fruit because Christ will be living in and through you. In fact, if you are abiding in Christ, you can’t help but bear fruit. On the other hand, if your life seems dry and not to be bearing fruit; if you are not becoming more like Christ; if you are not sowing His seeds among others: then the odds are you haven’t been abiding in Him as much as you should.

There are many fruits that abiding in Christ yields. Chief among these is the abiding itself, the union with God through Christ that is the goal of all mankind and our greatest dream. Abiding in Christ, living with God, is nothing less than heaven itself.

But there are other magnificent fruits, such as the fruits of the Spirit that are increasingly manifested in us. When we abide in Christ, just as His suffering becomes our suffering (and vice versa), His joy becomes our joy (verse 11.) His love becomes our love (verse 12.)

How was it that the life of Jesus Christ yielded such abundant, sweet, and nourishing fruit? Because He abided in the Father. How did He do this? By perfectly obeying the will of the Father. This, too, is the way we feed off Christ and yield fruit: to obey His commandments. “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in His love” (verse 10.)

Ultimately, love, that topic which I can’t seem to escape in my meditations on Christ and the Word, is the measure of how much we are abiding in Christ. Love God, obey His commandments, and love your neighbor by serving Him, and you will be abiding in Christ. To the degree that we are obeying God every moment and living in His presence, we will be abiding in Christ. To the degree that you abide in Christ, you will bear fruit, the fruits of love and obedience; of joy and the other fruits of the Spirit; of feeding others in love and spreading the Seed of Christ across the earth; and the most blessed fruit of all: His life-giving, awesome, ecstatic presence with you.

Prayer: Father, I thank You for uniting me to Your Son Jesus Christ and giving me life in and through Him. Lord Jesus Christ, I thank You for feeding me with Yourself, my daily manna from heaven. I ask that You will give me an increased desire to abide in You that I may bear the fruits of the Spirit in my life, and especially the fruit of love, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Points for Meditation:

Meditate more deeply on the way you have chosen to abide in Christ today. Prepare to feed off Him in this way. Remember Him in this way throughout the day.
Renew your vows for Lent one more time, using them as a means of abiding in Christ, and not allowing them to become routine or thoughtless.

Resolution: I resolve to practice one way of abiding in Christ today: seeing Him in my daily life; turning more frequently to Him in prayer; accepting my suffering as His cross for me; giving up myself for another; etc.

Book of Common Prayer

Fr. Charles Erlandson

Give Us This Day daily devotional

obedience

suffering

the vine and the branches

2017-12-22T10:21:38-05:00

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.

The Litmus Test of Love

Last updated on: December 22, 2017 at 10:21 am By Fr. Charles Erlandson

1 Corinthians 16:1-14

“Let all that you do be done with love” (verse 14.) This is a fitting summary of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthian: a fitting summary of the corpus of Paul’s letters of love and labors of love; and a fitting summary, indeed, of the Law and the Gospel.

Jesus Christ Himself, when asked to name the greatest law, gave as His answer (which is the Answer): Love God and love neighbor. Every one of the Ten Commandments is about loving God or loving neighbor, and every one of the 613 laws of the Old Testament as well.

Everything that Paul has been teaching the Corinthians is therefore related to and summed up by the commandment to love. And everything that Paul has been teaching us is also summed up by the commandment to love.

Because love is the litmus test for our every thought, word, and deed, Paul commanded the Corinthians to take up a collection for the saints on Sunday, the first day of the week, when Christians gathered together to eat the Lord’s Supper. Each one was to lay up something to give, in this case to the Jerusalem church. This is a love offering above the tithe that went to the local church: it is alms for the saints, and it must be done, and done in love.

Out of love – love for God, love for the Ephesians (where he was attacked by the “wild beasts” clothed in the form of men), and love for the gospel, Paul decided to remain in Ephesus, because “a great and effective door has opened to me” (verse 9.) Knowing that there are many adversaries – the Jews and the silversmiths and the guardians of the temple of Diana – Paul remains anyway, out of love.

Out of love, we are to speak the same thing and not to have divisions among us (Chapter 1.)

Out of love for God, we consecrate God’s holy temple, and out of love for our brothers and sisters in Christ we edify God’s holy temple, which is His people among whom He lives (Chapter 3.)

Out of love for God, we are to purify His Temple when it becomes polluted and to deal with the sin in our midst, and out of love for our brothers and sisters we discipline those who are immoral and will not repent (Chapter 5.)

Out of love, we do not bring lawsuits against each other but rather allow ourselves to be wronged (Chapter 6,) for love keeps no record of wrongs.

Out of love for God and those whom God has put in our lives (and these are our neighbors), we gladly accept the station in life into which God Himself has placed us, whether Jew or Greek, slave or free, husband or wife, married or single (Chapter 7.)

Out of love for weaker brothers, we willingly give up our liberty to enjoy certain lawful things, that we might not cause them to stumble (Chapter 8.)

Out of love, so that we may be made love as God is love, we are willing to become all things to all people. Even when this is uncomfortable and not our preference, we use ourselves, our gifts and our talents, in whatever way we can so that by whatever means possible some may be saved (Chapter 9.)

Out of love for God, we eat and drink our Lord Jesus Christ, that He might give us His grace to make us participants in Him. Out of love for ourselves, we eat and drink worthily, with repentance and faith in the one who offers Himself to us (Chapters 10 and 11.)

Out of love for the Body of Christ, which is love for God and neighbor and self all rolled up into one, we use the diversity of gifts that God has given us for the good or edification of the whole Body and specific members in particular (Chapters 12 and 14.)

Out of His immense and eternal love, God the Father sent His Son to become a man, to die, and to be raised from the dead – for our good (Chapter 15.)

God, therefore, is love and the initiator of love in our lives. He is the example of love for us: not that we first loved God, but that He first loved us. Because we shall all be changed in the twinkling of an eye and resurrected in the image of our Lord, who has redeemed us by His love, we are to be new creatures, creatures of love in all that we do.

The power of the Resurrection is not therefore just a newfound power in our physical bodies that will never wear out in heaven: it is the power to love as God first loved us.

And because the new and eternal life that God has created in us out of His love has already been given to us and we have been enriched in everything by Him (1:5), we must practice love. For though I may speak with the tongues of men and of angels or can understand all mysteries and knowledge (Chapters 12 and 14); though I have all faith so that I could move mountains (Chapter 15 – faith in the Resurrection and in Christ); though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor (Chapter 16); and though I give my body to be burned (15:32, 16:9): it does not profit me, if I do not love as God has first loved me.

Prayer: Almighty Father, whose beloved Son on the night in which He was betrayed gave us the commandment to love and demonstrated it by His washing of our feet and giving Himself in His Supper; grant that we may by His love be able to love as You have first loved us. Amen.

Points for Meditation:

Meditate more fully on the ways in which God is calling you to love. It will be beneficial to review 1 Corinthians to find ways in which God is calling you.
Meditate on the love of God as it relates to the Resurrection and life in heaven.

Resolution: I resolve to find one specific way to practice love today. Do not pick what is easiest or most convenient but that to which you know God is calling you.

Crucifixion of Christ, Matthias Grunewald – in U.S. Public Domain
\

2017-12-19T16:48:56-05:00

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.

The Resurrection is the Crux of Theology

Last updated on: December 19, 2017 at 4:48 pm By Fr. Charles Erlandson

1 Corinthians 15:12-19

“Theology’s not important.” I’ve heard a lot of statements to that effect before.

Well, here’s a little theology: Jesus Christ is risen!

No, not a little theology, a lot of theology. So central is the Resurrection of Jesus Christ which we will celebrate in Easter in two short weeks, and which we celebrate every Lord’s Day, that without it you don’t have Christianity.

The Resurrection is so much at the crux of Christianity that without it, our entire theology – our knowledge about and belief in God – completely evaporates. In fact, so important is the doctrine of the Resurrection that those who deny it should not properly be called Christians, except in terms of being apostate or heretical Christians.

The Resurrection of Jesus Christ is the foundation of Christian theology and if you remove it, then the rest comes tumbling down like a house of cards. Here are just a few of the consequences that Paul mentions that inevitably follow if Jesus was not raised from the dead:

Our preaching is in vain (verse 14). Everything you’ve been told about who God is, what sin is, and how God has taken away the sins of the world through the sacrifice of His Son is a lie. Everything you’ve been taught that’s connected to this, the moral teaching, the teachings about love and self-denial, the teachings about us being one Body of Christ – all of it is in doubt.

St. Chrysostom said: “Logically Paul would have said that if Christ had not been raised, historical facts would have been denied, but instead he says something which is much more relevant and indeed frightening to the Corinthians. For if Christ had not risen from the dead, then Paul’s preaching would have been useless and their faith would have no meaning.”

If our preaching is in vain, then we are made out to be liars or at best terrible deceivers whose wisdom is of no value to you.
Your faith is in vain (verse 14.) What you believe, not having seen, is also a lie. The life you’ve built on what you believe is a lie as well. Your body will become worm fodder after you die, and that’s it.
We are misrepresenting God (verse 15.) If God exists, He doesn’t have a Son; He isn’t the Trinity; His Son didn’t become man; His Son didn’t rise from the dead; and He hasn’t paid for the sins of the world. Either we’re speaking falsely about God, or else there isn’t a God at all.
You are still in your sins (verse 17.) Jesus Christ isn’t really lord of anything: He couldn’t even save himself, so how could he save you? Since Christ’s Crucifixion and Resurrection are the salvation of the world from sins, there would still be the sentence of death over us. Darkness and decay and death would hold illimitable dominion over all.
Those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished (verse 18.) Remember all those people you thought you’d see again in heaven? Dream on! I won’t see my daughter Veronica or my grandparents or St. Paul or John Keble in heaven because there is no resurrection of Christ and therefore there is no resurrection for us. All those who have gone before have simply returned to dust. We shall never see them again.
We are of all men most to be pitied (verse 19.) Our religion really is just an opiate for the masses, only without the fact of the Resurrection, the power of this particular opiate would be gone. Living out ridiculous fables, resisting a powerful culture for no reason any longer, and believing in a better life in eternity when this life is all there is, we would be pathetic.
There is no heaven and no eternity in the presence of God. As St. Chrysostom wrote: “If the body does not rise again, the soul remains uncrowned with the blessings stored up for it in heaven.”

If Jesus didn’t rise from the dead, then I might as well quit writing these stupid little meditations on a false work of fiction. And you should stop reading them and get on with your life, since there’s no Resurrection and no salvation. I should quit being a priest and a pastor and stop counseling people on the basis of Jesus Christ. I’m not sure anymore what I’d tell them about suffering, I guess that it’s just a natural part of the world as it has evolved and to go and work out your own existential, atheistic salvation with fear and trembling because I’m out of answers and I don’t know anyone who has any.

I guess I’ll go back to teaching. Of course, I couldn’t go back to teaching in Christian schools because they’d be based on a lie, and all the students would go back to the public schools. Literature and history would lose some of their appeal for me, and even science would be shaken.

My family life would have to be renegotiated, since I couldn’t be sure of anything St. Paul or the other patriarchal, sexist, racist, homophobic dead white males wrote. And I’d have to reconsider love. Would it really be worth denying myself all sorts of things, since there is now no Christ to carry my Cross or command me to carry it with Him? Doing what’s good for others would only be valuable to me if I saw its benefit for me.

I’d have to come up with an entirely different basis on which to judge my thoughts, word, and actions. Most probably, I’d seek to maximize my own pleasure. Having chronic fatigue, this wouldn’t be so much fun, and I think I’d become bitter and grumble: “Why has God . . .” I mean “Why do I have this? It’s not fair, and it makes my life miserable. Hey, I’ve heard of a few good ways to dull the misery . . . .”

If Jesus didn’t rise from the dead, then my life is a tragic mistake. No, it’s not tragic after all, because there would have to be something noble and worthy of having fallen in a tragedy. I would become like the other, pitiable zombies who are really the living dead and have only a short time left (except I wouldn’t be pitiable because my empty existence just is, and I can’t attach any real judgments on it, such as “pity.”)

It’s a good thing that theology does matter!

Thank God for theology.

Thank God for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, His Son!

Resolution and Point for Meditation: I resolve to spend some time today meditating on the Resurrection of Jesus Christ and its importance in my life. You might meditate on some of the points above, or you might choose to follow an idea that the Spirit is especially impressing you with today. Since we will be meditating on the Resurrection for the rest of 1 Corinthians 15 (and during Easter), you’ll have plenty of time to meditate on a single point in detail today.

The Resurrection by Mantegna – Public Domain

2017-12-07T16:08:32-05:00

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.

Perichoresis and the Temple of the Holy Spirit

Last updated on: December 7, 2017 at 4:08 pm By Fr. Charles Erlandson

1 Corinthians 10:14-22

You are the Temple of the Holy Spirit, which means that God has chosen to dwell with you.

But how this happens is a mystery. I can’t explain how the Holy Spirit could overshadow Mary and so incarnate the Second Person of the Trinity. I can’t explain how the Holy Spirit could live with me, not only since I’m a mere man but also a sinful one at that. And I can’t explain how Jesus Christ is present in the Lord’s Supper and gives Himself to me so that I really partake of Him in it.

And yet I know that all these things are true.

“The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?” (verse 16.) St. Paul believes that partaking of the Lord’s Supper makes us a partaker of Jesus Christ Himself, especially in His Body and Blood. He argues that among Israel and the Gentiles, those who eat of the sacrifices are partakers of the altar. If this is true, then it must also be true (even more true) that Christians who eat the bread and wine of the Lord’s Supper are made partakers of Christ. Those who partake of the sacrifice of demons are having fellowship with them (verse 20), and so Christians who partake of the sacrifice of Christ have fellowship with Him.

Rather than raising up our defenses about centuries’ old arguments about exactly how Christ is present in His Supper, we should all affirm what St. Paul and the Church until the 16th century universally taught: that Christ is truly present in the Sacraments. And this has wonderful consequences for our lives – if we eat faithfully.

The blessings that God brings to us through feeding off His Son are numerous and immeasurable. The most important blessing is, of course, that God truly gives us Himself. Again, don’t ask me how this exactly works. For that matter, don’t ask me how it exactly works at Baptism or when I say the Sinner’s Prayer. But God gives Himself to His people at His Supper, and we are to faithfully feed off Him.

If we do, then we truly become a part of Him, and He becomes a part of us. This isn’t so strange, since Paul has already taught this before, in relation to our being the Temple of the Holy Spirit. If you’ve been reading Give Us This Day for a while, you might remember my discussion of the doctrine of perichoresis, which is that in the Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit all inter-penetrate each other and participate in each other’s person. In Jesus Christ, we could say the there is a perichoresis of God and man, and with the coming of the Holy Spirit to live with us, there is a perichoresis between God and us.

This actual participation in the life of God and being united to Him, brought to us through the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, is our salvation. God and made are made one: God with us, “Immanuel.”

Paul uses a wonderful illustration of how we are made one: since we are all partakers of one bread, we are all one body, even though we are many (verse 17.) The Didache, a mid to late 1st century Christian work that is the oldest outside of the New Testament, elaborates this idea. The Didache says that “As this broken bread was scattered upon the mountains and being gathered together became one, so may Your Church be gathered together from the ends of the earth into Your kingdom.” (For those of you familiar with the 1940 Episcopal Hymnal, see hymn #195 – “Father, We Thank Thee Who Hast Planted.”) St. Augustine takes this and runs with it and explains that the separate grains of wheat we all once were are only made bread after a certain amount of crushing (which he relates to fasting but which I liken to our sufferings) and being joined with water (baptism.)

The Lord’s Supper, Holy Communion, the Eucharist, the Mass indeed presents a sacrifice of which we partake. I don’t believe it is a re-sacrificing of Christ, but I do believe it is a re-presentation of that once for all Sacrifice of Christ’s. Jesus Christ, as the Lamb of God who was slain to take away the sins of the world is truly present with His people who faithfully partake of the Passover. Being made one with him, by the grace of the Sacraments, we receive the blessing of union with Him.

Again, bread is a good picture of this participation. When we eat earthly bread, our bodies digest it until we are able to absorb it, and the bread physically becomes a part of our body. When we eat the heavenly bread which is Christ, our souls digest Him, and He becomes a part of us. By this one common participation in Christ, we are not only made one with Him but also one with each other, for there is only one Body. And so this perichoresis, it turns out, extends even to us, so that you and I are truly part of each other. For this reason, St. Luke often records that the early Church was of “one mind” and “one accord,” for this kind of visible unity should flow from the actual but invisible unity we have as the Body of Christ, which we become through a faithful eating of the Body and Blood of Christ.

You are the Temple of the Holy Spirit. As St. Ambrose said, “Every soul which receives the bread which comes down from heaven is a house of bread, the bread of Christ, being nourished and having its heart strengthened by the support of the heavenly bread which dwells within it. Hence Paul says: ‘We are all one bread.’ Every faithful soul is Bethlehem.”

What a wonderful idea – that you and I, especially together, are Bethlehem, the “House of Bread” which is made a fit home for God by partaking of Jesus Christ through His Body and Blood. You and I, each time we faithfully partake of the Lord’s Supper, are once again “Bethlehem,” the House of Bread, the place where Jesus Christ is born to save the world!

What other response could there be than Eucharist, “Thanksgiving,” which is shown by going out and living with Jesus Christ and living as Jesus Christ?

Prayer: Almighty and everliving God, we thank You that You feed us through the spiritual food of the most precious Body and Blood of our Savior Jesus Christ and through them assure us of Your favor toward us. For these gifts make us truly thankful, and through them make us truly the House of God, the Body of Christ, that we might live in love and unity with both You and all the saints. Amen.

Resolution and Points for Meditation:

I resolve to meditate more faithfully on the Lord’s Supper, especially the day before and the minutes before (and after) I partake of Jesus Christ.

Some of the things you might meditate on are:

The work of Christ, especially His Crucifixion and Resurrection
that you are an actual partaker of Jesus Christ and made one body with Him
that God actually dwells with you
the remission of sins that God offers
the grace and benediction that God gives
that you are a member of the Body of Christ
that He preserves your body and soul
that you are an heir of salvation
the holy fellowship and unity you are to have as Christ’s Body
the communion with the Saints of all times and places that comes through Him
the grace to do the good works that He has prepared beforehand that you should walk in
the peace of God that passes all understanding

Pentecost, San Marco Milan – By permission of copyright holder

Temple of the Holy Spirit

thanksgiving

the Didache

2018-02-26T16:33:59-05:00

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.

How Do You Respond to Suffering?

Last updated on: February 26, 2018 at 4:33 pm By Fr. Charles Erlandson

How Do You Respond to Suffering? – Philippians 1:27-2:11

“For me to live is Christ,” St. Paul says in Philippians 1:21. How many of you are willing to say this and live this, regardless of what it might involve?

I thought I’d get that out of the way because God is about to put you to the test. I was talking in WalMart (of all places) with a young man who is spiritually seeking, currently on his way out of materialistic Wiccanism to more of an all-religions-are-the-same-Buddhist-spiritual belief. Actually, it was his girlfriend who suggested a test to sniff out true Christians. Her test was to ask Christians if they would be willing to die for their beliefs.

It’s a good test, and one that is related to what St. Paul is about to say.

Paul begins this passage by saying that we must let our conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ. Once again, our behavior (and not just our belief) is an essential part of our faith. Paul warns the Philippians (verse 29) that they have been granted on behalf of Jesus Christ not only to believe but also to suffer for His sake.

Here is where the test of our faith comes in. When suffering comes into your life, how does it affect your faith and life in Christ? For some, it will drive them away, as if to say, “I can’t believe in a God who would allow suffering – especially mine!” For others, suffering will discourage them, and they will slowly grow distracted and weaker in their faith. Some will treat suffering with a kind of Roman stoicism, attempting to bravely endure it while trying to wish it away. Others still will attempt human means of dulling the pain.

But the Christian response to suffering is to accept it as a means of participating in the life of our Lord Jesus Christ. If we want to be able to say with St. Paul that, “For me, to live is Christ,” then we must be willing to accept all of Him. Some Christians and churches give us the idea that the Christian life will be all health and wealth and sunshine. When, naturally, this isn’t the case, then discouragement and a sense of betrayal set in.

But God has never promised those things in this life. What He does promise is that for those who are faithful disciples of Jesus Christ, His Son will live in and through them. This life in Christ, however, includes all of Christ. It includes being raised to new life with Him, but only if a dying to self is also included. It includes the promise of glory and the resurrection, but only after we have persevered with Christ in His sufferings as well.

Even, especially, the Son of God was not given a life of ease: instead, He suffered for us. And He expects that we will suffer with, for, and through Him.

But how will we be able to bear such a difficult teaching, one that sees all suffering as potentially redemptive, and one that requires that we rejoice in our sufferings because they are uniting us to Christ?

It requires humility. It requires that you pick up your Cross, deny yourself, and follow Jesus Christ wherever He leads you. If you want to be able to say that for you to live is Christ, then you must mean it, and you must mean that you are willing to give up your own life for Him, as He gave up His for you.

The pattern that Jesus gave us and that Paul presents is that the Cross precedes the Resurrection: Good Friday first, and then Easter.

Paul says that to be united to Jesus Christ, to live for Him, you must have the mind of Christ. And what was this mind? It was a single-minded devotion to do the will of the Father – whatever the cost. The Christian way, the Christian life, is the Way of the Cross, and like Jesus we must set ourselves resolutely to be willing to go up to Jerusalem to meet the Cross.

Consider the humility that the Son has given to you as an example for how you should live. First, though He was God Almighty and the Son of God from eternity past, He “made Himself of no reputation.” This is something a lot of us are not willing to do: to make ourselves of no reputation. The King James doesn’t do justice to the word kenosis, translating it as “reputation.” What it really means is that Christ emptied Himself. And this is what you must do every day before Almighty God if you want to say that for you to live is Christ.

The Son of God humbled Himself, or emptied Himself, first by born a human being. What it must have felt like for God to become a mere human is beyond my imagination, but I do know that it took humility. The Creator became a part of the creation; He who was infinite became finite and limited.

The humility of Christ is even greater than this, for when He came, He didn’t start life as a full-grown human being but was born a helpless baby. He was not born into the family of a king but of a carpenter. When He began His public ministry and most people expected He would rule like a human king, He took the form of a servant (verse 7.) He spent 3 years not being served but serving. He lived out a life of love, giving Himself for others, even though He had every right to command complete obedience and servitude to Him.

The humility of Christ grew even greater because when it came time for Him to save the world, He humbled Himself and obeyed the Father to the point of death (verse 8.) He who was the Giver of Life gave up His life that we might live with Him. He chose not the death we might choose, a quick and quiet death by old age in our bed, but chose instead the death of the Cross, the most vicious and painful death the Romans could devise.

This is the Christ that you just said you wanted to be your life. This is way of Christ that you as a Christian must take upon yourself, if you desire to live in Christ.

It’s not likely that Jesus will require you to die the death of a martyr for Him, and yet He still commands you to surrender your life to Him completely. There are many Christians who, if asked if they would die for Christ, would raise their hands. But Jesus Christ hasn’t asked you to die physically for Him, only to die to yourself in a hundred ways each day.

He’s not asking you for one single heroic and spectacular moment of faith but for a daily life of faithfulness that often seems unheroic and dull. In fact, only those who have been quietly practicing a life of sacrificing themselves daily to God are likely to be in a position to do something heroic for Christ if and when the time comes. After all, even Jesus had to spend a lifetime of perfectly obeying the Father before He was ready for the Cross – and even then it wasn’t easy for Him.

Our hope, in this life of humble sacrifice, is that as Christ was highly exalted by the Father (verse 9), we will be exalted with Him. If we suffer with Him, we shall be glorified with Him. “This is a faithful saying: For if we died with Him, we shall also live with Him. If we endure, we shall also reign with Him” (2 Timothy 2:11-12; see also Romans 8:17.)

Yes, I want to be able to say that for me to live is Christ – not because I want to suffer, but because I know that if I suffer with Him I shall reign with Him in glory. And I know that if I give Him my suffering He will share it with me and transform it into glory by His gracious love and presence.

For me, to live is Christ – every bit of Him.

Prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, I humbly ask that You would give me Your mind of humility and love. Give me the grace of Your Spirit to obey the Father and submit to His loving will. Give me the grace to follow You in Your suffering so that I might participate in Your resurrection and glory. Amen.

Points for Meditation:

Practice submitting the disappointments of the day to Christ as a means of humbling yourself. When there are daily frustrations or disappointments, use them as reminders to turn to Jesus.
Meditate more on the deepest suffering in your life. Pray that you might be able to see it as a means of participating in the sufferings of your Lord. Pray that God will use this as a means of your calling on Him more frequently and passionately.

Resolution: I resolve to examine the suffering in my life today and receive it as a means of humbling me and bringing me to God. It may be useful to choose one source of suffering or disappointment in particular.

Crucifixion of Christ, Matthias Grunewald – in U.S. Public Domain

2015-01-09T19:13:31-05:00

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.

January 10 – Colossians 2:6-19

Last updated on: January 9, 2015 at 7:13 pm By Fr. Charles Erlandson

Colossians 2:6-19

“God is absolutely sovereign, and man is accountable before Him.”

This is such a major theme of the Bible that it appears in just about every nook and cranny of God’s revelation. It’s an important truth to keep in mind as we look at baptism this morning.

Baptism is, first of all, the work and initiative of God. It is a sign and seal of the good work He has done in us, and not primarily a sign of our belief. It is, in fact, the Christian rite of initiation into the Body of Christ and union with Christ, just like circumcision in the Old Covenant.

Paul says in verse 11 that we were circumcised with the circumcision not made with hands, by the putting off of the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, buried with Him in baptism. In the Old Covenant, circumcision was the means of entrance into a covenant with God through participation in Israel. If someone wanted to be counted part of Israel, God’s Elect Lady, he needed to be circumcised. So important was this initiation into God’s covenant with Israel that when holy Moses forgot to circumcise his own son, God hunted him down and was about to execute him, until his wife had the wisdom to figure out that Moses should keep the Law God had given him. If someone wanted to become an Israelite and obtain all the blessings of being in a covenantal relationship with God through Israel, he had to be circumcised.

Circumcision was normally performed on baby boys when they were eight days old, and so obviously circumcision was a sign of what God was doing in the life of the child, and not a sign of what the child had done. In the New Covenant, circumcision is replaced by baptism, only now God has expanded the range of recipients to include females as well. But baptism is still a sign of what God has done to and for us, and not what we have done (except in a secondary way), for salvation is all of grace and not of the work of man.

Baptism is also a Sacrament, and one that was ordained by Jesus Christ Himself. Remembering that a Sacrament is “an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace given unto us.” Grace, being the free gift of God, can’t be caused by our faith, or else we would have to initiate the relationship with God even before He has called us. Grace precedes faith. God is always the origin of a relationship with Him, and so it makes sense that God can begin a relationship even with those who are young.

Baptism, therefore, brings us into a covenantal union with God by being united to Jesus Christ and His Body, the Church.

I know that some of you will have different beliefs about baptism and the grace that God gives in it. My point is not to argue for a position but to help us wonder at the grace of God and to learn what our response is to be to this grace.

When I say, therefore, that baptism brings us into God’s covenant and makes us an heir of His blessings, I know there will be some objections. I think what most people want to make sure of, when discussing the fact that God truly gives grace in baptism and truly initiates a relationship with man, is that I am not saying that baptism by itself saves a person. Baptism, by itself never saved anyone. Being united to Jesus Christ does.

But can God use baptism to initiate a covenantal relationship with Him? Of course! He did it in the Old Covenant – why would it be impossible or unthinkable in the New, where the grace of God is even greater?

So God is absolutely sovereign, and He is always the one who first loves us and begins the new life in us. But if it’s true that in baptism we are buried with Christ and die to ourselves and are raised with Christ to new life, this new life in Christ must be kept alive. This is where the other side of God’s truth must be affirmed: that man is accountable before God, accountable in this case to continue in the grace He has given. After receiving God’s grace and after God has planted a new life in us, we have a part to play. It was God who planted the Garden of Eden and planted the seeds and trees in it: but Adam was to guard and cultivate the good work God had begun.

Our lives are our own Garden of Eden. God has planted a new life in us, but we must cultivate and guard this life. This is why being baptized, without a life of faith and faithfulness, can never save a man. Baptism may bring that person into a new spiritual life or sphere, but it cannot sustain it without faith. Even before baptism, we may see the grace of God at work in the lives of our kids. Does this mean that they don’t have to lift a finger to continue in that grace? Of course not!

For this reason, even though Paul speaks highly of baptism, he consistently warns us to walk in Christ as we have received Him (verse 6.) There is nothing automatic about faith or salvation: we must work out our own salvation with fear and trembling, knowing that it is God who works in us both to do and to will for His good pleasure (Philippians 2:12-13.) Even Jesus Christ Himself had to not only be circumcised (and then be baptized) but also had to obey God. Though Jesus Christ was God Himself and had the Holy Spirit in Him, the human Christ had to actively choose to obey.

Baptism is a visible reminder of the grace of God in our lives that He began even before we desired Him. It reminds us that our life is hidden in Jesus Christ and that we are in a relationship with Him. While we were still dead in our sins, Jesus Christ chose us and wiped out the judgment of God’s holy Law against us (verse 14.) He took on the principalities and powers of this world and made a public spectacle of His victory over them (verse 15.)

This is what God has done for you. What are you doing for God?

I encourage each of you to look back at the vows you took at baptism. A covenant is a two-way street. God promises to bless those who love Him and keep His commandments. When you were baptized, you also promised God certain things. It is a good idea to review them at least once a year.

In the Book of Common Prayer Holy Baptism service, a Christian vows to: “renounce the devil and all his works, the vain pomp and glory of the world, with all covetous desires of the same, and the sinful desires of the flesh.” The Christian also vows to “obediently keep God’s holy will and commandments, and walk in the same all the days” of his life. If it is a child being baptized, the parents or sponsors vow to teach the child the Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, and the Ten Commandments and “all other things which a Christian ought to know and believe to his soul’s health.” Finally, the Christian is charged to not be ashamed to confess the faith of Christ crucified but to manfully fight under His banner and to continue His faithful soldier and servant unto his life’s end.

I might add as well that at baptism each Christian is anointed as a priest of God and is commissioned as a minister of the Lord.

The grace and love of God given at baptism and throughout our lives is immeasurable. No gift we could ever give in return could be an adequate response.

But there is one thing God does ask of you: that you be a whole burnt offering to Him and that you love and serve Him with all your body and all your mind and all your soul.

Resolution: I resolve to celebrate the grace of God in my life and examine my vows before Him today.

Prayer: All praise be to you, heavenly Father, because you first loved me and sent Your only-begotten Son. Thank You, Lord Jesus, for living and dying for me. Assist me with the continual grace of Your Holy Spirit that I may fulfill my holy vows before You to serve You all the days of my life. Amen.

Points for Meditation:

Find one way to celebrate the grace of God in your life.
Slowly meditate upon the things that a Christian vows in baptism (listed above.) Spend enough time on each one to honestly evaluate the condition of your soul before God.

Book of Common Prayer

covenant

Fr. Charles Erlandson

free will

Give Us This Day daily devotional

God’s grace

God’s initiative

man’s response to God

man’s responsibility

sacrament

sovereignty of God

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What did David take from Saul's camp while he was sleeping?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Spear and water jug Crown and robe A sack of gold Sword and scroll

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Book Reviews Featured Give Us This Day Give Us This Day Devotional love me love my wife Love My Wife Reformed Catholicism Blog Spirit-Reality Take This Cup Uncategorized

Select a Month February 2022 November 2021 October 2021 August 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 September 2018 July 2018 March 2018 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011

TRENDING AT PATHEOS Evangelical