Foundations for Our Future (40)

by: The Rev. Dr. Jon Shuler 

Go...Be Reconciled

Our Lord’s teaching about reconciliation is too important to go past quickly. Let us return to Matthew 5:23,24.

Christ Jesus says that when we “remember” that we have sinned against another we must immediately deal with it. We must not delay. We must not rationalize it or prevaricate. We must “go.” And that going will mean we must humble ourselves and confess to our brother that we know we sinned against him, and ask for his forgiveness.

The seriousness of this teaching must not escape us. The body of Christ, the church of Jesus Christ for which he died, will be riven with conflict and ultimately weakened and impoverished gravely, if we do not see the centrality of the call to all brothers and sisters to love one another as Christ loves us. Our Lord tells us that to imagine we are worshipping God as we ought, when we have sinned against another, is to engage in a behavior that is utterly contrary to God’s will.

As much as we see the importance of this in the body of Christ, what of that most sacred part of the church, the homes of believers, and especially our marriages? Two people who have given their lives to the Lord, and who are married, are also siblings in Christ.” They are called to live this truth day by day in a most intimate way. Are we learning to live this teaching of Jesus there? Do we dare to come to the altar of God unreconciled?

Foundations for Our Future (41)

by: The Rev. Dr. Jon Shuler

The Judge

We have seen in the last two days that our Lord Jesus makes absolutely clear that we are to live in the community of his people in such a way that we are truly one. We are not to be divided by all the hostilities that divide the world. We are to be a people reconciled to God and to one another. Today let us go one verse further, and see the seriousness with which the Lord continues to teach us. (Matthew 5:25)

On the surface it may seem that there is a shift in the focus, from our relationships in the church to our life in the world. But in fact the Lord is showing us the bigger context by giving an illustration that everyone can understand. If you have wronged another, and the facts are irrefutable, you do not want to be taken in to court if you can settle the dispute beforehand. Otherwise you will be judged in the wrong and sent to prison.

This stark example shows, again, the utter seriousness of Jesus’ teaching. To live with unreconciled disputes in the household of God is to put our very freedom in jeopardy. We will be judged severely on that great day.

That all who profess to be followers of Jesus will one day be judged is an absolutely clear teaching of the entire New Testament. There will be no avoiding it. God who is holy, will exact justice. We will stand before the Creator and Judge of all mankind.

Foundations for Our Future (42)

by: The Rev. Dr. Jon Shuler

Five Weighty Verses

Those of you who are actually starting the day with prayer for the Lord to speak through the scriptures (which I pray means all of you) will have been struck this week by the seriousness of our calling in Christ Jesus. The Lord really means it when he says “follow me” and not the ways of the world. His “but I say to you” (Matthew 5:21) carries heavy weight for a true believer. He or she wants to come under the authority of the Lord, and recognizes the challenge.

My favorite copy of the Bible is the English Standard Version (ESV), and I highly recommend it. But sometimes it, like all things done by human beings, can lead us astray without meaning to. The section we have been praying over this week (Matthew 5:21-25) is printed under the heading “Anger,” but it is really all about relationships.  The way believers relate to one another is to be unlike anything the fallen world knows. The Lord Jesus is making absolutely plain, at the beginning of his public ministry, that life in his church is to be different. It is to be like the love of God for his beloved Son.

Because we are all sinful creatures, the pattern of life the Lord sets before us is beyond our reach without his grace. But we must want it. We must ask for it. We must seek to live it. If we do those things, the kingdom of heaven will draw near.

Foundations for Our Future (43)

by: The Rev. Dr. Jon Shuler

Never (Again!)

Before we move on to a new subject we must pray over one more verse (Matthew 5:26), and once again we are drawn up short. Jesus explicitly states that if we are unwilling to be reconciled with someone we have wronged, we will “never get out until [we] have paid the last penny.” What can he mean?

First, the terror of the declaration should move us to a deep quiet of soul. Jesus is not fooling around. He is telling us that God almighty will require recompense for our sins. The idea that somehow we just have all our sins wiped away at the judgment, no matter what we have done in this life, is not biblical. There will be be a reckoning.

I know that for many of us, the last sentence will be upsetting. We have internalized a part of the truth but not the whole. Yes, it is true that the Lord Jesus took the penalty of our sins upon himself. We could never atone for them, not one of us. But it is not true that it does not then matter how we live. We are not to “sin that grace may abound.” (Romans 6:1)

The many subjects this truth brings up are not, today, before our eyes. What is before us is the terrible solemnity of consequence for unreconciled relationships in the body of Christ. There will be a penalty for it. A penalty that will have to be paid by the sinner.

Foundations for Our Future (44)

by: The Reverened Dr. Jon Shuler

Unseen Background

The impending Christmas Season finds me prayerfully deciding to delay our forward progress in the Sermon on the Mount, and to turn to a reality that is always in my thinking but may not be quite so clear to all my readers. That is that we share in the life and grace of the church. This is the unseen background to all that I write.

As I have tried to explain, I am sure that the reason our Lord first turns to the issue of reconciliation, when brothers and sisters have become alienated (Matthew 5:21-26), is because of the absolutely essential place of the body of Christ in the Christian dispensation. This is something that all faithful Christians believe.

Anglicans have for centuries followed certain patterns of worship, prayer, church order, and theological explanation because of deep convictions about the church. We believe that when the gospel of Jesus Christ came to England, in the late first or early second century, that the truth of God was being revealed. We do not think that a portion was received, but that all that a follower of Jesus should believe and know was included. This divine knowledge could not stand alone in the life of one person, or one family, or even one small congregation. It was something shared with all other believers in the God ordained community of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Holy Scriptures that we are submitting to as our ultimate authority are God’s gift to his church.

Foundations for Our Future (45)

by: The Reverened Dr. Jon Shuler

Twelve Days

Customs have developed over many centuries in the life of the church, and all of them are rooted in the desire that they would help make holy the entire life of believers. Thus it was that the church began to pay extra attention to certain days and seasons. Not so they would become a burden, but that they might help to set us free. The first of these days was the Day of Resurrection, known to us as Easter. The second was the Nativity of the Lord, known to us as Christmas.

Matthew begins his gospel with a genealogy. He recounts the physical descent of Jesus to his earthly guardian and father, Joseph (Matthew 1:1-17). Then he immediately describes the miraculous spiritual truth that our Lord was born to a virgin named Mary, and that his true Father is Almighty God. (Matthew 1:18-25) Mary conceived because the Holy Spirit of God enfolded her in his grace and truth, and the second person of the Trinity took human flesh. Nine months later the child was born. The incarnate son of God.

From the beginning believers have been in such awe before this great and glorious mystery, that they marked the time as special above almost all others. Just such devotion led to the ancient English custom of keeping twelve days for the Christmas Season. The joy and wonder of it all was too much for one day. On the night of December 24th, twelve glorious days would begin.

Foundations for Our Future (46)

by: The Reverened Dr. Jon Shuler

The Eve of Christmas

In our Lord’s time days were counted as beginning at sundown. Thus the end of one day of work ushered in the rest that would precede the next days work. It was a time for family and friends, for food and fellowship. It is because of this that the first celebration of Christmas always begins on the night of December 24th. This evening will be the first day of the twelve that comprise Christmastide.

The gospel always read on this night is taken from that of Luke. Matthew has given us the truth about Joseph’s part in the mystery of the Incarnation, but Luke uniquely unfolds for us the role of the blessed Virgin Mary. (Luke 2:1-14) The two together reveal profound truth that is central to all that Christians believe. Indeed the very foundations of our faith are set forth in these two accounts. The coming of the Messiah of Israel, the Christ, the Son of God, has occurred as it was promised from the beginning. God’s promises are all true. Even more wonderfully, the one born is the Savior of the world.

When someone believes these two cardinal doctrines the most ancient of titles becomes real to them. Jesus is both Christ and Savior. Because he is the Christ, the anointed beloved Son of God, he is able to be our Savior. And because he is Savior we must follow and serve him as Lord. Before these truths we kneel and adore him.

Foundations for Our Future (47)

by: The Reverened Dr. Jon Shuler

No Room in the Inn

All that transpired around the birth of our Lord Jesus, during the twelve days of Christmas, unfolds the beauty and majesty of the gospel. Today, the second day, let us pause at the actual details of the birth. Again we will hear the words of Luke. Mary “gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.” (Luke 2:7)

Theologians debate whether the Incarnation or the Resurrection is the preeminent doctrine of the Christian Faith. I think the truth is they are inseparable.. Our Lord’s life, ministry, teaching, death, and resurrection are all of a piece. None of it can be ignored without serious damage to the truth that God has revealed to us. Still, that the Son of God the almighty Father took upon himself human flesh, became a man like other men, to live a life of sinless obedience, and take upon himself the sins of the whole world, has an emotional centrality in my heart. But it begins in a stable.

This birth was accompanied by pain and suffering, just like our own. This moment of new life was witnessed in quiet solitude by just two people. Mary and Joseph alone before the hosts of heaven. There was no room anywhere else, but in their marriage. And the birth cry of this child brought them joy. A Savior was born, God had told them, and only they knew.

Foundations for Our Future (48)

by: The Reverened Dr. Jon Shuler

Sharing the Feast

There was a special day in England long before Christmas had come to be so central and it is called St. Stephen’s Day. Always celebrated on the 26th day of December, it reminds believers that the story of Christ does not leave us long at the manger. Stephen was the first follower of Jesus to die for his faith. (Acts 7:54-60) His death is not a part of Christmas story, but its roots in the church’s memory are so deep that it stays in the Liturgical Calendar. He was said to be “a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 6:5)

It was not long after Stephen was chosen to be one of the first seven deacons that he began to be revealed as a powerful preacher. It was his preaching that led to his martyrdom, but he is also remembered because he was chosen to serve the poor and needy. He is associated with Christmas in England now because his feast day became known as “Boxing Day.” It was then that families shared gifts with those not a part of the immediate family, especially those who served them. The feast of Christmas was too wonderful to keep to themselves. It had to be shared with all those they cared about and loved.

How might we share today some of our Christmas joy with others? How can we keep on sharing the feast?

Foundations for Our Future (49)

by: The Reverened Dr. Jon Shuler

John the Evangelist

Today is the third day of Christmas, and this year the Sunday after Christmas took the place of another ancient day of memory in the church’s life. In most years the 27th of December is marked as the Feast of St. John the Evangelist. The one to whom we owe so much, as the author of the Gospel of John.

There is no certainty about the date of his work, but it is almost universally believed that he wrote his gospel last of the four. He was uniquely qualified to do so, as he was one of the first of the disciples to follow Jesus, and he was known among them to be particularly close to the Lord. His friends called him “the beloved disciple.”

Without his gospel, there is so much we would not know. Almost one fourth of it tells the story of the last night Jesus spent with his disciples, at the final supper. The extended teaching he gave them, and through them gives us, is almost without parallel in the New Testament. (John 13-17)

He is also associated with Christmastide for another indirect reason. He was asked by Jesus to take care of Mary after his death. “From that hour [John] took her to his own home.” (John 19:27)

Mary was a widow by then, and the church has ever since had a special care for widows. Is there someone in your life whose widowhood you are meant to relieve?