Hey, That's Me, in the Cracks....

I confess,

Sometimes it feels like I get a little lost in all that happens. I'm left alone when I want to be talked to. I say "I'm OK", but mean "Something's wrong, but I don't know how to explain it". Some days I just wish to speak and be understood, to be taken plainly. I'm in the cracks, stuck, and I'm not sure I'll get out. When I think about it, I guess the feeling I have comes from being marginalized. I've been "Nothing Buttered"* into an identity separate from how I see myself, and what I've been told I am by God.

In this post I'm stretching to describe the strange Malaise I feel toward existing in the here and now and the Malice expressed toward me by this world. These M&Ms are poison pills that taint my effectiveness at holiness in ways both subtle and obvious. It's hard to try when you show people just a little of who you are and they scoff and deride you. It should be expected that the world would hate me (hate us), but when it happens, it happens in so many strange little ways. I feel like I could fight the world if the rules were the same for both groups, but ultimately they're not.

Consider this: Culturally, Christians are called to bear our Cross with Jesus. I understand in my mind what this means. I must lose constantly. I'm a condemned man. I must be reviled. The State is against me. That's not optional. ultimately all human government is against God because all government seeks to perpetuate itself over and against the governed. In America we attempt to insulate ourselves from this fact through democracy, law, and something called "Checks and Balances" but ultimately our government seeks the same domination of the governed either through regulation, taxation, or compartmentalization. Regulation and taxation are obvious, because Christian or not, we all feel some burden from regulation and taxation. Compartmentalization is something different. I believe Government (big G intentional) attempts to shuffle people into a category that they can label and then they can sell their customized reality of "the best life". Society and Government needs us in a box to produce for them, make them tax dollars! They do their best to try and convince us to be "quiet and content" while making sure we are their definition of quiet and content.That's the rules that change. This world will try to tell us what it means to "...lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. " (1 Timothy 2:2, ESV) but we can't let them. We have to go to the Bible and get the Word on Godliness, peace, quietness, dignity. Get out of THEIR box!

I'm trying to breakout of my box all the time. Today it's tiresome. It's always tiresome, mainly because I desperately want to take the easy way out. I want to flow on the path of water. Sometimes that is a feature, today it's a flaw. There's no quick "Grace!" and it's over. Holiness is a long slog toward something we can't fully comprehend, and yet is always happening. There's no room on the cross you're carrying for all the things we do and partake of to make this life easier. All creation groans after what we perceive, that this world is passing. It will burn. It must burn. It isn't holy, loving, selfless, or warm. "Heat death" is it's ultimate end, a state of changelessness where even the fabric of the universe melts away, becoming nothing, going back to nothing, "ashes to ashes, earth to earth, dust to dust". Good riddance. Better to lose now, while we can still live forever. Better to embrace the all present presence of God, His lamb making us righteous.

To that end, I've got something in the works, Something Big. Something that I hope will be helpful and worth reading about what God calls "Salvation." I've been working on it for a while, and I'm close to a release. I've written the first post, run it by others, and the words are ready. I need to format it in Blogger, link it up to a few websites, and I need to finish one more post's worth of content. Then I'll begin releasing it weekly, Here, or on my regular blog, skattagun.blogspot.com. Maybe i'll do both...

....Keep a Weather Eye....

"The Prayers of a Righteous Person"

Pre-Covid, I had the distinct privilege of being able to speak with the Homeless of Orlando.  Here's the message I shared with them, generated from an outline I've created. It won't be word for word verbatim what I said, but it should be similar enough to call the same.

Text: Luke 18:9-14

Introduction: If I were to give this message to you today a title, it would not come from the main text I want to look at today, but from a supporting text I want us to look at right now. One of the principles we should use when we study the Bible is to let one text interpret another. If we have trouble with one text, another can help us understand the meaning of it. In this case, both texts I believe, are straight forward, and pretty easy to understand. One though, does give us a practical example of the other. The first passage I want us to look at is in the book of James chapter 5:13-18:

Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.

I've always wanted to pray powerfully. My understanding of what it means to pray powerfully has changed a little over time. I want us to look at an example of prayer given to us by Jesus, so that we can understand what it means to pray "The Prayers of a Righteous Person." The example is found in the book of Luke 18:9-14:

He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

In this parable, Jesus teaches us what it means to be a righteous man praying by showing us an example of a man whose prayers were answered. In studying this man, we will come to see that our prayers are made effective when we first appeal to God for mercy because of who we are. We also see an example of how we shouldn't be. Let's take a look at the people to whom Jesus told this parable.


I. A Parable with a Purpose
 When Jesus gave this parable, he had a specific target audience in mind. These people have two characteristics that we need to look at as a warning. I would even contend that it's very easy to be a person who displays one or both of these traits. In America today, I would say that we even teach people to have one of these traits, and we glorify those who display the other. The text says that Jesus told this parable to people who trusted their own righteousness, and treated others with contempt. Those two ideas kind of go hand in hand. If you trust your own righteousness, you will treat others with contempt. I think that most people will at some point in their life trust their own righteousness. It's what our society teaches people to do. People say things like Find your own path to God. Trust your heart. Go with your feelings. One of the highest virtues our society has is to find our own way, and trust it to lead to our God. Once someone else finds a different way, we will treat them with contempt.
  A. The Parable had a target audience
      1. Trust in Self
      2. Hold others in contempt
  B. Familiar Image: Matthew 6:5,6
  C. Similar message: Matthew 6:7-13

II. The People involved
  A. A Pharisee
      1. Knows his place
      2. Says his prayer
      3. Gets what is coming to him.
  B. A Tax Collector
      1. Knows his place
      2. Says his prayer
      3. Gets what is coming to him.

III. How will you pray today?
  A. Will you humble yourself?
  B. Will you Confess your sins?
  C. Will you call out to God for a clean conscience? 1 Peter 3:21


Conclusion:
Everybody here agrees that prayer is important, and that praying correctly is something we all should strive to do. We want to pray powerful deep prayers that accomplish good. Today we've seen an example of a prayer that gets work done. It's also incredibly simple. It acknowledges sin, and asks for forgiveness. If you want to be a righteous person, I want you to know you can pray this prayer too. You can call out to God for a clean conscience in baptism. It's God's way! Will you do it today?

Here's the sermon video: