Speaking of Life 5053│The Why of Praise

Many people are familiar with Psalm 100. It’s called a “psalm of thanksgiving,” and it encourages the entire earth to “make a joyful noise.” That sounds like a good time to me! But what I want to focus on today is the why – why should we “make a joyful noise?”

Let’s set the stage by reading what we should be doing:

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth.

Notice all the things we “should” be doing – making a joyful noise, serving with gladness, singing, knowing that God is our Creator, and giving thanks and blessings to the Divine. While these verses can be instructional, if you’re like me, you often want to know “why” you need to do something. And by knowing why, it connects the head with the heart. Our actions become linked to heartfelt emotion, and what might have been routine, mindless acts suddenly become infused with meaning.

Let’s look at the last verse of Psalm 100 to understand why we would even consider making a joyful noise, serving with gladness, or any of the other actions the first four verses tell us we should do:

For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever and his faithfulness to all generations.

The reason we respond with a joyful noise and thanksgiving is because God is good, but verse 5 does more than leave the definition of “good” up to our human imaginations. It defines God’s goodness as “steadfast love” and “faithfulness.”

The phrase “steadfast love,” can be more expansively defined as “kindness or love between people” or the idea of giving yourself fully to another. God gives steadfast love fully to each one of us, and we know this by Jesus’ crucifixion, where God’s Son endured the hatred and mistreatment of humankind so that we could be brought into the triune relationship. We also have evidence of the fullness of God’s steadfast love through the gift of the Holy Spirit, our Helper and Comforter, who lives in us.

The word “faithfulness,” refers to trustworthiness in relationships. God’s way of moving in the world reflects his loyalty and commitment to humanity. This trustworthiness in relationships was demonstrated by Jesus’ commitment to people who were often marginalized in his culture, like women, children, and Gentiles. Jesus went out of his way to encourage, hang out with, and even heal those who had no power or money to offer him. This is God’s way of showing his trustworthy commitment to people while pointing out the problems with man-made systems and cultures.

God’s complete commitment and loyalty to all of humanity is what inspires our praise. When we make that “joyful noise,” it’s because we understand the goodness of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

May we make a joyful noise, knowing the fullness of our triune God’s steadfast love and faithfulness.

I’m Jeff Broadnax, Speaking of Life.

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Speaking of Life 5052 | The Heart of the Father

Do you ever notice how often we are drawn into the negative rather than the positive? You give a presentation and several people comment on how helpful it was, but one person tells you it was a waste of his time. Which comment do you spend the most time thinking about? For many of us, we allow the negative to outweigh the positive. We can look at Scripture the same way. Rather than see the blessings of what is being said, we focus on what we perceive as the negative. The parable of the talents in Matthew 25 is a good example of this.

In this parable, Jesus talks about a man who is preparing to go on a journey. He calls his servants in and entrusts part of his property to each one. To one servant he gives 5 talents, to another he gives 2 talents and to the third, he gives 1 talent.

When he returns, the one who had 5 invested wisely, doubled the value and now has 10 talents for the owner. Likewise, the one who has 2 doubled it and now has 4. But the one who had one talent didn’t do anything with the talent, he buried it and simply tried to return it because he implied he was afraid of the owner. I’ve heard many sermons focusing on the unprofitable servant – and certainly, there are lessons there. But we fail to see the good news in this parable. Note how the man responded to the other two servants. 

 And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here, I have made five talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents; here, I have made two talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’

Jesus is showing through this parable that God wants to bless us. He wants us to enter into his joy. He gives us gifts and talents so that we can use them, investing them into relationships, service, and loving others. The result is greater blessings and living in his joy.

What is the Father’s joy? Among other things, being with us, listening to us, walking with us, and loving us because we are his beloved children.

Jesus uses this parable to show us the Father’s heart. He will never force us to love him or use the gifts and talents he gives us, but when we do, he multiplies them beyond our wildest dreams. That’s the heart of the Father.

I’m Greg Williams, Speaking of Life.

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Speaking of Life 5051│You Don’t Have to Be a Girl Scout

I was involved in Girl Scouts when I was younger. Maybe you were a Girl Scout or Boy Scout, too. The motto for Scouts is “Be Prepared.” This reminds me of the way Christians have been warned to be prepared for Christ’s return. One example that’s often cited is the parable of the Ten Bridesmaids where Jesus is telling his disciples what the kingdom of heaven is like.

The story goes like this:

Ten young women took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. When the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. As the bridegroom was delayed, all of them became drowsy and slept. But at midnight there was a shout, ‘Look! Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ Then all those young women got up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ But the wise replied, ‘No! there will not be enough for you and for us; you had better go to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.’ And while they went to buy it, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went with him into the wedding banquet, and the door was shut. Later the other young women came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’ But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I do not know you.’ Keep awake, therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.

Passages like this one have often been plucked from scripture without thinking about them in the context of other direct commandments Jesus said or the way he behaved in the world. This story sounds out of character for Jesus who told us to love and serve others and put them first.

We don’t base theological doctrine on a parable because a parable wasn’t meant to be used that way. It’s a story that offers us the opportunity to consider truth from the point of view of different characters. In this parable, we see that the five bridesmaids who had plenty of oil believed that being self-reliant was more important than helping others. The five bridesmaids who didn’t prepare believed they deserved help from the ones who prepared. I mean, they had fallen asleep, waiting. But what if the parable isn’t about what the bridesmaids should have done or shouldn’t have done? What if it isn’t about the bridesmaids at all? Let’s consider a different perspective.

We assume that the five bridesmaids who ran out of oil are called foolish because they ran out of oil. But what if the reason they’re called foolish is because they listened to the other bridesmaids who told them to go buy more and then ended up missing the wedding? Maybe they were foolish because they forgot who the Bridegroom was and what he was capable of. This bridegroom was The Light of the World, and he didn’t need their lamps. They were foolish because they allowed their shame over running out of oil to drive them to try to fix it, and thus they missed the wedding banquet.

When the Bridegroom says, “I don’t know you,” he’s also saying that they didn’t really know him. And this is part of the lesson of this parable. When we focus on Jesus, we know he is the one who makes us enough. He is the light we need when our own lamps run low. He is sufficient.

May we be blessed with the understanding that we are made whole and enough in Christ.

I’m Michelle Fleming, Speaking of Life.

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Speaking of Life 5050 | Expect the Unexpected

We typically don’t like the unexpected. We don’t like it when our car unexpectedly refuses to turn over, or our computer unexpectedly crashes. Worse, an unexpected loss of employment creates great turmoil and loss of personal confidence. And we certainly don’t like unexpected health difficulties. But these are the realities we face, and we quickly learn to expect the unexpected along with all the frustration and heartache it can bring.

However, not all things unexpected are bad. An unexpected gift or raise can turn a sour day around in a hurry. I’m sure we can all remember with joy some unexpected blessing that came our way, large or small.

So, here’s a question. What should we expect from the Lord? Is he full of unexpected surprises?

The biblical witness seems to present… well, an unexpected answer to that question. We are presented with a God who is unchanging, yet, at the same time, full of unexpected surprises.

Listen to Psalm 107 the paradox of God’s unchanging nature described by images of unexpected natural events.

“Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man! Let them extol him in the congregation of the people, and praise him in the assembly of the elders.

He turns rivers into a desert, springs of water into thirsty ground, a fruitful land into a salty waste, because of the evil of its inhabitants. He turns a desert into pools of water, a parched land into springs of water. And there he lets the hungry dwell, and they establish a city to live in; they sow fields and plant vineyards and get a fruitful yield.”

Psalm 107:31-37 (ESV)

It’s interesting how the psalmist refers to the Lord’s steadfast love but then equates that steadfastness with images of great reversals. It appears that the Lord is steadfast in bringing the unexpected. But did you notice the direction of the unexpected? It was always for blessing. We can expect the rivers of evil to run dry, while also expecting the deserts of his children to become fruitful.

With God, there is always good news ahead. Rivers run dry, but he refills them. Deserts become springs of water. Sinners become believers and followers of Christ. It’s easy to look around and get discouraged at the state of the world, so Jesus tells us to lift our eyes and gaze upon him. He is the restorer of all things. He is the one who works his blessings in unexpected ways.

As we wind down the season of Ordinary Time and enter the season of Advent, let’s continually look to him and learn to expect the unexpected. Ordinary Time ends with Christ the King Sunday – and no one expected the King of kings to enter our world as he did. God loves to surprise with the unexpected – it’s part of the mystery of who he is. 

I’m Greg Williams, Speaking of Life.

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Speaking of Life 5049│CliffsNotes About Love

You may have used CliffsNotes as a student to help you get a better grasp of your coursework. They are study guides that summarize different subjects, like organic chemistry, US history, and classic works of literature. If you had three classic novels to read in a short time, you probably used CliffsNotes to help you understand the most important points. You may have even unsuccessfully tried to get away with using CliffsNotes as a substitute for actually reading those classic works of literature. Guilty!

Distilling the most important concepts into easy-to-remember bites can help us learn. We read in Matthew 22 that the Pharisees were interested in what Jesus considered the most important points of the law, though their motives were to test him rather than to learn from him. Jesus’ response helps us to understand the role that love plays in the keeping of the law, and in our relationship with God and other people:

When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, an expert in the law, asked him a question to test him.  “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?”  He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’  This is the greatest and first commandment.  And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

 Jesus’ response comes from two sources, Deuteronomy 6:4-5, and Leviticus 19:18, and it highlights that the law is based on our response to God and to others. Jesus said all the law and prophets hang on these two commandments; they are the CliffsNotes to how to respond to God and how to respond to others – with love.

Jesus added to this in the Upper Room with his disciples when he told them he was giving them a new commandment – to love others as he loves us. In this case, it’s not about the law and the prophets, it’s about relationship.

This is another of God’s CliffsNotes; this one summarizes how to be in the right relationship with others.  

Where does this love come from? From the author of all love – God himself.

Jesus’ new commandment, “Love others as I have loved you.” Moves beyond the law and the prophets and tells us to love without expectations. To walk alongside people, to encourage them, to provide healing and comfort for them, because we are connected to the Source, a God who is love. When we put others first – just like Jesus did for us – we are fulfilling the two great commandments and the new commandment.

 As we feel the love from God, for God, for others, and even for ourselves, may we be blessed with a greater understanding of Love’s embrace as we pursue a deeper relationship with the triune God and other people.

I’m Jeff Broadnax, Speaking of Life.

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Speaking of Life 5048 | No Exception to the Rule

The Main Ingredient was an American soul and R&B band best known for their hit song, “Everybody Plays the Fool.” Although the song is about unrequited love, its refrain alone speaks to us all.

“Everybody plays the fool sometime

That’s hard to argue with. I’m sure we can all remember some scenario of being played a fool. It comes with a feeling of shame and embarrassment along with the real cost we had to pay for falling for some deceitful scheme. An experienced con artist or unscrupulous salesperson has claimed many a victim with their devious tactics. Sooner or later, the song will prove to be true, “Everybody plays the fool sometime.”

However, for the Christian, we know the song is not completely true. There does stand among us one “exception to the rule.” And that exception is our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Jesus knew we would be no match for the deceit and fraud of the devil. So, he stands in for us as the one who does not play the fool.

One Gospel story illustrates this with Jesus being put in a no-win spot. It begins with the Pharisees and the Herodians conspiring together; these are two groups who are typically opposed to one another. They device a trick question about paying the Roman tax that will put Jesus walking a tightrope between the Roman authorities and the Jewish people.

After an attempt to butter Jesus up with flattery, they lay out their trick question. Let’s listen in to see how Jesus answers:

“Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why put me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the coin for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. And Jesus said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” They said, “Caesar’s.” Then he said to them, “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” When they heard it, they marveled. And they left him and went away.”

Notice first that Jesus was not tricked. He was aware of their intent to trap him. We often only become aware by hindsight. He then calls them out for who they are, “hypocrites.” Jesus is not afraid to call out those who yield power and influence.

Jesus has answered in a way that avoids being accused of subversion to the Roman empire, while at the same time affirming the Jewish belief of the allegiance that only belongs to the One in whose image they are made.

And he does all this while presenting us with the choice we must all make. Do we give ourselves over to the manipulating, and deceitful ways of this world, or do we give ourselves to Jesus, God’s own Son who is our High Priest?

In the end, we can trust that our High Priest will walk back all the former times that we played the fool, redeeming us and leaving us in amazement as well. And on this note the song rings true: There’s no exception to the rule.

I’m Greg Williams, Speaking of Life.

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Speaking of Life 5047 | Acknowledging God’s Faithfulness

Last year I adopted two golden retriever puppies, Bumi and Zuko. One of the most endearing things they do is greet me with all their excitement when I return home. They’ll run up to me wagging their tails, then run around looking for toys to bring me. Sometimes I’ll even let them be a little naughty and jump on me in their excitement.

On the flip side of their warm welcomes home, they struggled for many months whenever I left. Sometimes they would bark for up to ten minutes after I left the house before they settled down. Bumi would even start whining and barking if I walked into the other room. They became anxious when they couldn’t see me. It took them some time for them to learn that I would always return – I will never abandon them.

There is a story in the book of Exodus where Moses goes up to Mt. Horeb to meet with God. It seems to the Israelites that Moses is taking his sweet time and so they start to grow restless. Perhaps, something has happened to him, they wonder.

In the 106th Psalm, the psalmist writes a song about this, highlighting the failure of the Israelites to trust God, despite all that he had previously done for them.

At Horeb they made a calf and worshipped an idol cast from metal. They exchanged their glorious God for an image of a bull, which eats grass. They forgot the God who saved them, who had done great things in Egypt, miracles in the land of Ham and awesome deeds by the Red Sea. Psalms 106:19-22

Rather than waiting for Moses to return, the Israelites decided to take matters into their own hands. They created a false image of God and his character rather than trusting in God’s unchanging continual care for them.

In times of uncertainty, we can become anxious. We may be tempted to trust in things that we find around us to give us comfort. We look to created things rather than to our Creator for hope and meaning but our true comfort comes from Christ and his continual commitment to us.

Have you possibly fashioned idols in your life while growing impatient in seeing God work in and through you?

Remember when God has shown himself faithful to you. Where you have seen his provision, his grace, and his deliverance from difficult circumstances.

Return to these altars as memorials that the Father sees you, he sees Christ in you, and you in Christ. You never have to fear his return as he has promised to never leave you in the first place, but promises to live with you, and in you, by his Spirit.

Go ahead, feel elated, and jump up on the Master of your soul. Let him know how glad you are to know that you can trust in his continual faithfulness.

I’m Cara Garrity, Speaking of Life.

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Speaking of Life 5046 | Trash and Treasure

You’ve heard the phrase, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. There are numerous stories of people purchasing something at a rummage sale that proved to be quite valuable. I collect coins, and I’ve been fortunate to find a few coins that someone else has discarded because they didn’t see the value in the coin.

Jesus tells a parable to a group of chief priests and Jewish elders about people destroying something valuable because they didn’t know its worth. In this parable, the thing of value is a person. The parable is in Matthew 21 , and Jesus talks about a landowner who built a vineyard and then leased the vineyard to some tenants. When harvest time came, he decided to send some servants to collect his portion of the harvest. The tenants killed the servants. He sent more servants, and they killed them as well. Finally, he decided to send his son, saying, “They will respect my son.” But the tenants killed the son as well. Jesus then asked these religious leaders the following:

Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time.”

Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the scriptures: ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is amazing in our eyes’? “Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces its fruits. 

Matthew 21:40-43 (NRSVUA)

Jesus’ parable, of course, is a summary of God’s relationship with Israel and Judah. He sent a number of prophets to his beloved people to encourage them to return to him, and these prophets were often tortured and killed. The religious leaders were quite familiar with their history. Jesus was letting them know that he knew his future, that he would be killed by the very people God chose so many generations before. And shortly after delivering this parable, the Jewish leaders did just what the parable predicted, they killed the one sent to deliver them.

And the rest of Jesus’ words also came to pass. Killing Jesus did not bring them the victory they might have anticipated, instead, it started a kingdom work that is still going and still growing.

Beginning with Abraham, God gave the opportunity to a few to participate with him in showing others who he truly is – a Father who loves his children. Later he chose the nation of Israel and told them they were chosen to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. We know the history. They continued to rebel and disobey God to the point that they rejected the very Son of God and crucified him.  

In this parable, Jesus is telling them they are no longer the ones God entrusts to share his kingdom’s message of mercy and grace. Now the message has been entrusted to those who believe – Jew and Gentile, slave and free, male and female – all who believe and follow Jesus. 

Others may look down on us because of whom we follow; they don’t see the value of being a believer. They might see what they consider trash. But God sees treasure, and he has invited you and me to participate in his kingdom work – sharing the love and life of Jesus with others. May we live as the treasured of God and bear the kind of fruit that brings glory to him.

I’m Greg Williams, Speaking of Life.

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Speaking of Life 5045│ Undercover Jesus

There’s a TV show called Undercover Boss.  Maybe you’ve watched it before. The show revolves around a high-ranking executive or business owner who goes undercover as an entry-level employee in their own company, taking an alias, changing their appearance, and making up a back story. These undercover bosses work in different locations with their unsuspecting employees, and they learn a lot about their own business and their employees.

If we think about Jesus’ incarnation, we might compare it to God showing up in an unexpected way. No one would suspect a craftsman from Nazareth with his questionable parentage and birth story. In Matthew 21, an altercation between the chief priests, elders, and Jesus shows us  that they almost blew his cover:

When he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him as he was teaching and said, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?”  Jesus said to them, “I will also ask you one question; if you tell me the answer, then I will also tell you by what authority I do these things.  Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin?” And they argued with one another, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say to us, ‘Why, then, did you not believe him?’  But if we say, ‘Of human origin,’ we are afraid of the crowd, for all regard John as a prophet.”  So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And he said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.”

It might be more accurate to say that they did figure out he was the Son of God undercover, but if they acknowledged that, they might lose their power and authority over the people. Undercover Jesus was not the Messiah they had expected. He didn’t look rich or powerful, and he certainly didn’t exert his authority over the common person as they did. Jesus went out of his way to disrupt their authority. So when Jesus asked them where John got his authority to baptize, they lied and said they didn’t know.

Jesus learned a lot about his people that day, just like undercover bosses learn what it is like to walk a day in their employees’ shoes – their joys and their struggles. The chief priests and elders let their expectations blind them to the Son of God standing right in front of them. Jesus taught that those who repented and turned back toward their Father would be first in the Kingdom of God, while those who stubbornly resisted divine love wouldn’t understand the peace and joy that was theirs all along.

Think about the expectations we have for the way God shows up in the world. Do we resist the peace God wants us to have because we think God should show up in our lives in a certain way? Holding fast to expectations doesn’t allow for the mystery of God to unfold in our lives in the way God deems best. We need to let God do his work in our lives because we can trust that whatever he is doing is for our good. God may be working undercover in ways that are far beyond anything we could imagine.

May we let go of expectations that keep us captive to unhelpful thoughts about the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Instead, may we be open to the mystery, love, joy, and peace of God.        

I’m Michelle Fleming, Speaking of Life.

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Speaking of Life 5044 | God’s Generosity

I grew up in apple country. My grandparents and my parents owned apple orchards, and each year we would hire laborers during harvest time to pick and pack apples. We paid a fair wage, and we rarely had trouble finding laborers. Sometimes a worker had to leave early or start late for some unforeseen reason, and I sometimes saw my dad or my grandfather pay them a full day’s wage anyway. Still, I’m not sure I ever saw them do the practice we read about in the book of Matthew.

In chapter 20, Jesus tells an interesting parable to illuminate the kingdom of God. He spoke about a landowner who sought to hire workers to labor in his vineyard. Similar to when I was young, day laborers at that time would gather at a central location and wait to be hired. The landowner hired his first batch of apple-pickers early in the morning, around 6:00, and agreed to pay them a denarius, which was the typical daily wage for work like this. He went out and hired workers at 9:00, 12:00, 3:00, and 5:00. When evening came, the landowner decided to pay all of the workers, starting with the last hired. Seeing that the landowner paid those hired at 5:00 a denarius, those hired first expected to be paid more. When they also received a denarius, they began to complain. Those hired at 5:00 only worked one hour yet were paid the same wage as those who worked for 12 hours in the hot sun. In Matthew 20, we read the interesting response of the landowner in Jesus’ story: 

But he answered one of them, “I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?”

A lot is going on in this story. The one central lesson is that God, the landowner is good, gracious, and generous to all of his servants. This is the triune God’s nature, all the time.

The concept of human fairness is brought into question. How can a laborer who worked just one hour get the same pay as a laborer who worked 12 hours? The story is not really about labor laws and fair wages. It is about a personal God who offers grace and salvation to all.

Let me ask a strange question – “Are grace and salvation better for me than they are for you?” There are no degrees of separation, and Jesus’ teachings always deflate the notion of a competition or contest.

The landowner has space and rewards for all. As Jesus assured his followers, “In my house are many mansions.”

I’m Greg Williams, Speaking of Life.

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