The Way of the Lord

Posted on November 3, 2015 by Don Merritt

I heard this message the other day (11/1/15) about how Love is the way of the Lord, and it comes from a text in Genesis 18 where God is about to rain fire upon Sodom… and what do we find?

Love, go figure?

Please check it out, it’s “part 21”.

Listen Now

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Fasting

Posted on November 3, 2015 by Don Merritt

When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Matthew 6:16-18

In Jesus’ day, fasting was a popular, common and much valued spiritual discipline, the Pharisees for instance fasted twice per week, usually on Mondays and Thursdays. It was also a part of certain festivals, such as on the Day of Atonement, and people would often fast individually as a sign of their religious devotion; Jesus would seem to have no problem with this practice. With this in mind, let’s also remember that this is now His third example of the principle He put forth in 6:1…

The difficulty that arose here is that not only was fasting used as a spiritual practice, it was also used to impress others with one’s spirituality. In that vein, I can tell you that I know of two kinds of people who regularly fast: The ones who do it to impress others, and the ones who do it the way Jesus taught. The thing is, I can give names of people in the first group, but I have no idea who belongs to the second… and that is precisely how Jesus wanted it.

I’ve been asked many times if we, as Christians should fast, and all I can really say to that is that if the Lord leads you to fast, then you had best do so, but make sure I never hear of it. I have also been asked to attend sessions where a group gets together for “fasting and prayer” to pray for such and such. I attended one of these once, I left early, and I’ve never done it again. You are free to draw your own conclusions…

So what am I really saying about fasting?

If the Lord leads you to fasting, then obey His leading and fast. If the Lord leads a group to fasting and prayer and you are one of those being led in that direction, then do it. If not, then don’t and don’t concern yourself about what the others think of you, because f you do, then you are the hypocrite.

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“This, then, is how you should pray”

Posted on November 3, 2015 by Don Merritt

“This, then, is how you should pray:

“‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.’

For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

Matthew 6:9-15

Keeping the context of 6:1 in mind, take a look at this prayer, what do you see?

Do you see “look at me”? Do you see “gimme the goodies”?

Hardly.

What we can see here is humility, putting God’s purpose first and foremost, necessities forgiveness, and overcoming the evil one; it is elegant in its simplicity.

We are addressing the Father in heaven, acknowledging His glory and giving Him honor, and then asking for His kingdom to come in its fullness, where His will be the only will that is done on earth, just like in heaven. Notice that this doesn’t leave all that much room for my own will to be done, in fact, my will and your will are not mentioned at all.

There is a request that God would provide for us, a humble request to be sure, and then a request for God’s forgiveness as we forgive others; a scary thought for many, I might add. Finally, we are to ask God not to lead us into temptation, but to deliver us from the evil one, again a request of supreme humility. When you put this all together, Jesus is teaching us to pray in a manner that is entirely foreign to the religious life of His time, and a lot more foreign in our own time than we might like to think about, with only God’s will being mentioned.

After this, Jesus goes on to expand a little bit on the whole subject of forgiveness making a conditional statement in verse 15, which must have blown the minds of the Pharisees and their gang of friends. Truly, this is radical now as it was back then.

Was it Jesus’ intention that we simply recite these words over and over? I really doubt it; I see this as a model for prayer, the elements to be included in prayer, rather than something to be memorized and recited to the absence of anything else, particularly when we lose what He is actually saying here. Of course, I would never say that there is anything wrong with reciting these verses, or any verses.

Here’s some homework: Reflect and pray on these verses, asking Him to reveal them in their fullness to you. I think you’ll find this to be a fascinating exercise in spiritual practice. Next time, we’ll see what Jesus says about fasting.

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Prayer

Posted on November 2, 2015 by Don Merritt

“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

Matthew 6:5-8

For us to properly understand these verses, and the ones to follow, we need to be reminded of what Jesus was talking about in this entire section; He set the context in 6:1:

Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.

If we remember this context, and that prayer is His second illustration for this point (after giving to the needy) then the significance of these verses becomes quite stark, even convicting for many of us.

Prayer, talking with God, the very core of our relationship with God, is not intended to be a public spectacle. It is not something you do to impress your family and friends with how righteousness you are; it is never to be a “look at me” kind of thing in whatever form the “look at me” might take. In fact, there really is no part of our relationship with God that is “public” except that others will see the results of our closeness as He works through us to accomplish His purpose.

I hope that doesn’t sound too harsh; but to be fair, I’m being more diplomatic than Jesus was!

With all of that said, there is of course an important role to be played by corporate prayer and worship, but clearly that isn’t what Jesus is referring to here.

Let’s be honest, when these verses are considered in context, they really don’t need much explanation, but I would like to add a note on prayer and relationship with God. God created each one of us, He knows each of us better than we know ourselves, and He comes to us where we are, relating to us in the way that He knows is most likely to be meaningful and significant. As a consequence, He relates to each one of us a little differently; there is no “one size fits all” when it comes to our relationships with Him, and anyone who tries to tell you that your relationship with Him must be like such and such is making a mistake, for our God is much bigger than that. In hearing people describe their relational experiences with God, I am often amazed by what I hear, they are so different from my own rather matter-of-fact “conversations” with Him, yet they are precious to the one describing them, just as mine are to me… and this is perfectly fine, perfectly normal, right and proper.

Yet God’s relational method is never just to make us look impressive to other people; that is the point Jesus is making here.

Next time we will continue in this passage, and in doing so, we will arrive at what is often called “The Lord’s Prayer”. I hope we will all keep this context in mind as we look at it, for in context, it is even more amazing than we might have thought… see you then!

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On Being Alone

Posted on November 2, 2015 by Don Merritt

Most people don’t really like to be alone.

I don’t mean “by themselves,” I mean “alone.”

To be alone is to have nobody to turn to, to have no help…  Most people don’t like that feeling, so they fight it, they deny it and they set about to change it.  I’ve had this experience myself; maybe you have as well. I always thought that you shouldn’t give into these kinds of feelings; I am a fighter!

I’ve come to realize that this “fighting” response is not very helpful.

It is all well and good to find oneself in a bad situation and to want to do something about it, in fact that would seem to me to be a healthy response, however the feeling of being alone is neither the situation nor the time to jump up and “do something.”  The reason is that it is precisely when we find ourselves all alone that we can come to realize that we are actually not alone at all! It is when we stop fighting and taking charge of everything that we come face to face with the fact that God has been there for us the whole time.

God is faithful, God is there, God is available to take over our heavy burdens and lead us into a better place.  The journey may not always be an easy one, but the destination is worth the trip… and yet we can only start down the road when we come to realize that we can’t do it by controlling everything.  The journey requires us to surrender to God.

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Do you ever wonder why?

Posted on November 1, 2015 by Don Merritt

moonlight

I wonder why God made the moon; what does it do? It seems like it just floats around up there and reflects light, sometimes more and sometimes less.  Does it really make any difference when you can hardly see it?  OK, I realize that it causes the whole ocean tide thing, but if the oceans just stayed in one place so to speak, would that be any big deal?

Maybe there’s quite a bit that I don’t really understand out there, but the moon; what’s to understand?  It’s just sort of extra isn’t it? If it doesn’t really do anything except reflect sunlight, then I don’t really think I believe in the moon!

Lots of people will agree with me, no doubt about that; lots of people don’t believe in church either.  “Organized religion” they call it; what’s the point?  I can worship God in nature, at home, at the seashore or downtown; what’s the point of church? No, they aren’t buying the whole church thing, and they probably will join me in not buying into the whole moon thing too.

You see, the moon and the church have a lot in common; both reflect light, both are a little mysterious and both affect things that you might not think of at first.  The church reflects the light of Truth in a dark world; the moon reflects sunlight in a dark night.  The church reflects God’s love in a hate-filled world and the moon’s reflected light has warmed the hearts of lovers since the beginning of time. The church affects the tides of society and culture through the Good News of salvation; the moon drives the tides of the sea.

Maybe I should re-think my position on the moon; maybe it has a purpose after all…

For anybody who wants to notice, the moon is a pretty good way to understand God and His purposes, because with God what you see is not always what you assume it is at first; there’s always so much more than meets the eye.

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Giving to the Needy

Posted on October 31, 2015 by Don Merritt

20141124_153458 (1)-LR

So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Matthew 6:2-4

There is a natural quality within most human beings to read an injunction like that in the verses above, and make a sort of legal check-list, so let’s be very clear about Jesus’ intentions in this teaching: He is not making a set of rules, procedures or protocols about how to give to those in need. Instead, He is speaking directly to our inner motivation for giving. Notice that whether or not to help those in need is not even mentioned; instead it is assumed.

The ones He has dubbed “hypocrites” are helping with a motivation for self aggrandizement, they want the praise and respect of their peers, to bolster their social positions. It would seem that this might impress “society” but it doesn’t have quite the same impact on the Lord. These folks wanted to impress their peers, and evidently they have their wish; and that’s all they will get.

In the Kingdom of Heaven, God wants His people to help those in need because they love God and their fellow Men, not for any worldly ulterior motive. Consider this: Has your relationship with God ever grown closer because you were praised by men? Everyone likes a little praise now and then, and a little recognition can go a long way to encourage people along the right path, but simply doing things to become popular never quite seems to bring anyone closer to God, for God doesn’t operate that way.

Quiet sacrifice for His Kingdom’s sake, on the other hand, will bring us closer to Him if we desire nothing in return for our sacrifice. The Kingdom is a place of love, community and healing precisely because the human motivation for self advancement is not present. Where this has not largely taken hold, there is little healing to be had, and love is merely discussed in academic terms.

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Relationship With God

Posted on October 30, 2015 by Don Merritt

Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.

Matthew 6:1

Thus far in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus has been showing the people how to have a better form of righteousness in their relationships and dealings with others, now He shifts the focus to show them a better relationship with God. The people of His day were used to a form of righteousness that was centered upon showing others how righteous you are, and maybe that is still the case; I’ll leave that to others to debate. It is Jesus’ clear purpose to teach something quite revolutionary and different.

The first sentence of this verse tells the story; “be careful” tells us right off that we are to be intentional in this, intentional not to practice acts of righteousness or “piety” in front of an audience. Why is that? Because it does not matter what other people think of your level of righteousness, for they have nothing to say on the subject; even when they talk quite a lot. It is only important that God knows where you are, and He knows what we do in private. That first sentence continues to the point: “…in front of others to be seen by them” tells us that if the whole reason we are doing something is to impress people, then we have a problem.

Years ago I worked in a place where everyone was made aware that on Christmas Day the boss served meals in a homeless shelter. It was common knowledge that one way to get ahead in the organization was to do the same; there was a fair amount of not so subtle pressure to be there on Christmas when the boss was there… To be sure, what the boss was doing at the shelter was a good thing, but then quite a few “movers and shakers” were there making a point on Christmas, but who was there the day after and the day after that? Christmas isn’t the only day of the year on which a person must eat. No, the gesture was merely a political one; I didn’t participate in it.

The second sentence of this verse tells the story about what Jesus is trying to impress upon His listeners: If we perform acts of righteousness simply to impress other people, then we will not receive a reward from our Father, for we have received our due from the people we have impressed with our “goodness”. Again, many people do good deeds for the wrong reasons, and let’s be honest, the guy in the homeless shelter is just happy to have a warm meal. Yes, that may be “good” but it isn’t righteousness in God’s sight. Rather, it is the same thing as trying to attain righteousness by our own ability to keep the Law instead of having faith in God.

God wants a people who do the right things when nobody else is looking, who do the right things not for worldly advantage, but because they love God and they love others: Radical indeed!

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Love… all of ‘em

Posted on October 30, 2015 by Don Merritt

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’  But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Matthew 5:43-48

This is one of the most often quoted passages of the New Testament, and for good reason. So much has been written, and no doubt many who read this have written on it at some point, so rather than commenting on it and trying to explain this or that, maybe defining a Greek word or trying to sound wise, I’ll just give you some reflections of my own. Maybe they will include something worthwhile, and if that is the case for you, then that’s great. If not, then by all means toss my wanderings out… or have a good laugh!

What kind of people does God love?

“Well certainly not the kind of people you’re hanging around with; you’ve fallen in with the wrong crowd young man!”

Maybe I was hanging around the wrong crowd, and maybe that wasn’t a good idea for me, but don’t ever think, not even for one minute, that doesn’t love them too. God loves… all of ‘em, even the naughty boys and girls. OK fine, you caught me, I never said anything like that to my mother; do you think I’m crazy?

That would be more like something my sister would have done.

Yet it doesn’t take away the fact that God really does love everybody, the good, the not so good, the sinner and the saint, the black and the white, the rich and the poor, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and the Muslim; even the Democrats and the Republicans.

It pains me to say so, but it also means that God loves my enemies, and expects me to do the same.

I’m not going to lie to you and say that this is always easy, because it isn’t. Yet, it is always the right thing to do anyway, and we can do it if we decide to.

This is what it means to live in the Kingdom, for the Kingdom that Jesus proclaimed was a community of love, where all are equal in the eyes of God. Of course in this evil age, not all people have chosen to enter into His Kingdom just yet, and we have been appointed to seek them out, even if they don’t seem lovable at first, just as Jesus did. They may say yes and they may say no, they might even call us names and throw rocks at us, but it isn’t for us to condemn them for their response or shun them for their ways and manners; it is enough for us to invite and welcome, God has the rest.

Sometimes Christians like to talk together about how wonderfully blessed we are to have entered relationship with the Lord, we talk about how great His mercy is, and all that He did to save us, and then we wonder at those who don’t see it. What is the matter with them? Yet once upon a time, someone reached out to me with an invitation to join together with the followers of Jesus, and much to my amazement I said yes to that invitation.

Who would have ever expected that?

So now here I am, so many years later; the torch is now in my hand, as it is in yours; will we deny some poor naughty child of God the chance to say yes to our invitation?

May it never be so.

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An Eye for an Eye…

Posted on October 29, 2015 by Don Merritt

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.

Matthew 5:38-42

I have pointed out many times here in the past that to the ancient Hebrew mind, God’s most notable attribute was restraint. In order for a person to follow Jesus Christ, the attribute he or she must have is restraint; that this is the key ingredient to our relationship with Him is no coincidence. In this paragraph, Jesus is making the same point as He runs through four illustrations of a self-denying restraint that seems radical by worldly standards.

The old Law had provisions for retribution, and the eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth principle was intended to ensure that a person’s rights were protected, and that punishment fit the crime. However, history shows that this principle was not always followed in an evenhanded way, and by the time of Jesus, punishments for damaging other people were usually found in the form of monetary fines. From Jesus’ point of view, in the Kingdom, these things were not really necessary, for our reliance should be upon God alone for justice.

The first example deals with insults, as a slap to the face would have been considered, as opposed to being a violent attack. Jesus did not respond to the insults hurled at Him; neither should we respond. If an evil person uses a court to take your property; let him have it. If you are compelled into labor, give extra, and always be ready to help those who need it. Far from announcing a series of specific commands or new rules and regulations for us to be legalistic about, Jesus is simply seeking to shift our focus from the physical things of this world, to a deeper and more significant focus on that which is above, and letting God be the judge who will bring about true justice to those who cause harm to others.

Some might suggest that this is a recipe for Christians to be doormats, but I see this as something quite different. I see this as Christians being called to great strength, for through all of this, we are called to rely not on our own ability to strike back, but upon the inner strength of God to overcome evil with good; this is the way of love.

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