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909 North Vanderveer 512-756-2229 Burnet, Texas 78611 EMAIL |
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909 North Vanderveer 512-756-2229 Burnet, Texas 78611 EMAIL |
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“Putting Out Into the Deep” Several years ago Wade and I
traveled to In Luke’s gospel we read about the
men who became Jesus’ first disciples. And their experience with him gave them
a whole new life. Our text tells us that these men were near the These men worked hard and
went out, day after day, yet the fish were hard to find. Their coffers were empty.
So were their lives. That is, until Jesus arrived by the side of the
water. When he offered advice to head out to the deep water and lower
their nets, his advice went against everything they knew about fishing!
They had many years’ experience, yet Jesus offered them new life
experience! Verse 5 offers some insight into their doubt as Simon says, “Master we have
worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let
down the nets”. Within minutes, their nets were filled
to the breaking point! Never had they seen such a catch! They were so
excited and the overflowing nets showed them just how empty their lives
truly were. What a contrast! God showed them that if they gave up control, he
could fill their lives in the same way he filled their nets! Simon Peter looked at the full nets….spilling
over with fish and began to ponder the emptiness of his life. The routine of
fishing, repairing and cleaning the nets, and then returning to the sea each
day had yielded emptiness all the way around. In Jesus, God offered more
than a set routine that allowed for nothing unusual or remarkable. In this man
Jesus, and in these bursting nets, Simon Peter was overcome by the emptiness
of his life and said in verse 8, “Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man!” He put out into the deep and in so doing, he relinquished control of his life. All he could do
was fall on his knees and confess his humble humanity. Simon Peter,
James and John launched out into the sea in much the same way as
desperate Cubans launch into the scary waters of the sea, seeking new
life and new freedom. And in that
launching, these men turned over their control, their lives,
their trust, and their freedom…turned it all over to
Jesus. They relinquished all the control they thought they had over
their lives…and followed Jesus. Could you do that? Truly, honestly,
could you relinquish your blackberries, your laptops and your cell phones to
follow the master? Could you put out into the deep of your lives and take the
risk of having no control other than to do as Simon Peter, James and
John did and to fall on your knees and confess before
the Master? If you look at it that way then you have to admit that the biggest
thing that keeps us from being disciples when the Master calls is our need for control,
or more accurately stated, our illusion of being in control! We are
control junkies! When the massive earthquake his
Haiti three weeks ago, destroying homes, cathedrals and the capital building
there, nothing was more devastating to the relief efforts than the
destruction of cell phone towers. The electronic grid that enabled people to
communicate with one another was suddenly gone. In just a moment,
everyone, everywhere was suddenly out of touch, out of
control and all on their own. For some, it was debilitating. Whenever natural disaster strikes, the
biggest nightmare for emergency crews is the people who won’t evacuate. We saw it
in Katrina. We saw it in Ike. We saw it in the fires in My friends, let’s look for a moment
at the last verse of this lesson. Verse 11 says, “When they had brought their boats to shore,
they left everything and they followed him”. When we do as Simon
Peter, James and John did and literally just drop everything to follow
the Master, only then can we truly be disciples. Unencumbered by all the
things we think we must control. Unencumbered by all the plans we
have because we instead trust God’s plan for our lives. True disciples hand over whatever control
they might have had to make way for the power of God, the power of faith,
and the power of the cross. Have
you handed over yours? Can you see the fears and anxieties that drive
your life? Is Jesus the mascot or the monarch of your life? And
like those terrified people leaving Blessings, Ellen “Mountaintop Moments” In a few weeks there will be two
Walk to Emmaus weekends: one for women and one
for men. Over the years I’ve known many people who have attended
the Emmaus weekend and I’ve participated as a team member more times than I can
recall. But there is one common denominator that I hear from
participants as they describe their weekend after the fact: a mountain top
experience. You know what I mean...one of those moments when you really
feel close to God, really in tune with God’s plan; where everything
seems new and exciting. For some, mountain top experiences happen at the birth
of a baby or on their wedding day. For others it might have been
college graduation or a special experience at church camp. No matter how
it occurs, you never want to come down from the mountain! We want to
hang on to that moment forever. We want to stay right there with Jesus and
let the rest of the world go by without us. In the gospel reading for today we
hear Luke the physician describe his version of the event we call “The
Transfiguration of Jesus”. Mark and Matthew also describe this event with minor
differences in details. If you saw the interview on Monday with Drew Brees following the amazing New Orleans’ Saints
victory in Sunday’s super bowl, you heard him say that he woke up Monday
morning and had to ask his wife if the day before had really happened!
For Brees, it was such a mountain top
experience, such an amazing feat, that he found it hard to believe! He
was still marveling in the glow of it all. Don’t you know Peter James
and John must have felt the same way after their adventure up the mountain with
Jesus? For them, it was a brief glimpse of the reality that lies
just beyond everyday life. For Jesus, it was a time of confirmation and
affirmation of his ministry. But notice that Jesus didn’t linger
on the mountain top with his disciples as we sometimes want to do in our
mountain top experiences. He quickly led them back down the mountain and
into the real world, in spite of Peter’s desire to pitch a tent and camp there
for a long time. Jesus brought them back to reality; back to the daily
routine of teaching, preaching and caring for the broken and hurting people of
the world. Jesus settled their feet firmly back on the ground and into
their world of serving. My friends, Jesus always
helps us keep our feet planted firmly on the ground as we care
for those who struggle and minister to those in need. When our feet
are planted firmly on the ground we can serve in places like LaCare, the community dinners, Angel Food Ministry, the
Children’s Advocacy Center, Wednesday Night Live, the Boys’ and Girls’ club,
and many other agencies that need our help. When we experience
the mountain top with Jesus, we’re more likely to tend to the needs of our
brothers and sisters in this world we live in. Jesus is not just on the
mountain top but in the nursing homes and hospitals; in the valley of fears
and tears of everyday life. And thankfully, Jesus is there for us
even in our repeated failures. A couple of weeks ago Travis Clark
helped me set up my facebook account. As I told you
last week, I’m a hold-out on many new things like blackberries, ipods and such but finally decided I needed a facebook account because that’s the way many of the
younger generation communicate. With a facebook
account I might be able to better communicate with and stay connected to our
college students in a way that I’ve not been able to in the past. It’s like text
messaging. If you want to communicate with a teen or college student, you have
to speak their language and their language is now spoken through media
and technology. Anyway, now I’m on Facebook
but have no idea what to do with it! I’ve got a ways to go!
Whether or not I like it, Facebook is now a ministry
tool and I’d better get on board if I want to stay current! I am concerned that those who
communicate primarily through Facebook, twitter or
text messaging are in danger of losing a vital life skill: face-to-face
communication. Sometimes when we take away the electronic tools we find
vulnerable people who like to hide behind electronic filters for fear of
being vulnerable. When Moses asks God “show me your glory”,
God agrees. But in Exodus 33 God does add the limitation, saying in
verse 20 “you
cannot see my face, for no one shall see me and live”. God does
allow Moses a sneak peak at the back of the divine as he walks away. In today’s Gospel lesson the
relationship between God and God’s people shifts from a Facebook
kind of connection to a Face-to-Face encounter! As Jesus stands before God in
prayer, his heart and mind and spirit is in full communication with God.
God gives us the gift of mountain
top experiences so we can meet Jesus there and be strengthened
for work down here in the valley. It is there he often reveals
his plan to us. If you have ever truly experienced the mountain
top, you’ll never forget the valley below. And if you’ve seen
the love in Jesus’ eyes for each one of us, remembering that Jesus’
face is the human face of God, then you can’t help but want
to serve him. It’s our human instinct bubbling out in love for the
world. And it’s a gift from the face on the mountaintop to us.
Thanks be to God! Amen! Blessings, Ellen Selling Your Soul” Have you ever seen the popular
Broadway musical, “Damn Yankees”? Joe Hardy, the protagonist in the show makes
a famous statement in that show, saying, “I’d sell my soul to play for the
Washington Senators!” Joe is a middle-aged couch potato who watched baseball on
television and most of the time his beloved Washington Senators lost to “those damn Joe tries out for the team and
impresses the manager, winning a place on the roster. Soon, Joe is making
headlines and the Senators begin to win games and improve in the standings. As
the season draws to a close, the Yankees and Senators are neck-in-neck
competing for a chance to go to the World Series. Even though the team is
successful and Joe’s dreams are alive, he begins to miss his old life,
especially his friends at work and his family. He begins to wonder how he can escape
the pact he made with the devil. As the season comes down to its’ final
game, it falls to one final inning, and ultimately, one last out. Joe is in
center field and the Senators are ahead by one run. A crack of the bat sends
Joe racing toward the fence. As he runs, suddenly he is transformed back into
the middle aged couch potato! The devil is furious that Joe broke the pact and
wants his old life back. Even as a middle aged man, Joe still manages to run
back and make the catch, crashing through the center field fence in the
process. He runs in fear that his real identity will be uncovered. He had been transformed in body but not in
heart. Thank heavens the devil never truly captured his heart. Sadly, the
people who saw Joe as a baseball hero, never saw the real
Joe, only a fictitious character. Our Gospel lesson this evening
reminds us of our need for transformation from the inside out! We must
be transformed so that God will be pleased with what is inside our
hearts, not just on what’s seen from the outside. There’s no better
place for us to make that shift than at the beginning of this season of Lent. Jesus
is quite clear in this lesson that we should not practice piety or anything
else that does not genuinely represent who we are. Jesus speaks of three
distinct characteristics of disciples: Almsgiving, Prayer and Fasting. Let’s look at Almsgiving. The
definition of the word “alms” is, “to give anything freely to help the poor”. It
has always been a basic discipline of the Christian life. When we give our
alms, we are called to do so in a way that only God knows. To have others know
isn’t the problem. The problem lies in our attitude for giving. What’s
our intent? Why do we do what we do? Most people who give alms faithfully
do so realizing that ultimately all we have is a gift from God. It’s really not
ours’ anyway. God has freely given to us in abundance. Can we respond to the
One who first loved us by demonstrating in action and heart a spirit of giving? The same thing can be said about
prayer. Do we do so in a way that makes it a spectacle? Do we pray to be
displaying something or are our prayers humble petitions of God, seen perhaps
only by God? Or do we pray in public in a showy or dramatic way to make is
appear holy? Jesus says we are to go to our room and pray in such a way that
does not attract attention, only God’s ear. Prayer is another basic discipline of the
Christian life. It’s our opportunity to speak openly with God, knowing he hears
our every word. There has been much controversy over prayer because we often
pray and then ask God to answer in a certain and specific way. If God chooses
to answer in some other way, we’re often disenchanted. We forget that
our prayers do not change God. Our prayers change us. And we can be
confident that God will answer our every prayer. We just have to be open
to the fact that God might answer in a way that God chooses, rather than the
way we expect. And I promise you: that is the answer that is best for us.
Sometimes we know that instantly. Sometimes it takes years for us to
realize and we thank God for not answering in the way we
thought we had to have something work out! And my friends the ultimate litmus
test of prayer is simply asking, “Have I changed on the inside or am I hollow
inside?” Fasting. When we fast we don’t
moan and groan and complain and do things that draw attention to ourselves. Funny how the disciple of
fasting is pretty foreign to most of us because we automatically think of
abstaining from food. But as I’ve said before, there are many things in
our lives that we would do well to abstain from. The powerful nature of fasting
is the fact that we fast from anything that threatens to come between us and
our understanding of who God is. Bottom line: we don’t do these
spiritual disciplines for Lent so that others will be drawn to us or admire us,
but we do so as private disciplines so that our relationship with God will be
made stronger and closer. We don’t seek to be transformed from the outside in
so others can see, but from the inside out so we feel the difference; so
we feel a closer connection to God. Joe Hardy was unable to change his
physical appearance so as to achieve fame and glory for himself. Ultimately,
his glory was temporary. He finally had to accept who he was and accept that.
Our goal during this Lenten season should be to transform ourselves from the
inside out so we feel the difference and so we are changed for the better in
the process. Again, we must look closely inside ourselves and understand what
motivates us to change. In so doing we’ll learn a lot about ourselves, but even
more about who God is and what God wants for us. And
if we learn that lesson this Lent, won’t that be blessing enough? Thanks be to God! Amen! Blessings, Ellen “Surrounded by Temptations!” My friends, this morning we begin
our Lenten journey together. In this gospel lesson we find ourselves traveling
with Jesus into the wilderness where he was tempted
over and over again. Like last week’s lesson, there are also accounts of this event
in both Matthew and Mark’s gospels which says to me that this was important
enough to Jesus that he wanted to share it with his disciples. He wanted
them to know and he wants us to know that he faced the
same temptations we face every day. One of the most challenging
temptations most of us face is integrity.
Every day we are tempted in some way to make a bad decision. Many times those
temptations are such that we know for sure we can “get away with it” and no one
will ever know. It might be shaving a stroke off of our golf game or not
correcting the cashier who unknowingly gives us too much change in a
transaction. If you think about it it’s not the big huge things that
will generally get us into trouble. It’s all the little things, the
steps that lead us away from our core values. If you’re perceptive, you can almost
hear the words of Jesus to the Tempter in the background saying, “One does not
live by bread alone.” My
friends one of the greatest tests and temptations of the faith is the
way we deal with others. Do we do so with integrity? Another area in which we struggle in
temptation is in doing the right thing for the right reasons.
There’s a fictitious story about this involving Jesus and his disciples. They
were walking along a rocky road one day when Jesus asked each of his disciples
to pick up a stone and carry it for him. According to the story, John
picked up a large stone while Peter grabbed one that he could easily
carry in his pocket. No great sacrifice. Jesus led the disciples to the top
of the mountain where he continued teaching and he ignored the stones
until about Later that same day, as they were
headed down the mountain along the same stony path, Jesus told his
disciples again to pick up a stone for him. This time Peter picked up the largest
one he could carry. Jesus led the disciples to a river and there he sat and
they talked some more. Then Jesus asked the disciples to throw their stones
into the water. Bewildered, they did as he asked. Jesus then asked them, “for whom did you carry the stone?” Sometimes as disciples of Jesus we
are asked to carry stones for the Master. At times the stones will morph
into food that will nourish and sustain us.
Other times we will simply be asked to be obedient and carry the
stone because it is expected. One of the questions we might be asked one
day could be, “for
whom did you carry the stone?” Do we do it for Jesus or do we
do it for ourselves? It’s important that we examine our motives and understand what drives
us to do what we do. Our motives need to be aligned with God’s
intent for our lives. As I said
Wednesday evening at the Ash Wednesday service, Lent is an especially good
time to examine our motives for doing what we do in all things. One of the most difficult
temptations for us is to forget the
meaning of our faith. We’re tempted at times to forget that Jesus faced
everything we face but never gave up. Hebrews My friends, there is no
temptation that we can face in this lifetime in which our Lord will be absent
from us. Our Lord will be there to help us remain steadfast in times of temptation
and struggle. After all, he was tempted in the wilderness in
powerful and frightening ways and yet he remained faithful. By
his grace, we can do the same. My friends, what is tempting you now?
What has your tummy turned inside out at this very moment? What turmoil
are you facing today? Hear me when I say that you can bring it right
here to this rail and trust it to the One who shared your struggle and eagerly
awaits your calling upon his name for strength. Thanks be
to God! Amen! Blessings, Ellen |