Foundations for Our Future (20)

by: Jon Shuler

To Show Mercy

Matthew 5:7 introduces us to a subject that our Lord will never tire of teaching about, mercy shown to those who have done wrong. He will bring his disciples face to face with this most blessed behavior, time and again, because it describes something so true of God. To receive mercy, forgiveness when one deserves punishment, is one of life’s most wonderful experiences. It is meant to instill in us the desire to do likewise for those who have done wrong against us. We are to be like our God, who has forgiven us so much, and who has born with us for so long when we have gone astray. Mercy is so wonderful to receive, yet so difficult to bestow. Why?

The full revelation of the gospel of Christ Jesus makes it clear that men and women will remain imprisoned in their own selfishness and sin without God’s grace. We are, because of our fallen nature, so preoccupied with ourselves, that any slight or hurt that is given to us by another elicits our desire to see them judged. And often quite harshly. We sin all the time and yet forgive ourselves, but we are slow to forgive others.

It must not be so. We must ask for the gift of God’s Spirit to become merciful. “Blessed are the merciful.”

Foundations for Our Future (21)

by: The Rev. Dr. Jon Shuler

The Pure in Heart

Almost nothing I know is more challenging in the Sermon on the Mount than this verse: only the pure in heart will see God. Matthew 5:8 is our focus today, and it challenges us to the core. What does our Lord want us to understand?

First it is important to remember the way the Scripture uses the word heart. It does not mean the emotional side of human life. It means the “seat,” or center, of all that a person is. Their truest self. Their very being. When the word “heart” is used alone, it means what we more easily understand by the command to “love God with all our heart, and soul, and mind, and strength.” Everything that is within us.

When all that is within me is unsullied, purified, whole in the site of God, then I am “pure in heart.” It is a state that can only be aimed for when I truly recognize my need to mourn for how far from this is my natural condition. It is an end vision for every true disciple, however.

As we have seen again and again, the Beatitudes confront us with a picture of reality that only the grace of God can help us achieve. For my emotions, my mind, and my will to be pure, only the Lord Jesus will avail. And he stands ready to hear the cry of my heart. “Come and make me holy dear Lord.”

Foundations for Our Future (22)

by: The Rev. Dr. Jon Shuler

The Great Thanksgiving

For most Americans, the Thanksgiving Holiday is one of the favorites. Since being declared by President Lincoln in 1863, it has been marked by great family gatherings, in memory of the first Pilgrim’s grateful thanks that they had food enough to survive the Winter of 1620. For many of us the Covid 19 Pandemic has dramatically altered this year’s celebration. And it brings a sense of loss.

But there is another thanksgiving that Christians have always understood to be the highest one of all. That is the Sunday remembrance of the great provision made by our Lord Jesus for the redemption of the world. This remembrance, commanded to be observed by his faithful ones, is rehearsed liturgically every Sunday. The prayer offered at the Table of the Lord by the celebrating clergy is called “The Great Thanksgiving.“ In

Greek the word is “eucharistein” from which we get “Holy Eucharist.” It is our highest and holiest moment in corporate worship. It is our sacrifice of thanksgiving.

Centuries ago, it was revealed to the psalmist that one sacrifice glorified God. It was not that of animals or deeds, but the “sacrifice of thanksgiving.” (Psalm 50:23)

When we sit down today, to share this American feast, let us all remember that we are part of the global family of God who have not only been given the food to survive another Winter, but the food of everlasting life, and for both let us give thanks. 

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by: The Rev. Dr. Jon Shuler

The Peacemakers

God is referred to in the Holy Scriptures as the God of Peace, and God’s Son is declared to be the Prince of Peace, so it should come as no surprise to us that Jesus declares his children to be peacemakers (Matthew 5:9). He has made peace for us by the blood of his cross. Peace between God and man, and peace between man and man.

Still, if we look about us in the world what we see everywhere is conflict and war. The natural state seems to be anything but peaceful. How can this be?

The absolutely irrefutable answer to that question is the biblical testimony that mankind has fallen from God’s intention in the Creation. The war between brother and brother, between man and wife, between tribe and nation, is rooted in the perverse and sinful human heart.

Our Lord Jesus has been taking his disciples through a series of declarations about blessedness, and they come in what would appear to be a reasoned order. If we are poor in spirit, if we mourn for our sinfulness, if we are meek and teachable, it will bring us to hunger and thirst after righteousness. That will lead directly to the change in us that demands mercy toward others, and that will require a pure heart.

To walk with the beatitudes, even for a few days, will draw us to see that God is calling us to be like him. His children are to bring peace and to make peace.

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by: The Rev. Dr. Jon Shuler

Look Up

We have been through a significant week with the teaching of Jesus. While much of the world has been caught up in an orgy of eating and then buying, we have been called to a different kind of hunger, and a different kind of quest. We have been shown the character of true Christian people. We have been looking at the portrait of the “blessed company of all faithful people” that we give thanks for every Sunday.

Reviewing Matthew 5:6 to 5:9 is humbling for every one of us. In moments of exaltation we may say we want to follow the Lord, but in the daily reality that is our lives we all too frequently fall away. But the persistent word of the Lord to us is “blessed are those….”

When times of sadness overwhelm us, or the sudden awareness of our weakness pulls us down, we must look up. We must turn to the one who loves us and reaches out his hand to draw us to himself. “Get up my child”, he seems to say. “You are mine, and I am at work in you to bring you home. Do not despair, your awareness of your frailty makes room for my grace. I am sufficient for you. I am your salvation.”

Can we pray for that truth to be ours today, and always?

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by: The Rev. Dr. Jon Shuler

Persecution

Nothing prepares a new believer for the sudden discovery that someone is not pleased that they have decided to follow Jesus. At first it may come as mild displeasure, or social ostracism. Sometimes it is conflict inside your own household, or even in the community of the church. But serious persecution is another matter altogether.

Our Lord Jesus makes it very clear that to be actively opposed, to be made to suffer, because of a determination to live “for righteousness sake” (Matthew 5:10) is to be blessed. From the perspective of heaven suffering, for doing what is right in God’s sight, is a gateway into blessing. How can this be?

The answer, of course, is to be found in the example of the one who has called us to follow. The foundation of becoming a true disciple is when we begin the journey of being conformed to Christ. If there were those who persecuted and crucified our Lord, how could we imagine there would not also be those who would turn on his disciples? All over the world, in our day, godly men and women are suffering such persecution.

No one should ever seek persecution, of course, but if and when it does come we must remember and hold fast to what Christ Jesus has told us. “blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake.”

Today, thank God that Christians live in peace in this nation, and pray for those who are being persecuted.

Foundations for Our Future (26)

by: The Rev. Dr. Jon Shuler

On My Account

The Lord has given his disciples seven beatitudes (Matthew 5:2-9), each of which is directed at revealing the character of those who will follow him and receive “the kingdom of heaven.” But in the next three verses he shows us that the cost of following him may be very high indeed. It may lead to persecution.

The spiritual condition of being persecuted “for righteousness’ sake” (v.10) is to be blessed, Jesus says. Now he amplifies that teaching by making it doubly clear that this blessing comes only to those who suffer on his “account” (Matthew 5:11). He is not describing the outcome that attends our foolish errors, our mistakes , or our manifold sins. He is describing what happens when we are “falsely” accused, when we have done what is right and true according to the Word of God, and “evil” words are uttered against us.

Within days of the Resurrection and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the first Pentecost, opposition was building against the early church. There were some who “were enraged and wanted to kill” the leaders (Acts 5:33). When the apostles were arrested and beaten, then freed, they returned to the company of disciples “rejoicing that they were considered worthy to suffer dishonor for the name” (Acts 5:41).

Let us pray today to know the difference between not getting our way, and suffering on the Lord’s account.

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by: The Rev. Dr. Jon Shuler 

Rejoice and Be Glad

The beatitudes end with a remarkable declaration. There is nothing less than a glorious outcome for those who are “reviled and persecuted,” as followers of Jesus. They will receive a “reward in heaven” (Matthew 5:12). And the promise of that reward is to cause them to “rejoice and be glad.”

Many a disciple has begun his or her walk with Jesus through tears of repentance, but all those who are born again of the Spirit of God experience the gift of joy. It is common to be so wonderfully overcome by the goodness and mercy of God, that days, weeks and even months pass by in a state of mild euphoria. But that season comes to an end as we learn more and more of the truth that “the way is hard that leads to life” (Matthew 7:14).

Yet here, as he lays down the very beginning teachings for his disciples, the Lord opens a profound truth that we all must learn. There is marvelous and profound joy set before us. A joy that can even be ours in the midst of suffering. A joy that comes because we know the presence of the Lord now, and the certainty of our destination in him.

To be conformed to Christ is a matter of small steps, taken over a lifetime. Each day we are presented with opportunities to die to self and live to God. Pray for the grace to walk that narrow path today, with joy.

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by: The Rev. Dr. Jon Shuler 

Salt

There is a ministry that all Christians share. It applies equally to the least of us and to the ones entrusted with the highest responsibilities. We are sent into the world as salt (Matthew 5:13). And we must not lose our saltiness!

The Lord Jesus has just made clear that the path of following him may involve suffering. He now begins to show us why. The world is under the power of darkness. The things of this world have corrupted the purpose of God. The followers of Christ Jesus are to pierce that darkness. They are to hold off the world’s corruption. They are to season it with salt.

Wherever a true Christian goes, there is a ministry that is constantly present. They are to bring the savor of a different way of living, a different way of seeing, a different way of speaking, to every situation and circumstance they find themselves in. They are to be salt.

How does salt lose its saltiness? In the first century salt was not as pure as we now know it. Salt could get watered down, if left in the rain, and become almost useless. For us, the parallel is the watering down of our spiritual life that comes as we get more conformed to this world than to Christ Jesus. It is almost always a slow process of decay, but it can and does happen when we take our eyes off of our Lord.

Turn to him today and pray to remain salty.

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by: The Rev. Dr. Jon Shuler

Light

It is rare for us today to ever be without some background light, but in our Lord’s day this was not so. People knew real darkness when the sun went down, and it was often a cover for evil. For the disciple of Jesus, part of our calling is to bring light where there is spiritual darkness. And Jesus tells us we are the light of the world. Not we will be, we are! (Matthew 5:16)

Our Lord is also trying to make very plain is that we are not to be “hidden disciples.” It is not enough to believe in him, and to have a private relationship with him, we are to be known to be his. Our faith is to pierce any darkness we encounter. Wherever we live, or work, or play.

Here also, for the first time explicitly, our Lord makes clear that this is a corporate calling as well. The community of believers, the church, is “a city set on a hill” and it “cannot be hidden.” How shall we understand this?

Of course there is a physical interpretation. We have a building, and a sign on the road in front of our sanctuary. We have a website and a facebook page. We are not physically or digitally hidden from the gaze of others. But doesn’t it also mean that we are to be known as a gospel “light giving” fellowship?

Pray today for all the Christian churches of our community to be light for God. Not “hidden” in the darkness.