Pastor’s Pen    

Sunday, September 8, 2024

Today’s sermon, “Choosing How We Will Live, ” is based on the book of Proverbs, and specifically these versus:

Proverbs 22: 1-3, 8-9, 22-23:

1 A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, and favour is better than silver or gold. 2 The rich and the poor have this in common: the Lord is the maker of them all.

8 Whoever sows injustice will reap calamity, and the rod of anger will fail. 9 Those who are generous are blessed, for they share their bread with the poor.

22 Do not rob the poor because they are poor, or crush the afflicted at the gate; 23 for the Lord pleads their cause and despoils of life those who despoil them.

As you go about your week, please ponder the following:

1. Do these Proverbs make you feel intimidated or empowered to choose to live according to God’s uncommon wisdom?
2. What would it mean for you to pattern your life after these proverbs?
3. What do the proverbs tell you will happen in your life if you follow the way of wisdom?

Sunday, July 7, 2024

How do you accept the grace of God in vain? That seems like an odd thing for Paul to ask, don’t you think? I mean, grace is grace, right? All the power, all the effect, all the working is in God’s hands and not ours. At least that is how we understand it. Our job is simply to receive. We just open up our hands and grace pours in. That’s how it works, isn’t it?

Well, Paul has a different understanding, at least when it comes to the Corinthian church. And we have to admit that this bunch is atypical when it comes to representing the church today. I mean, they were struggling to get along with one another; there were feelings of superiority; there were questionable intimate relationships and some challenging theology undergirding it all. Nothing like any churches today. … Moving on.

What does he mean with this plea to not accept the grace of God in vain? The word he uses here – and elsewhere, even about his own ministry (Galatians 2:2, for example, or I Thessalonians 2:2 and 3:5) is Kenon, which can be translated as vain or empty. “Don’t let your faith be empty,” Paul is saying to the Corinthian church. Don’t let this gift not bear fruit. Let there be some evidence of your faith in how you live in the community, how you engage with the world around you.

Note that he isn’t saying you must earn faith; it is a gift. But it is a gift that works in you and works through you. There are signs; there is evidence, says Paul; there is fruit when faith is not empty. Accepting the gift in vain means nothing is done with it, nothing internal and nothing external. Just nothing. Emptiness.

Grace is transforming. Grace is fruit-producing. But it is a partnership. That’s the tricky part of this relationship. The giver of grace chooses to work with you rather than in spite of you. God chooses to invite you rather than overwhelm you. We can debate the cliché and whether God is the co-pilot or pilot, but either way, there is a seat for you too. “Now is the acceptable time, now is the day of salvation. There is no need to wait,” says Paul. Effort can be expended right now; hope can be lived; grace can be full. Right now.

As evidence, Paul offers his own life, not as a boast, but as a sign that grace is at work in him and through him. But the road has not been easy. Grace does not make life simple or comfortable. If anything, it makes it more complicated and difficult. Yet, that is where grace is made full, where life is embraced. It is in the difficulties, in the heartaches, as well as in the joys and celebrations – in sorrow and in rejoicing – that grace is made manifest in individuals and the community of faith. When we rally around one another, when we enter into the hardships of another, when we endure, then grace abounds.

So then how do we activate this grace? How do we ensure that we have not accepted God’s great gift of grace in vain? Paul’s advice is simple and enormously difficult. We open our hearts. We risk loving and being vulnerable. We open ourselves to the possibility of being hurt so that we can approach the possibility of knowing joy. We reach out to connect with another person, risking being rejected so that we can also embrace the possibility of relationship. We share Christ, maybe with words, as we tell our story wrapped up in his story. But more often, and usually first, we share Christ by how we live in relationship with neighbors and strangers and loved ones all. We rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. The grace in our lives is most full when it comes out in relationship, when we open our hearts to those around us and trust in the abundance of God’s grace.

Romans 12: 2

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God-what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Lent season is gone, but the message of the lent remains in our heart for the rest every single day. The Holy Spirit, invites us to reflect continually in the ministry, of the Lamb of God, who was able to go all the way to the cross, in order to open up, a new door, the door that leads us to the transformation of our mind, the mind that understand the plans of God for our own life.

Scripture admonishes us to allow the Holy Spirit to renew our minds, so that we can come into agreement with God’s perfect will. We have been given the mind of Christ, but it is up to us to submit, listen to, and act on it. Only then will our actions be truly Christ-like, allowing the word to see who Jesus really is.

So we continue to praise the Lamb of God, who was slain, but now is seated on his throne victorious, and we are so glad, to glorify him, and give Him praise along with His creation. We understand and value that because our mind has been renewed.

It is my prayer that the Lamb of God, will continue to bless your life, and answer the prayer request of your heart.

God Bless you all

Pastor Jaime