Do you know someone who is a person of action? Anytime a job needs to be done, they are the first one to volunteer. They move, organize, motivate, and build until the goal at hand is accomplished. They execute with dogged determination. 

In the gospel this Sunday Peter demonstrates this kind of action. Jesus brings Peter, James, and John up on a mountain to pray. There Jesus is transformed and his clothes are made dazzlingly white. Two men appear and it’s clear, somehow, that they are Moses and Elijah. After it appears Jesus is done speaking them, Peter jumps into action. He cries out, “Master, it is good that we are here; let us make three tents, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” Peter jumped at the chance to start doing something. Peter wants to build something. Peter wants to leave his mark and he wants to start now. 

Then a cloud overshadows the group and when it came to rest upon them a voice said, ”This is my chosen Son; listen to him.”

We don’t often think of listening as an action item. When we imagine people who take action and get things done, we rarely think of them as good listeners. Listening, in our our culture, seems to be thought of as simply a passive activity. 

Our gospel this Sunday is trying to show us the first movement of any active response to God is to listen. The first thing we must do if we want to follow Jesus is, not to move, but to listen. 

The cost of not listening first is that we may act or move in the wrong way. Peter seems to do this. In the gospel after he suggests making three tents the scriptures say, “But he did not know what he was saying.” That isn’t a good sign that he was on the right path. We know the rest of the story that Jesus had to come down off the mountain and head into Jerusalem to suffer and die for us. 

If we want to follow Jesus, then we must do what the voice in the cloud suggests, we must listen to Jesus. The first step in any action plan must be to first sit still and listen. 

Live It: We are a week into Lent. How is your Lenten promise doing? Whether you have given up something or added something, consider adding some silence into your day for the remaining days of Lent. Try just 5 minutes of silence every morning. Here is how to do it. Set a time on your phone for five minutes and then leave it across the room so you can’t reach it. Sit and listen for the Lord. If you get distracted, write down your distractions or say Jesus’ name over and over until the distraction passes. Honestly the more times you do the better it will go. Give silence a try this Lent in order to “listen to Him.”

Sunday Readings for March 13, 2022.

Both/and – This has got to be one of my favorite phrases. Often in life we are faced with “either/or” situations. Either it’s cold or it’s warm. Either I am happy or I am sad. Either I have everything I need or I have a wish list a mile long in my Amazon account. While it is true that often we are faced with either/or circumstances, I think sometimes we apply this divisive mindset in places where it doesn’t work. 

In particular, I am thinking about Peter in the gospel for this Sunday. In this passage from Luke, Peter exhibits incredible faith and follows the command of Jesus by putting out into the deep and casting his nets once again. Of course later we know he becomes the rock on whom Jesus builds the Church. Peter is the leader of the Apostles and the first pope. 

On the other hand, the guy tells Jesus, “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.” In another story he sinks in this same lake because he doesn’t fully trust Jesus. Jesus refers to him as Satan in another moment. 

We could say Peter is either a saint, disciples, and leader of the early church or a sinner, failure, and poser with weak faith. The question at hand has to be is Peter a saint or a sinner?

Of course this isn’t an either/or answer. Peter is both. Peter was a sinner and Peter is a Saint. Both are true. Our world wants to say if you are one you can’t be the other. We would say every sinner can be a saint (and unfortunately every saint can be a sinner.). 

Each and everyone of us is made in the image and likeness of God. We are made good. All of us who are baptized are the very sons and daughters of God. We are God’s children. Yet each and everyone of us sins. We fail and fall and don’t live up to our true identity. 

Am I saying it’s okay for saints to persist in sin? No. Every single Saint has actively worked against the sin in their life. What I am saying is that If you consider yourself a sinner, that doesn’t disqualify you from seeking sainthood. 

In other words, we are worth saving and we need of a savior. 

What I think this means for us is that we should be confidence in the Lord. When we sin, we should be confident that he love us, wants to forgive us, and can save us. If we are feeling particularly saintly, we can be confident that it is only by God’s grace that we sought goodness. Whether you think you are a sinner or a saint you might just be right. God wants to save you either way. 

Live it: Sometimes it is helpful reflect on our desire to be saints. On a scale of 1-10 how much do you want to be a saint? What would it take to increase your desire for the sainthood by just one degree? Go do that thing. 

Sunday Readings for February 6, 2022.

Monday morning everyone seemed off. It was the Monday after the end of Daylight Savings Time, but it wasn’t just that. November has arrived in full dreariness in MN. The autumnal brilliance of colorful leaves is done. The last warm day is giving way to cold and child. Yet we seem far from the beauty and fun of significant snow accumulations. The world is dying, the news isn’t getting any better, and all is blah. Some in the church I work in are mourning for significantly more intense reasons than the weather. It seems death is all around. 

The readings this Sunday match this feeling. In the first reading from Daniel we hear, “It will be time unsurpassed in distress since nations began until that time.” In the gospel Jesus says, “In those days after the great tribulation the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from the sky, and the power in the heavens will be shaken.” Dark stuff. 

Then Jesus preaches, “And then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in the clouds.’” Just when all hope is lost. Just when the very sun moon and stars are collapsing around us. Just when death seems a forgone conclusion. Jesus comes and saves. 

In this time of year and, let’s be honest, ALL of the last two years, when death, destruction, and failure seem to be winning, Jesus reminds us that a savior is coming. We are not left alone to contend with this darkness by ourselves. 

Jesus is our light. Jesus is our life. Jesus is the answer to the question of Death. Jesus is the remedy to the illness of sin and death. When the world is dark and broken, Jesus is the light and the healer. 

Live It: If you are feeling dark, seek the light. Go directly to Jesus. Go for a walk outside no matter how cold it is. Go seek out his light on earth, the Church. (I know the Church is full of sinners and we make mistakes, but the Church always seeks to be a light in the darkness. Contact your local church and explain why you are seeking them out. You may be surprised the light you find.)

Sunday Readings for November 14, 2021.

When I was about 11 years old, I was waiting outside of my elementary school. I was taking a summer science program and I had just completed my journal of native plant species. A shiny, silver, two door sports car pulls up and out of the driver’s seat pops Tony Pena. Tony was the starting catcher for the St. Louis Cardinals. For a kid in St. Louis this was a big deal. It’s kind of hard to explain how amazing meeting a Major League baseball player was for me in this moment. 

Tony was picking up his son who was also there for a summer program. He graciously greeted all the children and was signing autographs. I got Tony’s signature on my native plant species project and walked home in a daze. I don’t think set that piece of construction paper down for about two weeks.

I didn’t expect to come face to face with a real, live St. Louis Cardinal that random summer afternoon. In reality nothing major actually changed in my life, but my day seemed to be totally upended and the next week was completely different than the previous or the next, just because of this unexpected encounter. 

The woman at the well in this Sunday’s gospel didn’t expect to meet anyone important when she went to go get water. In fact, she didn’t expect to meet anyone at the well. The gospel says it was about noon when she went to the well to get water. Noon wasn’t the normal time for women to get water. Typically they would do it first thing in the morning to avoid the midday heat and to have water for the day. 

Instead of no one, she encountered the most someone who has ever lived. Jesus Christ, God incarnate, came into her life. He didn’t give her an autograph, but instead offered her living water. He knew her troubles and gave her peace.

God can break into and show up in the most unexpected places in our lives. 

Imagine if we actually looked for and expected to find God. How could God work in our lives if we actually invited him in and sought to have him show up not only in the unexpected times, but always? 

Often we don’t do this because we don’t want to be disappointed. If we ask for God to come into our lives and don’t find him, we are fearful we will loose faith or have a reason to be angry at God. This is a real concern. 

The reality is that if we humbly invite God in, he will come. If we let go of our desire for the kind of control that seeks to know when and how God works and instead lets him love and heal us without us even knowing – God will do this. God wants to intimately act in our lives. God isn’t some distant Olympian deity just watching and occasionally throwing a lightning bolt. God is wildly present in our lives. If we will pay attention and invite him in, we will find him. And he will find us. 

LIVE IT: Every time you unlock your phone today say this 3 word prayer, “Come Lord Jesus.” OR Pray the prayer “Come Lord Jesus.” 100 times today. Do whichever one is more. 

Sunday Readings for March 7th, 2021.

When my wife and I were first married but before we had kids, some friends asked us to family-sit their brood of children while they traveled out of town for a weekend. We had a blast. We fed them meals. We did their activities. We played games. The only thing was one of the boys wouldn’t talk to me. In fact, he usually rushed out of the room when I entered. Mystified we asked our friends what was he so afraid of. They told us, “He knows that you are friends with the priest and the priest is close to God on the altar. He figured that you are close to God and he is scared of God.”

Honestly, I’m pretty humbled by this. He thinks I’m close to God. As the tremendous sinner that I am all I could think about was how far away from God I usually am! Then it occurred to me that while it is true I can choose to turn my back on God, God chooses to be close to me.

In the gospel this Sunday we hear the story of the Transfiguration of Jesus. He goes up on a mount with three of his disciples. His clothes insta-bleach themselves and the very voice of God speaks. They were walking next to God this whole time and only now understand exactly how close to God they had been.

The gospel writer says that they were very afraid. Jesus says, “Rise, and do not be afraid.” The very disciples, the ones closest to Jesus, Jesus’ senior leadership group, were scared of God.

There is a way that we shouldn’t be afraid of God. Signs of this kind of fear of God can be if we pull away from him, if we hide from him, if we avoid church or prayer or even identifying as a church person. If we only see God as a spiteful judge ready to damn us for every mistake, that isn’t a real healthy vision of God.

However, I don’t think that is most of us. Most people don’t hold enough of a healthy fear of God. If you catch me in a moment of honesty, I will tell you that most of the time our understanding of God is far, far too small. God is too much like us in our minds. God is a “just bigger, smarter, more mysterious” version of a human. Because of that we don’t fear God. We don’t fear what we know as much as we fear the unknown. If we don’t fear God it might be because we feel like we know him much better than we really do. If we don’t have a healthy and holy fear of God, it’s because our understanding of him is just too small.

We do fear the powerful. We fear what could end our life like heights or snakes. Public speaking is the fear of the unknown – we don’t know what everyone thinks of us.

Acknowledging that God is marvelous and amazing and big and a little fear inducing while still trying to get close to him is an act of trust. Bowing down before him, holding the dual truths that God is far, far beyond us and yet desires to grow closer to us than we can imagine is an act of worship. Acknowledge the fear, draw close anyway.

LIVE IT: Take 3 minutes before bed tonight to think about your image and understanding of God. Answer these questions – Am I afraid of God? Why or Why not? How does my understanding of God influence my daily life?

Sunday Readings for March 8th, 2020.