It is hard to get an image of what it would mean to be “born again?” As a very concrete person who has observed the births of two children and been right nearby for the births of four grandchildren I know that even if you wanted to put the baby back in and come out again, it would not work. I think that Jesus is using this metaphor in part because of that same way of thinking.  It is as impossible to be born again naturally, but it can only take place through the power of the Holy Spirit. In fact growth can happen only in life through the power of the Holy Spirit.

This text has naturally been the battleground for those who believe that the “being born again by the Spirit” is more important as a choice than to “be born again by water and the Spirit being at baptism early in life.” I think that the mysterious powerful force of being born again by the Holy Spirit goes well with it happening even before we can make a conscious decision or choice. I respect the other point of view, but I believe that without God’s help, we could not be born again at all.

At the end of the Lenten season (usually at the Easter vigil) many people are baptized in the church. This is a reminder to me of the power of the Holy Spirit to use our Holy Week and Easter to raise us up anew. The real point of Jesus’ message to Nicodemus is that renewal needs to happen over and over and over again in life and when it happens it is only through the power of the Holy Spirit.

I am thankful for Lent/Holy Week/Easter Sunday, 2010 and for doing this blog. I trust that whoever has read it has valued from at least one thing I have written and I will look for new opportunities in the future. I hope and pray that you will be renewed daily as you are born again and again through the power of the Holy Spirit.

            On the brink of the full Easter resurrection we have the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. The last line expresses the connection: “if people do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.”

            The law and the prophets teach that we should care for the poor. This parable reminds us that riches can get in the way of helping others. We can lose ourselves in our great wealth as we selectively hear what we want to hear. We can fail to do that which is most important—loving God and loving our neighbors as ourselves.

            There are so many people who live their lives without thought of tomorrow. They insulate themselves from others and fail to take advantage of their opportunity to do that which is right. Then something happens, and if they have the chance, they turn their lives around.

            But what about those who do not ever turn their lives around? What about those who fail to hear the law and the prophets? What about those who even fail to hear that Jesus has been raised from the dead? Perhaps they will never get a second chance at eternity.

            If there is anything Holy Week and Easter teaches us it is that Christ lived His life intentionally. If we follow His pattern for our lives, we will respond to the law and the prophets. If we stay faithful to Christ even as He stayed faithful to His heavenly Father, our lives will be joined with that of Christ in glory. That is something to watch for on this Easter Vigil day.

What connection can we make between the Good Samaritan parable and Good Friday? It may be that stories such as this one are what got Jesus put on the Cross. Certainly the scribes and Pharisees did not have a high opinion of Samaritans. They were among the most despised members of society, and to a great extent “religiously” persecuted by the religious Jews. Jesus’ lifting up a Samaritan as being the model of virtue, the one so moved to compassion to help the “beaten up and left half dead” man by the side of the road certainly could get Him into trouble. The Samaritans were probably on the scribe’s mind as not being included in neighbors to love when he asked Jesus “who is my neighbor?” Now Jesus turns the tables on this man by saying that the ones who act in a neighborly manner and keep the commandments may well be Samaritans.

Beyond this connection I would say (as I proclaimed last night on Maundy Thursday) that the point is that we are to have the same kind of servant love that Jesus exemplified in His teaching and actions. Just like Jesus our commitment and our behavior are to be consistent. We are to love all equally. Even as God poured out His lifeblood in His Son Jesus to save us so we are to pour out our lives for others.

As we prepare to commemorate the death and resurrection of Jesus, it is His divine nature that we may appreciate most. After all, if Jesus was not God’s Son would His death and resurrection help us as much as it does. But maybe as we go into the Easter season and beyond into Pentecost it is His human nature that will help us to direct our lives. If Jesus taught that there is to be no limit to our love, then we need to have no limit to our love. We should not get so upset about that other political party, the team and coach we do not like, the family members and friends that we have to spend Easter dinner with, or even how the world “seems to be going to hell in a hand basket.” Instead, we are simply to love without boundaries…without limits. Our neighbors that Jesus asks us to love surely include all of the above.

“Help us, Jesus, to love our neighbors as ourselves. Amen.”

It is Maundy Thursday, 2010, the beginning of the great Three Days leading to Easter Sunday, the resurrection of our Lord. It is my hope and prayer that these four days will be very meaningful for every individual who reads these words. In order for it to be meaningful, we are encouraged by today’s parable to look for something blessed to happen to us. Jesus encourages us “to pray always and not to lose heart.” (Vs. 1)  There is something about the discipline of treating God as our God every day and telling God our needs and desires that will not return empty. There is something about the discipline of walking with Jesus through each event of the final week of His earthly life prior to the resurrection which will be a blessing to us.

In order to illustrate the need to be in prayer always Jesus tells this parable which has the one point that if we keep on coming to God like the widow coming to a judge for justice, God will answer our prayers. Like yesterday’s parable Jesus encourages persistence. Perhaps we need to think about Jesus’ situation to fully understand this. He is talking about God bringing all people to judgment with the coming of the son of man and is now illustrating that this day is surely coming. He ends today’s teaching session with this phrase: “And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

As the reader of this parable we are encouraged to keep on keeping on. Even when we are challenged by not knowing where it is all headed, we are encouraged that it is headed toward Jesus’ return. And if we have heeded Jesus’ teaching, praying always and looking for His return, surely He will find faith on earth, faith in each and every one of us. As John writes in his revelation at the end of the New Testament: “Amen, Come Lord Jesus!”

It is Maundy Thursday, 2010, the beginning of the great Three Days leading to Easter Sunday, the resurrection of our Lord. It is my hope and prayer that these four days will be very meaningful for every individual who reads these words. In order for it to be meaningful, we are encouraged by today’s parable to look for something blessed to happen to us. Jesus encourages us “to pray always and not to lose heart.” (Vs. 1)  There is something about the discipline of treating God as our God every day and telling God our needs and desires that will not return empty. There is something about the discipline of walking with Jesus through each event of the final week of His earthly life prior to the resurrection which will be a blessing to us.

In order to illustrate the need to be in prayer always Jesus tells this parable which has the one point that if we keep on coming to God like the widow coming to a judge for justice, God will answer our prayers. Like yesterday’s parable Jesus encourages persistence. Perhaps we need to think about Jesus’ situation to fully understand this. He is talking about God bringing all people to judgment with the coming of the son of man and is now illustrating that this day is surely coming. He ends today’s teaching session with this phrase: “And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

As the reader of this parable we are encouraged to keep on keeping on. Even when we are challenged by not knowing where it is all headed, we are encouraged that it is headed toward Jesus’ return. And if we have heeded Jesus’ teaching, praying always and looking for His return, surely He will find faith on earth, faith in each and every one of us. As John writes in his revelation at the end of the New Testament: “Amen, Come Lord Jesus!”

Have you ever had a persistent family member or friend? They are really not so nice to have around. They may push for that family reunion which you have no time to attend, ask you to be a part of an intervention with them, or just be disappointed in you being too busy to be a part of their everyday life. All of the while their persistence may be a sign of commitment to you, your family, or your friendship.

Persistence is definitely encouraged in today’s parable when it comes to a pray-er approaching God. Jesus’ parable lifts up someone who asks for bread from a friend who has “closed up shop” for the night who will receive it not because of friendship, but because of persistence and need. So we are encouraged to never tire of asking God for things we need in our prayers.

Notice though that our persistence should be about “needs” and not about “wants.” The key difference is that telling God our needs is asking God into our lives. That is certainly commendable and God (who is far beyond any human friend) never tires of our persistence in prayer. In fact we have a great friend in Jesus, who not only knows our needs, but has gone to the “wood” for us in fulfilling our greatest need, forgiveness for all of our sins.

On this Holy Wednesday it is like the day before a family trip. We have planned for the Three Days (Maundy Thursday-Easter evening) over the whole season of Lent. We are ready for the fully celebration of Easter. These four first days of April this year can well launch us into a different kind of living, where we include God in our daily lives as the friend that is brought to mind through today’s parable. More than that we know our gracious God never closes the door or goes to bed, but is there for us 24/7. So we should be there for God in some way, shape or form every day of our lives.

The penny may be in trouble in the next several years in terms of its viability as a coin in our system. After all, what can you get for a penny? Perhaps we could round down to a nickel in a similar way in which we round down from forty nine cents or up from fifty-one on our income tax forms. After all, would we miss the penny?

According to Jesus’ parable today the woman who loses a drachma, a coin worth considerably more than a penny (about one day’s wages) searches carefully to find her one lost coin. But more importantly when she finds it she not only is glad for her own sake, but throws a party for her friends and neighbors over her discovery. So God rejoices in the same way over one sinner who repents.

What marks the lost coin as being different than the lost sheep or the lost son? The coin can do nothing for itself, but is dependent on the finder to discover it. So the woman needs to have company to rejoice over the lost since the coin will not do it. So we need the Christian community to rejoice over our being found by our gracious God.

When I was in seminary in the seventies there was a movement in the church that emphasized “I found it.” By that phrase those who created the saying meant that the individual ultimately needs to find God. In response the Lutheran seminary that I attended emphasized “God found me.” Although there probably shouldn’t be too great of a contrast made between these two positions, this parable clearly is on the side of “God finds us.” We can be thankful that it does not rest on our GPS abilities, because if left to ourselves we may just remain lost. But our loving God can find us no matter where we might be lost. That is something for which we can be eternally grateful.

The parable of the lost sheep is one that convinces us that truly each parable is told to have one central point. This is because it makes very little sense for a shepherd to leave ninety-nine sheep in the wilderness to go find his one lost, stray sheep. How foolish that would be for a shepherd might lose two or three of his sheep to the wolves or to who knows what while he seeks after the one lost sheep. Additionally, if the parable was taken to mean each thing equals another thing (allegorically) someone might also reason it would be hard for one shepherd to care for one hundred sheep. But the point of the matter is that the shepherd rejoices over finding his lost sheep and invites others to rejoice as well. So Jesus says our gracious God rejoices greatly over one “notorious” sinner who repents—more than finding sheer joy over ninety-nine who remain faithfully in the fold.

Often pastors are compared to shepherds because the church is compared to a flock. I have been a pastor who seeks to bring back those who have strayed from the fold, and now how tireless the work is in trying to reach them. The results are usually not forthcoming and if you really wanted to be sensible with your time you would spend far more time on the faithful in the parish. But the fact of the matter is that the model that Jesus gives is that of spending time calling the lost home. And as Philip Keller, a former Australian shepherd puts it; these sheep nearly always “nibble themselves lost”. They aren’t bad people but they gradually get away from their roots. How joyous it is when they/we are restored back into the fold. It should lead to throwing a party.

Each and every one of us can nibble ourselves lost. But we rejoice that we have gracious God who never gives up on us…who will seek us out and do everything short of taking away our freedom to respond in faith to gain us back. How grateful we can be, whether we are the one lost sheep now or are planted in the middle of His flock.

Matthew 13:47-50

            I have only gone fishing once. I went along with a high school friend, but it was with a fishing pole and I did not catch anything. Certainly I do not understand what fishing with nets would be like. But I do understand sorting tomatoes or strawberries or sweet corn to see which produce is suitable for selling. My family did this when I was growing up and I participated in sorting out the good from the bad. I remember feeling a little bit of empathy for those which made it to the bad pile, but at least I knew what would be for supper.

            The series of parables in Matthew 13 speak about what the kingdom of God is like. The final one appropriately is about the end of time. It is either a parable of grace or judgment depending upon which of the piles in which you may find yourself. The encouragement for the listener is to respond to the kingdom now and do what the kingdom (and the king) requires so that you will not be thrown away with the half-rotten tomatoes and strawberries or the not-quite-ready-for-prime time sweet corn.

            When I hear the parable for today I think it is a call to spiritual wisdom and maturity. If God will do some sorting at the end of time, the wise and mature thing to do spiritually would be to stay close to the King during this time so that you will not be found on that discarded pile. The best way to do this is to read His Word, pray, and worship. As we near the beginning of Holy Week there will be plenty of opportunity to do all of these things. From the passion narrative of Luke on Palm/Passion Sunday through the passion narrative of John on Good Friday we will hear the story of the king who went from the adulation of the crowds on a Sunday to the condemnation of the authorities, spurred by the crowds, on Good Friday. Quite a trip to the discard pile for Jesus, but one done to save us discards from being discarded. What better news could there be than that grace wins out over judgment if we draw near to the One who is the King who went to the Cross for us and was raised for the dead.

            Being a prize tomato is a wonderful thing. God thinks each and every one of His followers are first choice, not just better boy (and girl), but best boys (and girls).

Along with the parable of the ten virgins this is a strong reminder to be ready for the coming of the kingdom just as we should be ready for the master who returns from the wedding banquet. It is the prudent thing to do, but it is also that which will put us in good stead with the Lord.  The fact of the matter is that it is also the only way to be ready when the master does come because that return will happen at an unexpected time. So our waiting is to be accompanied by being good stewards at all times because you never know when the master will come.

In a way I think of this parable as being like the officer(s) coming to inspect the military barracks. I am not too fond of that hierarchical point of view and it could lead to high anxiety for us plebes. On the other hand, the fact of the matter is that our relationship to the “master” is not egalitarian. There are some expectations that our gracious God has for us and we ought to pursue those expectations with a certain “spit polish.” Don’t we want to be part of the big celebration? Don’t we want to be part of the kingdom of God? If we do, we need to adopt kingdom ethics and make the most of what we have been given

Taken together these parables that talk about “being watchful for the Lord’s return” are the least connected parables to my/our life today. We have become lackadaisical about when or if Christ will come again. However, I hear Jesus saying that this is easy even in the first century and can be avoided only by being vigilant and faithful. My only wonderment of others is whether or not that kind of vigilance makes them anxious or whether you take it seriously at all?