Mark 13:24-37 contains a remarkable word from Jesus. Three times He calls the people either to “Keep on the alert” or “be on the alert” (vs. 33, 35, 37). These things He says in the context of a promise that the Son of Man is going to come “with great power and glory” (vs. 26). At that time He says He will “gather together His elect from the four winds” (vs. 27).

Sounds like a very special day in history, doesn’t it! One you won’t want to miss. It will be a day of great joy from some, a day reckoning for some, and a great day of revelation when the world will know that Jesus Christ is who He says He is. And, what do we do until that day? We stay alert. The One who comes into human history as an infant born in a stable will come again into human history as the One before whom all history bows. It’s going to be quite a day.

The baby born in Bethlehem, now an adult, ready to go to the cross and die for the sins of the world, tells His people to stay alert, not to be lulled into complacency, and always to remember that even though heaven and earth will pass away, His words will not pass away (vs.31).

In these days when everything Christian is under assault and Jesus is being marginalized into unimportance, be alert and don’t buy into the lies and fabrications. The world will do to Jesus what it has always done to Jesus. It will nail Him to a cross. And, Jesus will do what He always does. He will burst out of the tombs into which the world lays Him, and He will come forth alive, embracing with redemptive love the very world that killed Him.

Whether or not the world will receive His love is its issue, but make no mistake about it; while heaven and earth are passing away, His “words will not pass away.”

Amen. Come Lord Jesus.

In Matthew chapter 25, Jesus indicates to us that those who know Him best will be the most involved in works of mercy and compassion. He reveals how important it is to him for His followers to do certain kinds of things such as feed the hungry, give water to the thirsty, embrace the stranger, clothe the naked, visit the sick, and to come alongside the prisoner. Holiness in action, that is the lifestyle to which He calls His people.

Interestingly enough, Jesus equates these works of mercy as ministry to Him. When we embrace others we are embracing Jesus. When we extend mercy to others it is as if we are extending mercy to Jesus. And, get this; many times we don’t even know it is Jesus we are touching by our act of love.

What a freeing thought. We live out our lives in the spirit of holiness, a spirit that is so gracious that we treat everybody the same and all people as if they were Jesus to us. It’s real, honest and non-discriminatory outrageous grace lavished on others. Why would we do this? Because this is the way God has come to us. Outrageous grace has been lavished on us by the life of Jesus and so we lavish grace on others.

It makes perfect sense. Often we sing a song that says, “O to be like Thee, Blessed Redeemer.” Well, Jesus is about outrageous grace, extended to whomever crosses His path. O to be like Thee? Really? Then feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, visit the sick, visit the prisoner. We are never more like Jesus than when we do these kinds of things. And, remember, He said, “to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of mine, even the least of them you did it to Me” (Matt. 25:40).

Don’t you just love the Christian life and the fact that when we embrace others we are embracing Jesus? When we extend mercy to others it is as if we are extending mercy to Jesus Christ Himself.

In I Chronicles 12:32 we learn of certain men who “understood the times, with knowledge of what Israel should do…” They were able to assess the times and conditions facing Israel and offer words of true wisdom and counsel. Where are those “sons of Issachar” today?

What times these are in which we live, times known for many things: uncertainty, ideological worlds in blatant contrast, violence, tension. Call it what we will, the truth is that the world seems to be split down the middle on just about every issue that comes before it.

Some believers are convinced that things are so bad now that Jesus must be coming back very, very soon. I’m not so sure; and even if He is I pray He might tarry a bit longer because the world is in desperate need of His grace.

Be that as it may, in I Thessalonians Paul says, “as to the times and the epochs …let us be alert and sober” (vs. 1, 6). We don’t know when Jesus is coming back, just that He is coming back. This should not frighten us or destabilize our lives. In fact, Paul said of this upcoming and certain event, “Encourage one another and build up one another…” (vs. 11).

Don’t be lulled to sleep or overly preoccupied with when Jesus might come back. Just know that He is, and then go about your life as sons and daughters “of light” (vs. 6). Live and move and have your being in the Lordship of Jesus, having “put on the breastplate of faith and love and as a helmet, the hope of salvation” (vs. 8).

What do we have to say to a stressed out world? We say, “Jesus.” We live the life of faith and hope and love, leaning on the One who is Lord of heaven and earth. We live for the One who died for us” (vs.10). So, be alert and sober, and encourage one another” (vs. 6, 11). It is a great time to be alive for Christ.

I am intrigued with the politically incorrect posture popularly referred to as intolerance. In this tightly constructed worldview intolerance is the new unforgivable sin, punishable by character assassination or disenfranchisement from the community or, my favorite, made to look like an idiot in the eyes of the so-called tolerant.

In Matthew 25:1-13 we have ourselves a problem. We have Jesus exercising intolerance. How? He says that in this world there are foolish and prudent people. He drew a line and said basically if people were on one side of the line they were foolish and if they were on the other side of the line they were prudent. That is a value judgment on His part, separating people on they basis of their judgments, deeds and attitudes thus making the Savior of the world intolerant.

Or is He? Perhaps He is being truthful and that truth itself draws lines. Perhaps people in this world make decisions that in the end disconnect them from God. They are disconnected not because others are in tolerant. but because they, themselves, draw the line, and disenfranchise themselves.

Take note, too, that in Jesus parable both the foolish and the wise are invited to the wedding feast. No one is left out except those who foolishly refuse to the things necessary to be a part of the festivities. When the party started the foolish were out shopping, preoccupied with activities born of their foolishness.

Moral? “Be on the alert, for you do not know the day nor the hour” (Matt. 25:13). The Bridegroom is on His way. When He gets here will we be ready for Him or out shopping for what we should have already had? Wise or foolish, that’s our issue.

The passionate desire of the apostle Paul for the church in Thessalonica was, in his words to them, “that you would walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory” (I Thes. 2:12). Of this longing for them he said, “we were exhorting and encouraging and imploring each one of you as a father would his own children” (I Thes. 2:11).

Christians are a called people. They are called out of one world into God’s “own kingdom and glory.” Can we get our minds around this? In this world of ours Christians are called to live as citizens of God’s kingdom and glory. This is what defines being Christian.

God has spoken His world into our lives and, like the believers in Thessalonica, by a grace we most likely don’t fully understand, we “accepted it…for what it really is, the word of God” (I Thes 2:13). That word lives in us and, as Paul says, “performs its work in you who believe” (I Thes. 2:13).

Our lives, as Christians, are being worked on by the living Word of God. Is this not a marvelous thing? God’s word “performs its work,” in a hundred or more different ways. We call it mercy, hope, love, power, divine intervention, comfort. Call it what we will in the end it is simply and profoundly, “Amazing Grace.”

What was it the poet said? “O to grace how great a debtor daily I’m constrained to be.”

Once upon a time the apostle Paul planted a church in the city of Thessalonica. Before the new church became established, however, Paul was forced to leave the city because of great hostility from people who were not receptive to the Gospel. In time Paul heard what was going on in the life of the new church, and He was thrilled.

They had a reputation. They were known for their “work of faith,” their “labor of love,” and “the steadfastness of hope” they had in “our Lord Jesus Christ” (I Thes. 1:3). They had received the Gospel “in much tribulation” but they received it “with the joy of the Holy Spirit” (I Thes. 1:6). God had taken hold of that church and in spite of it’s rough beginning “the word of the Lord … sounded forth from them” (I Thes. 1:8). Theirs is a remarkable story of God and of an open and faithful people who allowed God to be God in their midst.

Every church has it’s own story and not every issue is repeatable in other situations. Yet, for every local church to be faithful to what God is calling forth in it, one thing must be present; that church must be willing to let God be God in the midst her people. This is non-negotiable. If this isn’t happening then that church isn’t really a church.

A key question for every local congregation might just be, “What does it mean in our Faith community for God to be God here?” From there a congregation might go in many different directions.; but, until God is allowed to be God in the midst, every thing else will be an exercise in futility.

We are citizens of many relationships: family, work, school, community, state, country. There is a sense in which we have loyalty to all these relationship, a loyalty that issues into responsibility and duty.

There is a concern, however. In the end we followers of Jesus are citizens of only one relationship. The Bible says, “Our citizenship is in heaven” (Phil 3:20). All other citizenships are defined by this one citizenship.

It is our relationship with God in Christ that defines who we are. It is God who holds ultimate authority in our lives, an authority that defines how we relate in all other relationships.

This is a huge because we live in a world where there are, in fact, many people who “are enemies of the cross of Christ” (Phil. 3:18). Not every one feels about Jesus the way you and I feel about Him. Many of these folks hold positions of authority in the many relationships we have. Because of this we cannot afford to see ourselves as anything less than citizens of the King we serve.

In fact, we are citizens of heaven living in “enemy occupied territory,” according to C. S. Lewis. In that light it is important that we keep the communication channels open with the One for whom we live. We can’t afford to get our loyalties confused or our relationships cluttered with distractions.

Make no mistake about it, too; there are distractions everywhere and if we aren’t careful we can get caught up in lesser things, and find ourselves in a place where Jesus is just one loyalty among many loyalties. However, may it never be. For us, Jesus is Lord, and no one else. ~~~ no one.

Our faith says that Jesus Christ is Lord, and this is the one fact upon which we build our lives. And, it’s not simply that Jesus is Lord; it’s how He is Lord.

The apostle Paul tells us that this One who “existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with a God a thing to be grasped” (Phil. 2:6). This alone speaks volumes but there is more. This One “emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant (Phil. 2:7). That pushes the envelope a bit, doesn’t it? God becomes a servant. In what universe does a god become a servant? In our universe gods have servants making over them twenty-four seven. They don’t serve; instead, they are served.

Jesus comes to us as the One who serves, and He served all the way to Calvary where He died on a cross. A God who dies on behalf of his kingdom, that’s strange, too, isn’t it? In our universe people all over the kingdoms are dying for the kings and the kingdoms. In the economy of Jesus only one has to die, and that One is the King Himself.

Because of the kind of Lord Jesus is it is said of Him that “God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name” (Phil. 2:9). This is true to such a degree that Paul says someday “every knee will bow….and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord…” (Phil. 2:11).

And, exactly why are we told all these things? Because we are called to have the same attitude in ourselves that was in Christ Jesus (Phil. 2:5). As He emptied Himself let us empty ourselves and live so as to reflect that the One we say is Lord is the One who comes to us as Servant.

Paul’s testimony was clear and concise: “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Phil. 1:21). He believed that if he died he would “be with Christ” (vs. 23) and that if he lived it would “mean fruitful labor” (vs. 22). He was willing to accept whatever came his way and he would leave that decision to God.

I suppose, in the end, we do whatever our faith calls us to do, and leave outcome decisions to God. Our role is faithfulness. It is up to God as to where our faithfulness leads. It might mean death and to be with Christ now or it might mean life and continued ministry in the name of the One to whom we have entrusted everything.

To live in this world, according to Paul, is to conduct oneself in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ (see Phil. 1:27). For him this means “standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel” (vs. 28). If we die, we go to be with Jesus. If we live, we go on to live together “standing firm…in one spirit…with one mind…striving together.”

Faithfulness is not about isolated and private obedience. It is about “striving together…for the faith of the gospel.”

On the way to heaven we really ought to conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel, and we really ought to do it TOGETHER.

Don’t you want to be a part of a community of people who are standing firm together and who are striving together for the faith of the gospel? Sure sounds like the place I want to be. Sounds like the people of whom I want to be apart.

Jesus explains grace in such a way that one must conclude it is simply outrageous. It seems that a certain debtor owed a creditor more money than most of us will see in a lifetime -- ten thousand talents. Doesn't compute in my brain until we see that one talent was an amount exceeding a fifteen-year salary. Fifteen years of income multiplied by ten thousand. You do the math. It's outrageous, ludicrous, and absurd. And, you know what? The creditor had mercy and forgave the entire debt. Talk about winning the lottery without buying a ticket. This is huge.

Then, this forgiven but incredibly ungrateful man goes out and finds somebody who owes him one hundred denarii, about three months wages, demands his money, seizes the man, begins to choke him, demanding "Pay back what you owe" (Matt. 18:21-25). And, Jesus then makes it known that He is not a happy camper and says that if this is the game the man wants to play, so be it, but he will receive the punishment due one who was forgiven so much but who forgave so little; and off he went to the place where he would be held to the strictest accountability until his ten thousand talents were paid in full.

God stuns us by His outrageous generosity and then calls us to live in our worlds in that same outrageous generosity. Do you know who Christians are? They are people who have been stunned by God's amazing grace and then live stunning others by extending grace.

Don't you just love living for Jesus!

True Life in community is a tricky thing, including the community of those who believe Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. Life in His community means a corporate uniting of individual “living stones” into “a spiritual house for a holy priesthood (See I Peter 2:1-10). Individuality is not Lord here. Rather, Jesus is Lord; and, it is His life in the midst of the community that makes the community what it is.

St. Francis said it was in dying that we find eternal life. In that light, it is in living, not selfishly but for the sake of the community of Jesus, that we find ourselves. It is together we pray and fellowship and work and praise and honor God. We are on the journey together. We’re not Lone Rangers; we are the fellowship of the redeemed.

Jesus said, “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am in there in their midst” (Matt. 18:20). A community of two becomes a community of three because Jesus is there, and community of three becomes a community of four because Jesus is there IN THEIR MIDST.

Is it too much to ask that we live empty of self indulgence and filled with the Spirit of God so that Jesus may be in our midst? After all, isn’t it the presence and influence of Jesus we all seek?

Come, Lord Jesus. Come into the midst of your people.

We human beings are so tied into ourselves that it becomes a challenge to table our interests on behalf of "God's interests" (Matt. 16:23). Yet, Jesus calls us to do just this. And, apparently, Jesus feels very strongly about this because when the apostle Peter set his mind on man's interest, even if to do so would spare Jesus death on the cross, Jesus shot back, "Get behind me, Satan" (Matt. 16:2). That's a pretty heavy retort, don't you think? And, Jesus went from this retort into the language of each disciple denying himself, taking up his cross, and following Jesus into whatever it might mean to carry the cross.

Jesus saw this discussion as one of deep spiritual matters, soul matters, where people must decide what is more important, their soul or their interests. Most people choose interests over soul, and consequently the world is comprised of people who want what they want when they want it, and if they don't get it, then they will find a way to get it anyway.

There are some who choose the way of the cross. To them nothing in this world matters as much as do the interests of God. They long never to be a stumbling block to what God is seeking to do in the world. They have taken up their cross and are honestly seeking be all that Jesus would have them be.

God bless them; and may their tribe increase.

Sometimes Jesus is hard to grasp, and maybe that’s the way it should be because it is far too easy to put Him in our theological confinements and forget that we’re not in charge. Case in point, a Canaanite woman who thunders into Jesus world one day, crying out for a mercy that would heal her daughter of a condition she called, “cruelly demon-possessed” (Matt. 15:22).

To the surprise of those of us who believe Jesus trips all over Himself to help people, He doesn’t answer her. To make matters worse the disciples implored Jesus to send her away. So we have a woman who is crying out and disciples who are imploring, and a Savior who responds to the situation uncharacteristically.

The woman refuses to give up, leading Jesus to explain to her that his mission was to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and that it wasn’t’ good to take the children’s food and give it to dogs (Matt. 15:24-26). It didn’t matter, this woman had a child in need and, chosen or not, she needed God. This persistence caught Jesus’ attention and he exclaimed to her that her faith was great, and that her daughter would be healed.

Isn't that amazing? A woman from the wrong side of the tracks becomes a role model for faith. My response to this is, “You go girl! May your tribe in increase.”

Give grace a chance. This simple challenge has been in my thinking. How do we live in such a way that we are giving grace a chance, an opportunity, to fill the lives of people and the situations in which they find themselves? How do we go about daily giving grace a chance to work its wonderful work in our lives? As followers of Jesus we ought to be so very excited about the grace of God that we cannot imagine living without sharing the life of our Lord with each other and with those who live among us.

You don't have to live in my world very long to know that I am a USC Trojan football fan. Don't ever say anything negative about coach, Pete Carroll, and don't ever make fun of Traveler, the noble white horse that appears at all SC home games with a regal Trojan warrior astride, Are we clear???????

Sometimes I wonder how long people have to be around me to know that I am a fan, a disciple, of Jesus Christ. I hope not too long, for He is more important to me than anything else in the world.

How about you? Do you let people know that you follow Jesus? I hope so. In fact, I hope that you will find a way to invite people into the fellowship of Jesus' church. Let them know that He is here for them and that you are here for them, too.

GIVE GRACE A CHANCE.

Here is a great thought to think. It comes from African-American poet James Weldon Johnson in his poem, "The Creation"

"Up from the bed of the river
God scooped the clay;
And by the bank of the river
He kneeled him down;
And there the Great God Almighty
Who lit the sun and fixed it in the sky,
Who flung the stars to the most far corner of the night,
Who rounded the earth in the middle of his hand;
This Great God,
Like a mammy bending over her baby,
Kneeled down in the dust
Toiling over a lump of clay
Till he shaped it in his own image...."

"Let the Church of the Nazarene be true to its commission; not great and elegant buildings; but to feed the hungry and clothe the naked and wipe away the tears of sorrowing and gather jewels for His diadem. We want places so plain that every board will say welcome to the poorest."

General Superintendent Phineas F. Bresee,
in a sermon preached on January 15, 1902

Here is a wonderful word from Henri Nouwen. It comes from the June 10, 2008 Daily Meditation

He calls it, Empowered to Be, and Nouwen hits the mark as he so often does.

Who are we? Are we what we do? Are we what others say about us? Are we the power we have? It often seems that way in our society. But the Spirit of Jesus given to us reveals our true spiritual identities. The Spirit reveals that we belong not to a world of success, fame, or power but to God. The world enslaves us with fear; the Spirit frees us from that slavery and restores us to the true relationship. That is what Paul means when he says: "All who are guided by the Spirit of God are sons [daughters] of God, for what you received was not the spirit of slavery to bring you back into fear; you received the spirit of adoption, enabling us to cry out, 'Abba, Father!'" (Romans 8:15).

Who are we? We are God's beloved sons and daughters!

Here is an insight worth talking about over coffee and maybe even grappling a bit with in the process of spiritual formation. It is from Barbara Brown Taylor’s book, Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith.

“I know that the Bible is a special kind of book, but I find it as seductive as any other. If I am not careful, I can begin to mistake the words on the page for the realities they describe. I can begin to love the dried ink marks on the page more than I love the encounters that gave rise to them. If I am not careful, I can decide that I am really much happier reading my Bible than I am entering into what God is doing in my own time and place, since shutting the book to go outside will involve the very great risk of taking part in stories that are still taking shape.”

May I pass along this wonderful prayer of A. W. Tozer

Lord, I would trust You completely; I would be altogether Yours; I would exalt You above all. I desire that I may feel no sense of possessing anything outside of You. I want constantly to be aware of Your overshadowing Presence and to hear Your speaking Voice. I long to live in restful sincerity of heart. I want to live so fully in the Spirit that all my thought may be as sweet incense ascending to You and every act of my life may be an act of worship. Therefore, I pray in the words of Your great servant of old, ‘I invite You to cleanse the intent of my heart with the unspeakable gift of Your grace, that I may perfectly love You and worthily praise You.’ And all this I confidently believe You will grant me through the merits of Jesus Christ Your Son. Amen.

The Gospel is about the life of Jesus in the life of His new creation. In Christ the Church lives and moves and has its being. In Christ, the Church is formed and shaped by the cross, and in that cross the Church finds the meaning and depth of her existence.

We Christians don't live for ourselves or for our own personal agendas. God's agenda is the most important thing in all the world to those of us who seek to carry Jesus' cross with Him, and we live for God regardless of what it might or might not personally mean to us in our private lives.

Jesus calls us to a faithfulness that lives in response to God and to what God is doing in the world. Our question is not, "what's in it for me?" but rather, "What does it mean for us to lose our lives for the sake of the One who both created and redeems us?" What's in it for God? What's in it for the kingdom? What's in it for the Church?

Like queen Esther of old, we come to each day released to the fact that we may perish but even if we do we know that God is present and at work, at that His will, shall be accomplished. This puts everything in perspective and releases us to let go of any and all distractions, and to live in the "good, acceptable and perfect will of God" (Rom. 12:2).

Take up the cross and follow Jesus into that which is good, acceptable and perfect.