Lamb Theology: An Introduction

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Hello, my name is Jon Bauman, and Welcome to my blog: Lamb Theology.

The mission and purpose of lambtheology.com is to present theological thoughts dealing with classic doctrines, new ideas, Christian living, and other various topics all through the lens and revelation of Christ – The Lamb of God; taking seriously His teachings, actions, and commandments and applying them at large, and in our everyday life.

Please subscribe, comment, and join me on this journey of faith and thought.

**The views expressed in this personal blog may not necessarily reflect the views of the church I am a part of, or the denomination in which it is in**

Finding God in the Ashes

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David defeated Goliath. 

He spared King Saul’s life when he had the chance to take it.

He was a man said to be great in the art of war, and in crafting worship songs.
He ruled his Kingdom as a King and surrendered to God. 

Upon his legacy would come a messiah who is said to rule like him.

It is said that he was a man after God’s own heart.


And yet, how the mighty have fallen.

Looking from the placement of his authority, he saw Bathsheba bathing on the roof, as recorded in 2 Samuel 11.  He had his men bring her to him, and after he had gotten her pregnant, he had her husband killed by placing him in harms way on the battlefield.

A man who claimed to follow God, who wrote beautiful songs to sing to God, had become a villain; he had become like the man whom he spared the life of before…he sought to kill another man because of his own mistakes and pride, he became like King Saul…and he used his position of power to treat Bathsheba like someone to be used and discarded.

How could this have happened? 

On Palm Sunday, every year, we wave palm branches and sing, say, and shout “Hallelujah!” as we remember the scene when Jesus rode into Jerusalem in his final week.

But in that week for that crowd that lined the road, and in our own year since that Palm Sunday, some began to realize that Jesus is not who we may have thought that he was…

Maybe we wanted a Jesus who would take all of our enemies away from us

Maybe we wanted a Jesus who would tell us we’re doing a great job, no matter what

Maybe we wanted a Jesus who gave us comfort, but not direction

Maybe we wanted a Jesus who would leave the darkness that he found in our hearts alone. 

Suddenly those palm branches that we had waved in Joy have been left on a shelf, like those in the scriptures had likely left them in the road.

It’s easy to forget our praise-filled hallelujah when we meet either struggle, success, or busyness. 

When we face the struggle of hardship, we turn to God for help, but can become disappointed when God does not respond how we would like him to respond. 

When we are confronted with our struggle against sin, it is easy to either abandon the call of Christ to overcome temptation, or to allow our sin to have the power to condemn us; drawing us away from God.

When we have had moments of great success in our lives, it is easy to forget the God who was with us in our low moments, and we may begin to not see a need to seek God’s guidance on our lives. We may begin to see ourselves as important, and God, religion, and faith, as not as important.

Or sometimes, we just get busy. It’s not that we don’t want to spend time with god, it’s just that we’ve been distracted and exhausted, and like that friend that we’ve been meaning to spend time with, we need to put something on the calendar, or it won’t happen anytime soon.

David did not see the problem in what he had done; at least not the weight of it.  It took the prophet Nathan telling him a falsified story about one of his subjects to get David riled up about an offense that he himself had done, but had convinced himself was okay.

When it all finally clicked, it is said that he wrote Psalm 51 as a response.

This psalm, unlike the glorious and happy songs he had already written, is strikingly honest about the feeling of acknowledging that we are in need of God, especially at our lowest moments, when we just want God to look away from what we have done, to look away from the path that we had abandoned.

But it is also a song of hope; hope found in longing for God to take our mess, and to make us clean.  To take our brokenness, and draw us close to mend us. Because no matter how many church services we go to, or no matter how much money we put in the offering plate, what God desires most…is our heart that acknowledges that we need God.

Because even when the best of our intentions fail, when life gets in the way, and when the praises in our heart have felt abandoned, and when our life seems to be reduced to ash, though we waved the palms of hallelujah before… There remains the hope of God. 

The message of Ash Wednesday is striking: One day, we will all die. One day, you will die.

“Remember you are but dust, and to dust, you shall return”. 

But the dust or the grave is not all there is for us after this life is over.

All who follow Christ are marked to inherit the Kingdom of Heaven; where life will be fuller and richer than this life that we live now. 

That’s why the ashes that mark the foreheads of those you may see today, or those upon you, are in the shape of the cross; Because through the cross of Christ, we have hope in Death, because of the power of the Resurrection.

May we use this day as a reminder to draw closer to the God who walks alongside of us, who calls us to leave the allure of power, pride, lust, greed, and other sins, and to dedicate or re-dedicate our lives to the following of the Way of Jesus Christ.

We are but dust, and to dust, we shall return. 

Amen.

Learning to Rest – Reflections on the Sabbath

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“Learning to rest is a skill. It is also an act of faith rooted in the belief that God is at work when you are not.”

– Rev. Dr. Esau McCaulley

Being productive feels good, and when you are busy, you feel productive; so many people, including myself, elevate the importance of being busy.  

But what if our need to be busy is counter-productive to our growth as believers in God?

What if our system of assigning value to our days is warped by other people’s expectations of our level of production, rather than whether a day is nourishing to our own life?

The book of genesis starts with a story about God creating all that exists and resting on the 7th day as God proclaimed that what had been created was good. Throughout the years, the followers of God have sought to keep this seventh day as a time to rest and to reflect on the blessings of God.  Although, with the exception of having church services on a Sunday, many of us are only reminded that it is supposed to be a day of rest when we crave something from chic-fil-a and then realize that it is closed. 

I struggle to rest because the idea of resting, to remove myself from what I feel like I have to do for a period of time, causes me to be restless.  The wonders of modern technology allow me to send emails, write sermons, communicate with staff, and review the monthly financial reports from the comfort of my home, on an iPad, or even a cell phone…so why not do a little work right now?  It’ll only take a minute. 

When I go on vacation, I have to deactivate email notifications on my phone, and sometimes remove the app from my phone for that week, just to avoid the temptation to work when I am supposed to be resting. Certainly, there are times when I need to work; emergencies come up, and you have to handle them if no one else is able to, but not many people in my age bracket are good at stopping our work since we have the ability to work on the go with mobile devices, and have been doing so for a large chunk of our career.  Still, I have to force myself to rest on my vacation, and even during my regular week.

 I have to learn that rest is both a skill, and an act of faith. 

When we learn to rest, we are rewiring our brains to acknowledge that some things can wait until later. 

When we learn to rest, we are reorienting our life to be more about our quality of life, and less about our performance in the workforce, or the perfection of our lawn, or house cleaning. 

When we force ourselves to rest, we are surrendering to God the things that we cannot control for the purpose of observing how God is going to meet us in our rest and to show us that God is always at work around us to make what is not good, good. 

So while it’s hard for me to silence some notifications, to step away from my task sheet, to read a book, to spend hours with the bible, in prayer, or in meditative reflection on the beauty of God…if I refuse to see this time that God wants me to have as necessary, then I live as though I doubt that God is powerful enough to handle things while I’m away, taking a nap, or gone fishing. 

As summer comes to a close, vacations tend to lessen until the week of Christmas. School schedules will cause spikes in errands to do, things to order, and times in the car. But we can’t wait several months to rest, even if we take labor day off. We have to remember the Sabbath, and to keep it Holy, because it is when we rest that we realize just how active God has always been. 

Psalms of Lament

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A sermon for November 1, 2020

There was a time when I was in great pain and sorrow.  I was depressed, I was anxious, and life appeared to be hopeless. I was afraid of everything from being able to pay my bills, to thinking about never being able to pursue the life and career I had felt called to, that my dreams were grounded in. 

Many of us have gone through something like this, will go through something like this, or know people who have gone through these seasons of worry, doubt, and fear.

When I was going through this, I spoke to my close friends and family about it, but the most comfort came from people who understood what I went through. The most comfort came not from pat answers, eloquent responses, or encouraging cards, but through simple sounds of acknowledgement, through periods of silence that allowed me to think and process, and through simple gestures that cared for the wellbeing that I had abandoned.

God and I had some issues though.  

Where was God in the midst of the mess?  It seemed as though God had abandoned me.  It seemed as though God had taken everything from me. It seemed as though my life would now be defined by forgotten meals, and extinguished hope.

But what I learned in the midst of the mess was that God understood what I was going through because Christ understood loss, depression, anxiety, fear, and pain. Luke 22 describes our Lord in the garden awaiting his captors.  Jesus was so distraught that he was sweating drops of blood, he was shaking in anxiety. He was crying out to the Father to spare him of what what about to happen. He was about to be betrayed by someone who he has just shared a meal with, and 3 years of life with. 

And in the book of Psalms, there are Psalms of Lament in which we read the emotions and questions of the writers as they cried out for God to answer their pain, and their grieving. 

The beauty of our faith is that we have a God who understands our suffering and our joy, and we have examples of people of faith who have followed God before us, who had the same questions, and doubts, and struggles. 

And so if you are thinking that you are alone and abandoned when you don’t feel positive about your life, or your faith.  Or if you are grieving long after the funeral, long after people stop calling to check on you, this message is for you. 

If you are at a good place right now, but you know other people who may not be, this message is for you. 

Lets look at Psalm 22.

Verse one starts out with: “My God, My God….Why have you forsaken me!?”

How many times have we felt as though God could not be in the mess in which we find ourselves in?

How many times have we wondered how the world can be so bad and evil, if God exists?

These are emotions and questions that even children feel and ask. And yet, when we have these questions and we ponder them, we feel as though we are alone. 

But this Psalm which has been read and sun for thousands of years reminds us that we are not alone in these moments. 

In Matthew 27, verse 46, as Jesus is on the cross he cries out what humanity feels when we are suffering by quoting psalm 22- My God, My God…why have you forsaken me?

And then Psalm 22, which has been interpreted as a prophecy of the Messiah, goes on to say, “I am despised by others” (v. 6), “my bones are out of joint, my heart is melted, my mouth is dry as I’m laid down to death”, which aligns with Christ hanging on the cross, his bones coming out of joint because of it, his side being pierced, and his thirst before he gave his final breath. 

Psalm 22 shows us when we feel abandoned, when we feel like God is not amidst our suffering, that we have company.  But Christ quoting Psalm 22 reminds us that God understands our suffering.

Moving on to Psalm 42.

A few years ago, our church had a concert series at the amphitheater park near the Library.  For this concert, we have different music showcased, and I had the privilege to be a part of that.  Chad Kilhefner and I spent a lot of time playing music together for the evening service, and overtime, we wrote a series of songs that painted a picture of someone coming to Christ from a place of initial doubt and brokenness.

One song of ours drew its lyrics partially from Psalm 42 with the line, “my tears have been my food” in verse 3, though the lyrics being:

“When my tears cloud my vision, they become my food, when I’m on my knees crying, oh God where are you? Be…still..my soul..”

And its a song that talks about the struggle between a faith that hopes and life’s disappointments. And Psalm 42 is, in a lot of ways, a psalm about a God that restores and helps, and a world that can be damaging. The psalmist seeks to comfort their soul by remembering all the good things that God has done for God’s people, and by hoping that God will answer their brokenness like God has in the past. 

The last verse of Psalm 42 points to the tension that is having hope amidst struggle:  Why are you cast down, oh my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise him, my help, and my God.

But I want us to pay attention to the intentionality of that phrasing – Hope in god, for I shall again Praise him.  

This speaks to how we can have hope, even when our hearts are saddened.  We can Hope for God to move, even if we don’t feel like singing the happy songs right now. 

On this day when we think of those we know who have passed on, as we think of the legacy that they left behind, we can have peace in the midst of our grief as we accept that God understands our raw emotions and our pain through our study this morning of Luke 22, Psalm 22, and Psalm 42. 

In the days ahead, whenever we face uncertainty, disappointment, depression, anxiety, fear, may we be reminded that those feelings are not shunned in the church, but that saints who have gone before us felt those same things, and that God felt them in the life, ministry, and death of Jesus. 

And sometimes having someone deeply understand us in times of sorrow is more important than having someone tell us what they think the answer to our pain is.  Because sometimes knowing that someone is with us at our highs and lows is the only answer that comforts us.

This week, I want us to think about the people that we may be thinking about today as we honor those who we have lost this past year, and I want us to think about others we may have lost before. Think of the legacy that they left impressed upon you – things that they did, the kinds of people they were, that you really appreciated.  Go to God in prayer and talk to God as you would talk to a friend about what you feel, and ask God to grow you in the areas you admired about those who have passed, or to show you the ways in which you can leave your own legacy of faith wherever you go.

I would also encourage you to look up psalms of lament online if you can, and read through a few this week to see if there are others that we didn’t read this week that you identify with more.  Or to examine the ones we looked at more closely on your own.

And above all, remember:  God is with us in our brokenness, and in our happiness, and let us all remember that the Bible, and particularly the Psalms, can help us in showing us that we have a faith that welcomes our yearning for God, just as a deer yearns for the fresh stream of water on a hot day. Amen

Devotionals During the COVID-19 Crisis: Lesson 54 – From Jon Bauman

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Monday June 1, 2020

It is the same with my word.
I send it out, and it always produces fruit.
It will accomplish all I want it to,
and it will prosper everywhere I send it.
You will live in joy and peace.
The mountains and hills will burst into song,
and the trees of the field will clap their hands!
Where once there were thorns, cypress trees will grow.
Where nettles grew, myrtles will sprout up.
These events will bring great honor to the Lord’s name;
they will be an everlasting sign of his power and love.”

Isaiah 55:11-13 (NLT)

Every week in many churches around the world, The Lord’s Prayer is said by Christians of every race, gender, and age. The prayer is structured to acknowledge the sovereignty of God – that God is ruler over all, and it starts with a pleading for the Kingdom of God to come “on earth as it is in heaven”. Then, the prayer includes asking God to provide us with what we may need, to forgive us of our wrongs, as we forgive others of their wrongs, to keep us far from temptation, and to deliver us from evil. Why? Because the Kingdom, the power, and the glory is God’s. Amen.

But the Lord’s prayer is not meant to be simply mere words that we have to say on a Sunday morning, or when we may say these words in our prayers during the week; the Lord’s Prayer is meant to be personally, and culturally, transformative in pointing us toward the truth that God has, does, and can intervene in our world, and that we are meant to be a part of that intervention.

The passage from Isaiah for today’s devotional speaks to the power of God’s intervention in our world by proclaiming that even the seemingly impossible things can be done by our God. For what mountains sing? What trees clap their hands? What vegetation can grow and thrive amidst thorns and weeds?

God has and will continue to work within our world to restore it, to heal it, and to redeem it – Especially where it seems impossible to do so.

But if we, as God’s followers do nothing for that mission besides saying a prayer and not letting it transform us…we miss the point of the Lord’s Prayer, and we miss the mark on being a “light to the nations” (Isaiah 42:6, Isaiah 49:6).

On May 25, 2020, an African-American man, George Floyd, was restrained by a white police officer who put his knee and some of his weight on the neck of Floyd for over 8 minutes, which caused Floyd to die at the scene. While Floyd was on the ground struggling to get the words out “I Can’t Breathe!”, the officer kept his knee in place, and the three officers who were with him stood by and did not seek to aid Floyd.

The aftermath of Floyd’s death resulted in protests that called for the officer’s arrest for what is clearly brutality, excessive force, and murder, and justice for the officers who stood by.

Some of these protests have turned into violent riots – including the damage of government and private property and businesses, and violence against police forces, as well as against the protestors.

Riots are, by nature, chaotic, and they are seldom seen as positive by the broader public. But we have to ask, even when we don’t understand – what are the riots in response to?

Our nation has seen many instances of unarmed people of color being beaten or killed by police. Also in May 2020, 25-year old African-American Ahmaud Arbery was out for a jog, and he was killed in cold blood by white civilians in the street.

In the outbreak of Covid-19, Asian-Americans have received racial slurs, looks of fear, and have been genuinely afraid for their lives, simply because of the color of their skin.

Our nation has seen peaceful protests against these kinds of instances, and many have ignored the weight and truth behind the statement of #BlackLivesMatter and replaced it with #AllLivesMatter. All lives do matter, but that is precisely what Black Lives Matter is getting at; some people do not seem to believe that Black Lives Matter.

In 2017, some people from my hometown Alma Mater of Quakertown, called an opposing football team’s cheerleaders racial slurs, told them that black lives don’t matter, and then when the team loaded onto their school buses, some Quakertown students threw rocks at the buses while they continued using racial slurs.

Racism is still alive and well in 2020 America. Racism is still alive in my hometown. And racism is anti-Christ. There is no way to reconcile praying for God’s Kingdom of hope and peace to come, with people who pray these words continuing to act on, or support, racism.

In addition, I do not think that it is right to say these words in our prayers, and to remain silent on issues of prejudice; to not speak up against it when we know of it.

If we cannot strive against prejudice, we cannot, truly, be a light to ALL nations and ALL people.

If we do not listen to the cries of the oppressed, we ignore the calling of God upon us to work towards bringing the Kingdom of God to earth through our compassion, through our words, and through our actions.

If our faith has as bright of a Hope as we claim, the kind of Hope that believes that God can do the seemingly impossible, then we need to be people who live that Hope by striving against injustice and racism that is a part of our fallen world.

Black Lives Matter to God, and God is continually seeking to aid the oppressed. How can we do our part as followers of God now?

-Jon Bauman

Devotionals During the COVID-19 Crisis: Lesson 53 – From Jon Bauman

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Friday May 29, 2020

10 I rejoice in the Lord greatly that now at last you have revived your concern for me; indeed, you were concerned for me, but had no opportunity to show it. 11 Not that I am referring to being in need; for I have learned to be content with whatever I have. 12 I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need. 13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me. 14 In any case, it was kind of you to share my distress.

15 You Philippians indeed know that in the early days of the gospel, when I left Macedonia, no church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving, except you alone. 16 For even when I was in Thessalonica, you sent me help for my needs more than once. 17 Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the profit that accumulates to your account. 18 I have been paid in full and have more than enough; I am fully satisfied, now that I have received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God. 19 And my God will fully satisfy every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 5:10-19 (NRSV)

Philippians 4:13 is a bible verse that has been used as motivation for athletes, students, musicians, and many others. It is sometimes written on shoes, cleats, jerseys, banners, and anywhere that can be easily seen.

But the verse is used by Paul here in a deeper way than a lot of people have viewed this verse. Paul was in prison, and he had been sent a financial gift from those who he had ministered to, so that his time in prison wasn’t as bad as it could have been without their help.

He’s not sure whether he would be set free from this prison, or if he would remain in prison until he would be executed.

He’s already processed in chapter 1 that if he were to die, that wouldn’t be the worse thing; in fact, if he would die, he would go to be with our God in paradise. If he lived, and was released, he would be able to continue to minister to others so that they continue to grow in faith.

And so, when Paul writes “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me”, he is saying that whether he lives, or dies, whether he is in prison for a day longer, or until his death, that Paul was content with whatever the Lord decided for his life. He was recognizing that no matter what happens, he can get through it through the help and strength of Christ.

It is hard to get to the point where we are as content as Paul was.

The littlest of things that happen can wreck our day, and cause us to only focus on the negative.

Drastic and real challenges will face us, and we will seldom see any good that could come out of it.

To get to the point where we accept what has happened, and are content with the outcome, usually takes us a long time, and it generally only comes after whatever it was that happened has already sealed our fate.

But Paul was content WITHIN his trial, within prison, and within the uncertainty of whether he would be released or whether he would be executed.

But he was ONLY content because of his faith in Christ, who gives him the strength to keep going, no matter what might happen.

We can learn from Paul when we face things that cause us stress, fear, and anxiety, when we turn to God in prayer.

We can join Paul’s hope when we realize that Christ understands whatever we may face, and offers us empathy, and the hope of paradise.

We can find comfort in the midst of trials and hardships when we acknowledge that no matter what, we are still a child of God that is cared for and loved.

We can do all things, we can get through anything, through Christ who strengthens us. Amen.

-Jon Bauman

Devotionals During the COVID-19 Crisis: Lesson 46 – From Jon Bauman

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Photo by Min An from Pexels

38 Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. 39 She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying. 40 But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.” 41 But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; 42 there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.”

Luke 10:38-42 (NRSV)

One of my favorite and least favorite things is to host a cookout or dinner at my house. I love them because I enjoy spending time with friends or family, and I also enjoy grilling up whatever delicious food we will be enjoying that day.

However, besides the usual tidying up, and grocery shopping that is needed ahead of time, I dislike hosting these events because I am constantly running around the house and to the firepit to make sure everything is cooked at the right time, and to make sure that all of the people there are having a good time.

When I’m running around, I tend to have short conversations with everyone, rather than more significant conversations with a few. The shorter conversations I do to address the needs of the people there, but they come at the expense of me not being able to relax and enjoy my time with those around me.

I found myself being absent-minded in a social gathering that is meant to make all feel satisfied in the present. I reminded myself of the stress that my family members would feel during big family holiday meals as they were preparing the meal and the table, and I had always felt bad for them that they couldn’t relax and enjoy the moment.

Have you ever felt that way?

Today’s scripture reading has to do with two sisters who welcomed Jesus, and likely some of his followers, into their home.

Martha welcomed Jesus inside and likely washed his feet right away (as was the custom), and then I can picture her making sure he had a clear place to sit, straightening up the room Jesus was in, and then moving on to the start preparing a meal for them all to eat.

Mary, on the other hand, was so excited that Jesus was visiting with them that she didn’t want a moment to pass by. She wasn’t thinking about tidying up the house, she wasn’t thinking of rushing to help Martha prepare a meal, she was only focused on spending time with Jesus and listening to all that He had to say.

Martha grew frustrated at Mary not helping her, and I can picture her trying to get Mary’s attention subtly until finally she bursts out a plea for Jesus to tell her to come help Martha prepare the house and the meal for their guest(s).

Jesus responds by saying something along the lines of, “Martha, you are stressed about all these little things while Mary is paying attention to the main point of me coming here, to spend time with you”.

This reminds me of when a good friend would pull me aside at these gatherings that I would host and say, “hey, calm down and relax – you don’t have to go through all this trouble for me – I’m just glad to be here.”

It’s not that Martha was doing anything wrong – she was trying to be a good host in the way that she knew how. Its just that Mary recognized that spending time with Jesus was more important than trying to tidy the house or prepare a meal.

Being busy feels good sometimes. It feels productive to have a set schedule, to accomplish tasks that you need to do in an orderly fashion, but as we all know, when we focus on the busy stuff, it never stops.

There’s a song I grew up listening to by Harry Chapin called “Cat’s in the Cradle” about a relationship between a father and son where the Father was too busy to spend time with his son when he was younger, and how the son grew up to be too busy to spend time with his father when they were both adults.

It’s a sad song, but it points to a lesson to be learned: Building important relationships with others is of greater importance than the stress and busy schedules that we make for ourselves.

This way of thinking requires us to place building relationships with our loved ones and our friends within our important schedules, even if it means having people over while there are dishes in the sink, even if it means not checking our email after a certain time of the day, and even if it means saying no to some things so that your relationships with those you care about grow stronger.

As we have been sheltering-in-place as a society, some people are still working their normal hours, some are working more hours, some are working more at home then they did in the office, and a lot of us have been watching TV so much that we are becoming bored.

Yet even still, the majority of us are spending more time at home than we were before. If you are fortunate to live with other people, whether they are spouses, family members, or roommates, don’t become so caught up in the stress of the every day that you can’t invest in these relationships now.

If you are living alone right now, make time in your day and evenings to reach out to family and friends. A couple weeks ago, three of my friends and I met over zoom to talk about our lives in the ministry (we are all clergy), the books we have been reading, and to catch up on life in general. I was surprised by how much joy meeting with those friends gave me, even though it was not in person.

And while we are on the topic of building relationships, this is also a time for us to focus on Jesus wanting to meet us where we are.

It doesn’t matter if our lives are messy. It doesn’t matter what dishes we may have in the sink. It doesn’t matter if we haven’t talked with him in a day, a week, or a few years.

What matters is that Jesus wants to meet us where we are at.

He doesn’t want us to be so distracted by our busyness, or our efforts to make ourselves seem more presentable, that we miss the fact that:

Jesus wants to meet us where we are at

Jesus wants to spend time with us

Jesus wants to remind us of His love, the blessings He has given to us, and that He is there in our times when busyness, stress, and worry are consuming our lives.

So in this time, let’s be more like Mary and less like Martha.

Devotionals During the COVID-19 Crisis: Lesson 42 – From Jon

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Wednesday May 13, 2020

19 And when evening came, Jesus and his disciples went out of the city.
20 In the morning as they passed by, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots. 21 Then Peter remembered and said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.” 22 Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. 23 Truly I tell you, if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and if you do not doubt in your heart, but believe that what you say will come to pass, it will be done for you. 24 So I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

Mark 11:19-24 (NRSV)

Have you ever bitten into an apple and found that it was rotten?

You expect the apple to be delicious, crisp, juicy, and you end up biting into something disgusting, mushy, or dry. You then spit the rotten fruit from your mouth, and throw the apple into the trash.

One day, Jesus was hungry and walked past a fig tree that did not yet produce fruit, and he cursed it (Mark 11:12-14).

They then entered into Jerusalem, and that is where the author of Mark records Jesus entering the temple, seeing its corruption, and its taking advantage of the poor, and declared that they had turned his Father’s house into a den of robbers.

As they left Jerusalem, Peter saw that the fig tree that Jesus had cursed before has withered; its bark likely looked unhealthy, its leaves were probably blowing away with the wind, and it would certainly not produce fruit again.

Jesus used this opportunity to tell them that just as he had the power to curse that fig tree, that prayer is just as powerful of a force to change the circumstances around them. That they do not have to doubt the ability of God to change the impossible to the possible.

I think that we can draw two things from Mark 11, in looking at the context of the chapter that precedes the passage for today’s devotional:

ONE: We are meant to bear fruit. Faith is not meant to be all about us, for that can lead to selfishness at the expense of others, like it did in the Temple of Jerusalem that Jesus cleansed. Instead, our faith is meant to grow within us so that we can bless others like a fig tree that bears fruit that gives others nourishment.

TWO: We are to meant to actively pray for our world, and those around us. To bear fruit is to bless those around us with our faith that inspires us to not only share the hope of Jesus to the world, but to also be people who help others through the actions that our faith calls us to take to help others. However, if we seek to bless our world, we are not expected to do so alone; we have direct communication with God through prayer, and God hears the requests and pleads from God’s people. Answer’s to prayer may be a yes, it may be a no, it may be a “not yet”, but we should still earnestly believe that we can pray to our God.

We are to be people that provide nourishment to our world through being a people that seeks the Lord in prayer.

If we are not voices of faith and hope, and we claim to be, we are like that apple we thought about earlier, or that fig tree that looks promising, but isn’t.

We won’t be perfect at this, but that is why we pray.

Our world needs faith and hope right now; it needs to know that there are still people in our world who care about them, and what they are going through, and it needs to know that there is God who listens to their prayer.

Devotionals During the COVID-19 Crisis: Lesson 41 – From Jon

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Tuesday May 12, 2020

10 He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. 11 You will be enriched in every way for your great generosity, which will produce thanksgiving to God through us; 12 for the rendering of this ministry not only supplies the needs of the saints but also overflows with many thanksgivings to God. 13 Through the testing of this ministry you glorify God by your obedience to the confession of the gospel of Christ and by the generosity of your sharing with them and with all others, 14 while they long for you and pray for you because of the surpassing grace of God that he has given you. 15 Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!

2 Corinthians 9:10-15 (NRSV)

On Instagram, a social media service, there is an account called “PreachersNSneakers” that has pictures of the chosen footware and clothing of the nation’s most popular preachers, and pairs those pictures with a screenshot from the a company that sells them for people to see how much these Preachers spend on Sneakers.

It is a really funny page to follow, but its also causes some questions in your mind. Why does a preacher need seemingly regular shoes that cost over $1,000? I’m not saying that a person can’t do what they want with their money, but it’s just an odd thing to consider.

Some of these preachers would say that if you do the Lord’s work, then you will be blessed tremendously, and that these blessings are meant to be so big that they overflow. All you got to do is have a little faith.

But something about that doesn’t line up for me. If all we have to do is follow the Lord and we will be blessed, then doesn’t that imply that anyone who is homeless, in poverty, or even up to middle-class, are people who do not TRULY put their trust in the Lord? And wouldn’t such thinking further promote classism, greed, and the quest for power and control if the rich believe that God is on their side, and not others?

If I am wearing my $60 shoes, am I less of a faithful Christian than the person who is wearing $600 shoes? What about the person who is wearing $10 shoes – do they view me like I view those buying several hundred dollar shoes?

This is what happens when we compare ourselves with others: we think we are superior to some, lower than others, and there’s judgement all around.

I do not believe that God works in the ways that some would argue; that God would financially bless people in abundance according to their good works on earth.

Jesus was a traveler, and would often sleep in cramped rooms, or outside. His disciples were regular men who would go on to continue this hard life of missionary work, and who would suffer and die because of their faith in Jesus. The Apostle Paul may have supplemented his own ministry by being a tent-maker by trade, and he also suffered and died as a criminal because of his commitment to his faith in Jesus.

And so when the Apostle Paul writes that God will bless those who have given money and resources to him in support of his ministry, I do not think that he means that God would give them riches of material wealth that would “overflow”, but that God would show them the power of their faith, and their hope, through their sacrifice of giving. This supreme gift is not silver or gold, but the Grace of God that surpasses our own understanding, that comforts us when no one else is around, and that teaches us to be content, no matter the circumstance. The God who was the source of hope to Paul in his suffering is the same God who is with us at every moment.

Right now, we are suffering as a society.

We are afraid of a virus that could affect our health, and we are afraid of economic hardships that could affect our families, and our nation.

There are those of us who know people who have been affected by the virus, and there are those of us who have no direct experience with the virus yet.

There are those of us who continue to have a source for income, and there are those of us who have lost our jobs, or who are forced to work lesser hours.

We will be tempted to compare ourselves with others during this time of societal uncertainty. We will be tempted to ask God why this happened to us, and not to others.

But the passage today reminds us all that we are called to both give of ourselves to support others, financially, or just by making a phone call, AND we are assured that no matter where life may take us, that God is always with us, and that we can rest in knowing that that God’s grace is comforting to all of us – we are ALL blessed.

-Jon Bauman

Devotionals During the COVID-19 Crisis: Lesson 35 – From Jon

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Monday May 4, 2020

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’

Matthew 25:31-40 (NRSV)

The Gospel accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are four separate accounts of the life, teachings, ministry , and truth about our Lord Jesus Christ. Different Christian traditions tend to emphasize different parts of these Gospel writings as more informative of their own faith as far as how they are to live in the present moment.

For some, the dramatic calling of Christ to live a life of peace, forgiveness, and understanding that they see in the Sermon on the mount in Matthew 5-7 is how they believe they ought to live.

For others, the calling of Christ on the disciples to go and make disciples of all nations and baptize them from Matthew 28 informs their mission of evangelism.

And for others, the calling of Christ to care for the poor, the widows, the orphans, the foreigner, and the outcasts from this passage from Matthew 25 informs their mission of working towards social justice, as well as their mission to directly help others in the form of soup kitchens.

These three examples of emphasis are all good ways in which Christians are called to live, but if we only emphasize one part of the Gospel’s calling on our lives, at the exclusion of the others, we miss the full picture.

Every person in our churches and in our Christian communities is unique. Some will be those who will remind us to live lives that strive for holiness, some will be those who remind us of the call to share our faith with others verbally and through intentional relationships, and some will be those who remind us of the need to care for those in need. A healthy church has people within it that see the value of all three of these callings and other callings from the Gospels, and it has those in leadership who support those in their church who are passionate about each of these callings, while reminding the congregation that Christians are called to believe in and see the value in all of the callings on the Christian life.

If we live lives that seek right living, but we don’t leave our own circles, we miss out on the mission to evangelize, baptize, and care for the sick, hungry, and oppressed.

If we live lives that are dedicated to evangelism, but we don’t strive for right living, and we ignore the needs of others, we miss out on those missions.

If we live lives that are dedicated to the care of others in need, but don’t strive for right living, or sharing out faith with others, we miss out on those missions.

Today’s scripture reading reminds me of one of my favorite quotes from a pastor I used to know about the importance of caring for and loving others:

“Nothing in the Bible permits me to be a jerk.”

– Pastor Gary

Jesus’ ministry, message, and the Gospel message of the cross and resurrection itself, all display that the goodness of God should be available to all people, and that all people should live according to the will of God, should share the goodness of God with others through evangelism and through caring for others. Jesus, in Matthew 25, is speaking of addressing religious people in the day of judgement who intentionally ignored the needs of those around them, likely because they saw the people in need as less of a human being. To me, this kind of behavior doesn’t seem to be permitted by Jesus.

Pastor Gary, his wife, and the elders and deacons of his church met with college students weekly to give them a meal, and to talk about our lives, our shared faith, and to encourage us to share our faith with others through the ministry of conversing with and praying for the homeless of Bristol, PA, and through opening their church services to anyone and everyone.

Through challenging times, through hurtful words said, and when ministry got tough, I was reminded of Pastor Gary’s words, that NOTHING permitted him to be unkind to anyone he was speaking with.

In this time as we are spending more time in our homes than we had before, it is a good time for some self-reflection.

We should ask ourselves what we are doing right now to seek out right living in our personal lives, to ask ourselves what we are doing to share our faith, and what we are doing to help those around us.

Then, we should ask ourselves what we CAN do to improve our Christian living in these and other areas, while committing to being kind and loving to all people that we come across.

Lastly, we should examine ourselves to discover where our natural passions are, and how they could align with the missions of our Church and Christian community, both now, and when we are able to reconvene.

-Jon Bauman

Devotionals During the COVID-19 Crisis: Lesson 34 – From Jon

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Friday May 1, 2020

12 So then, brothers and sisters, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh— 13 for if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. 15 For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16 it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ—if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.

Romans 8:12-17 (NRSV)

In Christianity, the phrase “Born Again” is often used by Christians to describe what it was like after they had accepted Jesus as the Lord and Savior of their life. Although the phrase may be new to some people, or it may make them think of the street preachers who harass people with signs saying that they must be born again, the phrase is actually a quote from Jesus as He was speaking to Nicodemus, a Jewish Pharisee who was a leader in the Temple. When Nicodemus came to Jesus in secret, for fear of being found out by his peers in the temple, Jesus told him, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the Kingdom of God unless they are born again” – from John 3:3.

People don’t always like change. Change is an affront to a person’s current reality. When that change has to do with their thoughts on religion, or their way of life, the change that would be required to be “Born Again” is intimidating and it can be insulting.

One of my favorite and least favorite games to play is Monopoly. I like it because I love making contracts with my fellow players (that are written and signed) so that both of us could possibly avoid paying rent on each other’s property when we land on them. To me, this is a creative spin that I bring to the game to make it last longer, and to ensure that my money pile keeps growing. However, something that you can’t make a contract for is when you land on the space that sends you to jail. The only thing to save you from Jail is either paying a fine, rolling dice to try to get out, or by employing a “Get Out of Jail Free Card”.

When you have that card, either by chance, or by making it a condition of a contract between players, going to Jail is no big deal because the penalty of Jail is alleviated by the playing of that card.

But Monopoly is my least favorite when my contracts are up, when I have no Get out of Jail Free card, and when friends may turn against each other for the purpose of gaining property, money, and winning the game.

During Monopoly, players are tempted to fall into the trap of turning against each other (with genuine emotion) over a fictional game. I have certainly had my share of heated discussions over my fear of losing my properties and money that I worked so hard to earn.

But it’s just a game, right?

Although it is just a game, the emotions can become real, and while you may be a nice person outside of the game, the game can bring out qualities of yourself that are normally controlled.

But imagine if the anger and frustration that can take place during a game of monopoly began to become a part of your every day life. You might begin to seek out wealth and power whenever you could, even if it means stepping on other’s toes to get to where you want to be.

Thats what happens when we live according to what the Bible calls “flesh” and “sin”. It might not be wealth or power, it may be other things that you may seek out – like attention, addictions, etc., but whatever it is, we all have the capability to do wrong and even evil things when we only live according to our own desires and goals, without thinking about others, or what these desires may be doing to our character as we seek them out.

The passage today tells us that when we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior – we don’t have to be enslaved and tied to our selfish desires. When we are born again, we are servants instead to the Spirit of God to do God’s will.

And more than that, we recognize that we are no longer alone, but that we have become adopted as God’s own child. The message is so extreme that when we feel defeated, not good enough, or marked by our past mistakes, that God sees us as being covered by the righteousness and Grace of Jesus Christ. Because the penalty of our wrongs has already been paid by Christ, and the chains of our desires and addictions no longer hold us down for eternity because Christ broke those chains in the Cross and the Resurrection.

Yet the passage today also conveys the truth that though we are covered by the grace and protection of God, that we will also likely suffer on this earth at the hands of others who may be letting their lust for power, money, and their own desires get the best of them.

But we must remember that when it comes to our own life in the eyes of God, we have been Born again, and when we are confronted by our worries of how God sees us, or when our own desires tempt us to come back to seeking them out selfishly, we are no longer bound, and we have been made free. Its not because we did anything to deserve it – its a free gift that saves us from the result of our sinful pursuits. Like a Get Out of Jail Free card.

In times such as these when a calamity is striking our world, we can either follow our own selfish desires and buy all the toilet paper and supplies that we can find, or we can live according to the will of God by helping one another through this time by getting them supplies, praying for them, checking in on them, and by being kind and courteous to those we run across when we make our trips to the store.

And the best thing that we can do is to be a voice of the hope of our faith by following God’s will in our actions, and by telling those who are close to us that though we too are worried, that we have hope and peace through Jesus Christ.

-Jon Bauman