296 Hype and Humanity

   (Note: This blog entry is based on the text for “Hype and Humanity”, originally shared on January 31, 2024. It was the 296^th video for our YouTube Channel, Streams of Living Water (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB7KnYS1bpHKaL2OseQWCnw), co-produced with my wife, Rev. Sally Welch.)

   The hype machine is rolling out for the Super Bowl. Jesus embodied just the opposite behavior. Today, we’re going to find out why.

   The Super Bowl is coming up in about 10 days. Ticket prices as of today are $8,333.00 for the cheapest seats from Ticketmaster and more than $47,500.00 for the most expensive.

   Of course, it’s not a real Super Bowl since the Green Bay Packers aren’t playing in it, but that’s just my opinion. 😊

   And then, “Saturday Night Live!” did their cold open last week with sports casters lamenting that the next day, the conference championships, were the last day of football season.

   When someone pointed out that the Super Bowl was still happening, the consensus was that the Super Bowl isn’t about football; as one character explained, “it’s about commercials, and Usher (the half-time show), and people who never watch football asking how many points a touchdown is worth.”

   He has a point. It’s a heavily hyped cultural event.

   By contrast, the tickets for Super Bowl 1 were $12 each, and adjusted for inflation, about $110. The Green Bay Packers played the Kansas City Chiefs in the Los Angeles Coliseum, and the game didn’t even sell out!

   The hype is a huge part of our culture.

   It’s been noted that you can tell a lot about a culture by looking at its great municipal buildings, the ones that define a city, the ones that locals invest in and point to with pride.

   In the Western world that has been its great cathedrals, then its museums and universities, then its commercial buildings. Today, it’s our entertainment centers, our amusement parks, and our sports complexes. They are what we point to, what we hype to gain recognition.

   That’s why it’s so shocking when we read the Gospels and see Jesus actively discouraging the hype.

   For example, in Mark 1:29-39, the Gospel text that will be read in the vast majority of churches in the world this coming Sunday, Jesus heals Peter’s mother-in-law of a fever, and nobody mentions it at all. Even Peter’s mother-in-law just gets up and goes on about her business.

   Here it is in Mark 1:29-31,

²⁹As soon as they left the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. ³⁰Now Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once. ³¹He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them.

   First, I want to say, isn’t that typical? 😊 The woman has literally just gotten over a fever that had left her bedridden, but does she get a break? No. She’s got at least 13 hungry men to serve!

   Second, that evening, a crush of sick and possessed people came over and he cures a bunch of them. Does he use this opportunity to get word of mouth going about who he is? Does he tell the disciples to get their contact information for future follow-ups? 😊

   No. He discourages it!

   We see it in Mark 1:32-34,

³²That evening, at sundown, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. ³³And the whole city was gathered around the door. ³⁴And he cured many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him. 

   Jesus offers an objective standard for what is good, and all of our fallen Creation is subject to him and to his power.

   When Jesus performs miracles, as in the Gospel text we are looking at today, he isn’t suspending the laws of physics. Jesus points us to the perfect, harmonious world that God made for human beings, and to the perfect, harmonious world that is coming in the second advent of Jesus Christ and the new Heaven and the new earth. Miracles show us what that was and what that will be.

   One of my favorite sports quotes comes from the comedian Gary Shandling, who once reflected on Leo Durocher, the ruthless coach of the Dodgers when they were the Brooklyn Dodgers, and who said, “Nice guys finish last.”

   Garry Shandling said, “Nice guys finish first, and anyone who doesn’t know that doesn’t know where the finish line is.”

   We know. And we have no fear of it. In fact, we long for it, because we know that that finish is the beginning.

   I heard about someone who took a different attitude about the end. He said, “I live every day as if it were my last. That’s why I never do laundry. Because who wants to do laundry on the last day of their life?” 😊 That’s all the world without Jesus can offer.

   Humanity was created for a living relationship with the one true living God, but we rejected it. Sin is that separation from God that resulted. Jesus, in his miracles, points to the perfect relationship with the one true living God for which humanity was created!

   The demons live in a different world than the people; they are an external threat to people without Jesus.

   But they have no power over anyone where Jesus is.

   Jesus is in control of His narrative, and he will decide how and when people will come to know him.

   That day will come ultimately on the cross.

   Meanwhile, this fallen world is not the way it was created to be because evil enters the world when people defy God. And people regularly defy God.   

   There are people in this world who believe that the world is not divided between the good and the bad, because they recognize no base for good. Instead, they believe that the world is divided between the bad and the weak. They live as those who believe that you must be bad to survive, and you must be the badest to succeed.

   There is no good without God. There can’t be.

   If humanity decides what is good, then humanity can exchange evil for good. When there is no absolute, external source for defining what is “good” then anyone can decide that “good” is whatever serves them. It can be revised at any time and used for their own ends.

   When I was in seminary, there was an adjunct professor named Rev. Otto Bremer teaching there. When Pastor Bremer was in seminary, he was also a student at the Harvard Business School.

   Professor Bremer told the story of how he was working on a project on corporate social ethics during that time. He was visiting companies and asking about whether they had social policies and how they observed them.

   He said that when he introduced himself as Otto Bremmer, a seminary student, the corporate officer would go to a file cabinet, remove a folder and hand Otto a piece of paper. The officer would say, “Here are our corporate social policies. We are committed to being good corporate citizens.”

   But, Professor Bremer said, when he introduced himself as Otto Bremmer, a student at the Harvard Business School, the corporate officer would say that they had a policy sheet in the files for people who got nosy, “but,” the officer would say, “we both know how things work in the real world.”

   If we devise the tests to measure what is good, then everyone will believe that it is they who are good, because everyone passes the tests that they write for themselves.

   One of my favorite college professors taught a philosophy course, and he would spend the last few minutes of most classes engaged in what I would call “cracker barrel philosophy”.

   He made the observation during one of these moments, that he believed that most of the world’s evil, and probably all of the very worst evil human beings have done, was devised by people who in their heart of hearts believed that they were doing good.

   Of the many things this observation means is that humanity’s greatest need isn’t just to be better. It’s to have a Savior.

   We have the Savior in Jesus Christ. It means that we must repent and be transformed, born again, as a new Creation, by the great grace of God and live in it.

   How can we live in that relationship and be transformed by it. One way is by spending quality time with God. Jesus demonstrates this in the following verse, Mark 1:35?

³⁵In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed.

   This raises a question? If Jesus is God, who is he praying to? Yes, this is one of those weird Trinity moments. But whatever else it is, I think that Jesus if offering us an example. Like Baptism and the cross, Jesus is modeling the behavior that points us to new life.

   I went to an Eagle Scout award ceremony once where the speaker said, “Character is what you do when there is no reward for doing the right thing and no punishment for doing the wrong thing.” Character is what you do because you believe it is, simply, the right thing.

   Jesus didn’t hire a PR company to make him popular. He went to a deserted place to be alone with God.

   Jesus was so far away from people that his disciples had to go looking for him, in the end of this text, Mark 1:36-39,

 ³⁶And Simon and his companions hunted for him. ³⁷When they found him, they said to him, “Everyone is searching for you.” ³⁸He answered, “Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do.” ³⁹And he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons.

   When was the last time you lived in a place where everyone was searching for Jesus? Probably the place where you are right now. They just need someone to name the Name. Someone like you.

   Jesus could have stayed and been a hero! But he left to proclaim his message that the Kingdom of God was at hand, to repent and believe in the good news.

   Jesus got out of town at the height of his popularity! Why? To reach more people.

   Rain is coming to Southern California, and everyone is preparing for it. In some places it will bring life, but in other places it will bring destruction.

   All we can do is make sure that the things we need are built on a solid foundation.

   Jesus is coming to judge the world and bring in a new heaven and a new earth. How can we be prepared?

   All we can do is to look to Jesus. We can never be good enough, but we don’t have to be.

   We have a Savior, and we proclaim Him: crucified, risen and coming again.

   There is no hype in Jesus, only the cross. Jesus offers humanity new life in him, our true selves in that for which we were created, a living relationship with the one true living God

     Receive Him into your heart today.

295 The Second Sacred Event

   (Note: This blog entry is based on the text for “The Second Sacred Event”, originally shared on January 24, 2024. It was the 295^th video for our YouTube Channel, Streams of Living Water (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB7KnYS1bpHKaL2OseQWCnw), co-produced with my wife, Rev. Sally Welch.)

   Holy Communion is a sacrament, a sacred event. Some say it is the second sacrament. Is it? And what does it have to do with Evangelism? Today, we’re going to find out.

   It’s been said that the early bird catches the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.

   This past week, college sophomore Nick Dunlap won the Professional Golf Association’s 2024 American Express golf tournament. He was the first amateur to win a PGA tournament in 33 years, and the youngest amateur to win one since 1910.

   Being an amateur, however, means that he is not allowed to receive the $1.5 million prize. Who gets the money? According to PGA rules, it goes to the next best scoring professional player in the tournament. In this case to Christiaan Bezuidenhout, the player who came in second.

   A sacrament is something that is commanded and practiced by Christ. It includes scripture and some physical thing which is the means by which humans enter into a transformative encounter with God, receiving God’s grace.

   Sixteenth century Church reformer Martin Luther believed that only two of the seven Roman Catholic sacraments (Baptism, Confirmation, Holy Communion, Confession, Anointing of the Sick (including last rites), Marriage, and Holy Orders) met those requirements: Baptism and Holy Communion.

   Holy Communion has been called the second sacrament. Baptism brings us into the Body of Christ and Holy Communion feeds members of the Body. In fact, Baptism is a requirement for receiving Holy Communion.

   So, though Holy Communion is second in order, it is not secondary in importance.

   Jesus himself instituted Holy Communion during the Passover meal he shared with his disciples, his Last Supper. In some ways, he was preparing them for what was about to happen.

   Luther described Holy Communion in this way, in his “Small Catechism”, or “FAQs” of the Christian life,

What Is Holy Communion (the Sacrament of the Altar)?

   Holy Communion is the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ given with bread and wine, instituted by Christ himself for us to eat and drink.

Where do the Scriptures say this?

Matthew (26:20-30), Mark (14:17-26), Luke (22:14-23), and Paul (1 Corinthians 11:23-26) say:

   Our Lord Jesus Christ, in the night in which he was betrayed, took bread; and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take, eat, this is my body, which is given for you; this do in remembrance of me.”

   After the same manner also he took the cup after supper, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you; this cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you, and for many, for the remission of sins; this do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”

   What happens in Holy Communion that’s such a big deal? In Holy Communion, we commune with God! That’s what makes it Holy Communion. 😊 God is present in, with, and under the forms of bread and wine! That’s a big deal!

   In Holy Communion, Luther writes what the Bible says: “we receive forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. For where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation.” That’s a big deal!

   Communion isn’t a ritual, or a snack, or a tradition. It’s not a symbolic meal. It is the living presence of the one true living God, and all that is necessary to receive it is to believe what is said in the words, “given and shed for you for the remission of sins”!

   Luther concluded the FAQs with, “for the words for you require simply a believing heart.”

   If you go to a farmers’ market, a supermarket, or a restaurant, you will see lots of food. You will also see people filled with food. Some, perhaps, with more than they need. While too many experience food insecurity, we are a physically well fed culture, for the most part.

   But, in our increasingly secular culture, you will see people who are starving for the good news of God in Jesus Christ. They look fine, but they are spiritually emaciated. They feel fine, but they are starving spiritually. They just don’t know it, yet.

   And, yes, the other end of the spectrum is that we can be spiritually obese. We can be only consumers of the body and blood of Jesus and never share it, never work in response to it.

   Either way, it’s not good for our heart, for our true selves.

   Holy Communion is the answer to our spiritual emptiness and the inner brokenness that comes with our estrangement from God.

   Holy Communion is the answer to our spiritual obesity, because it sets us free from sin, death, and all the powers that oppose   God.

   All that is necessary is a believing heart.

   Come to Holy Communion and enter into the presence of God.

   Let the Holy Spirit open your hardened heart, listen to the promise of God given in that sacrament. Receive its benefits. Be a vessel, be a blank slate, be a place where God may enter and clean house.

   Consider all the ways you spend your time that give you no hope, no courage, no life, no power, but rather for the things that don’t satisfy your real hunger. Be a new creation.

   Jesus offers us a way forward in John 6:27, where he says to his disciples,

27 Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal.”

   When you buy your food, share some with the hungry, give some money to organizations that help the poor. Announce the already but not yet Kingdom of God in your life. Get some spiritual exercise that is not self-serving or self-righteousness, the empty calories of virtue signaling. Work instead to proclaim the kingdom of God that has made you and all things new!

   Talk about what happens in Holy Communion and invite people to share what you have found in Jesus Christ, in a living relationship with the one true living God.

   D. T. Niles, the Celanese (or, today Sri Lankan) evangelist, ecumenical leader, and hymn writer, once said, “Evangelism is just one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread”.

   Martin Luther said almost the same thing, “We are all mere beggars telling other beggars where to find bread”.

   Someone showed us the way.

   We have been shown the way to bread, the bread of life, in Jesus Christ. We have received new life. We are fed in the forms of bread and wine in Holy Communion.

   It is the second sacrament, but it is not secondary. It is, with Baptism, the means of God’s grace, the assurance of life and salvation.

   The world is starving for that which truly satisfies, which we receive in Holy Communion. Receive it and invite others to do the same!

   Share the good news! 

294 We Are Whose We Are

   (Note: This blog entry is based on the text for “We Are Whose We Are”, originally shared on January 17, 2024. It was the 294^th video for our YouTube Channel, Streams of Living Water (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB7KnYS1bpHKaL2OseQWCnw), co-produced with my wife, Rev. Sally Welch.)

   We are often confronted with choices in our lives. How do we know how to go in the right direction? Today, we’re going to find out.

   Can you think of a time when your life was suddenly changed? A time when it seemed to take an entirely new direction? When everything up to that point seemed to have been preparation for what was about to happen? 

   That’s where both Jesus and some of his first disciples are in Mark 1:14-20.

   And that’s where we find the answers for how we find the right direction for our own lives. But it’s challenging.

   People sometimes say that “When one door closes another will open.” It’s a way of dealing with disappointment, but it isn’t in the Bible. It’s a quote from Alexander Graham Bell.

   I saw a meme this past week that showed a picture of the hole in the side of the Alaskan Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9 airplane that said the same thing, “When one door closes another will open,” but its meaning wasn’t as inspirational as the first one. 😊

   We need more than just opportunities in life. We need more than just open doors. We need wisdom to decide which opportunities, or open doors, to take, and which to avoid.

   How do we know?

   Let’s look at the first part of this week’s reading from Mark 1:14-15,

14 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, 15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”

   God promised his people that he would send a deliverer for 1,000 years before Jesus was born. God ended the last three hundred years of prophetic silence with the appearance of John the Baptist. There had been no word from God through a prophet for all of that time. And then almost immediately John points to Jesus as the sacrificial lamb of God, John baptizes Jesus, and then John gets thrown in jail and taken out of the picture! And later he is executed! St. Mark tells us that the imprisonment of John was a turning point for Jesus in Jesus’ life, and his public ministry began.

   Jesus moved. He changed his place of residence to fulfill the prophecy from Isaiah that we read last Christmas.

   He proclaimed the good news of God saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”

   He proclaimed that it was time for a change! Change was coming through Jesus, and the Christian Church would be born with the Holy Spirit.

   To encounter Christ is to be transformed. His age is not important. His being is. He is fully God and fully human being. Everything is made new in Him, and what does he call us to do? He calls us to repent.

   What is repentance?

   Repentance doesn’t just mean to say “I’m sorry.” Repentance means to turn around, to receive an inner reorientation, not by our own strength, but by the power of the one true living God in the Holy Spirit. We receive the gift to repent and to become a new creation in that living relationship with God. We are a new Creation!

   That is exactly what happens when Jesus calls Simon, Andrew, and James and John to follow Him. It’s exactly what happens to us.

   Watch how long it takes for those four fishermen to consider what to do with their lives once they have received the call from Jesus to follow him, continuing in verse 16,

16 As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea—for they were fishermen. 17 And Jesus said to them, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.” 18 And immediately they left their nets and followed him. 19 As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. 20 Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him.

   They left their work “immediately” to follow Jesus! Even though they remained in touch with their families, and they went back to their work after Jesus died but before he rose and appeared to them, it’s still shocking. How could that happen?

   When Apple Computer was getting started Steve Wozniak was the tech guy and Steve Jobs was the visionary/marketer guy. As the company began to grow, however, it became obvious that they were going to need a highly able CEO to run the business side of the company. Steve Jobs was focused on recruiting Jim Scully, the CEO of the Pepsi Corporation, one of the largest multi-national corporations in the world.

   John Scully was reluctant to say yes to this little tech start-up. Until one day, Steve Jobs turned to him and said, “Do you want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life or come with me and change the world?”

   That was convincing. He relented and helped grow Apple Computer into a major corporation and social transformer.

   Jesus’ disciples would help to change the world, but Jesus didn’t make them any promises when he called them.

   And every one of the disciples would die a violent death because they followed Jesus. But God changed the world through them, through their faithfulness, even unto death.

   The invitation to follow Jesus is what we refer to as a “call”. The English word “vocation” comes from the Latin word “vocare”, which means “to call”.

   The Lutheran understanding of work is that we all have a vocation. It’s our job.

   Every job is what we do in answer to God’s call and to glorify God in it.

   Some people are called to be teachers. Some are called to be artists, or lawyers or nurses or electricians or businesspersons or homemakers, or shoemakers, or athletes, or pastors.

   We live our Christianity in our daily lives by being good at what we do and, thereby, glorifying God.

   The disciples were called to literally follow Jesus as their primary jobs for a particular reason. They glorified God by their obedience. Nothing else qualified them.

   Have you ever been a team captain, taking turns picking the players for your side? What kind of players did you choose? What if you were an employer, what kind of person would you be looking for? When it’s time to vote, what characteristics to you look for when you decide who to vote for?

   Jesus doesn’t seem to look for any of the qualities that we would choose when he selects his disciples.

   Of all the people God could have called, he did not choose the rich and powerful, the well-known and respected, the popular or the influencers.

   God called regular people. Their only distinguishing trait seems to be their willingness to say “yes”. Remember the rich young ruler that Jesus called to follow Him? He said “no”.

   God has called each and every one of us to be his disciples. Each of us is called to serve God in the work to which we have been called, every day.

   And God has God’s own standards for who he calls to do what. As has often been said, “God doesn’t call the qualified. God qualifies the called.” God often sees things in us that we don’t.

   What is God calling you to do today?

   I have been studying Mandarin for the past year or so. I don’t know why, except to say that I believe that God has called me to do it, and that anything that we do to increase understanding among people, especially in times of global tension, is time well spent.

   I have to say that it has been difficult. In fact, the hardest part has been dealing with discouragement.

   But I learned how to deal with discouragement when I was running Marathons. I’ve run two 26.2-mile marathons in my life, but I think that one of the reasons that I ran the second one was that I forgot how bad I felt after I ran the first one.

   There are times when you are training for a marathon that you don’t feel like you are making any improvement. But, if you keep going, your body adjusts, and you will get better.

   The same was true of learning Biblical Greek, the original language of the New Testament.

   I took some Greek in seminary, but I started up again a few years ago to help me with understanding the Bible better. I partially think that I started again because I forgot why I didn’t continue the first time. I knew enough to study the scholarly texts, but I would never know enough to have a scholarly opinion of my own. I just had to decide who among the scholars I would trust.

   But I continued learning this time for a while and was encouraged when, near the end of the sixth chapter of the textbook I was using (Basics of Biblical Greek Grammer by William D. Mounce), the author wrote,

   “You are now entering the fog. You will have read this chapter and think you understand it-and perhaps you do-but it will seem foggy. That’s OK. If living in the fog becomes discouraging, look two chapters back and you should understand that chapter clearly. In two more chapters this chapter will be clear, assuming you keep studying.”

   Jesus’s disciples always seem to be in the fog. They never seem to understand what Jesus is teaching them, and they were with him for three years! They don’t seem to understand until after he dies and is resurrected and appears to them. And then they don’t seem to know what to do until the Holy Spirit appears 50 days later, on the Day of Pentecost.

   But they are not discouraged. Why?

   Because they were in the presence of Jesus. We were created for a living relationship with the one true living God. The presence of God is transformational, and it has been given to us by the grace of God. And Jesus is God.

   The Bible is as authoritative in Mandarin as much as it is in English, or in Greek or in Hebrew. Why? Because it’s not just words on a page. It’s the Holy Spirit speaking, resonating with you as you read it, as a whole person: body, mind, spirit, culture, language.

   The Holy Spirit speaks to us through the Bible. That is what helps us understand which direction to go in our lives.

   We can know what God is calling us to do because God has revealed to us what God is calling us to be.

   We are alarmed because of rising tensions throughout the world, including with China. Will war come, and how will it affect us?

   Our family watched a movie set in 2016 called “Last Christmas” recently. In it, the main character’s mother, who is a political refugee who has fled the violence in her home country, the former Yugoslavia, has sought refuge in England but some there have not made her feel welcome, and she is worried.

   She says, ““I know how it starts,” she says. “They point the finger. They say, ‘These people, they are the reason your life is bad.’ And people, they believe them.”

   We don’t know what the future holds, but we do know Who holds the future.

   That’s how we can learn to live, even when we are discouraged.

   As Peter reminds us in 1 Peter 2:9-10,

9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

   Our lives have been radically changed in out Baptism, in receiving the gift of faith, and in our vocation. We are God’s people. We have received mercy. We have become a new Creation!

   The only voice we need to listen to is the voice of God. The path in life we need to take is the one the Holy Spirit calls us to take.

   Jesus only called 12 people to be in the inner circle of his disciples.

   Margaret Mead, the anthropologist, once said, “Never underestimate the power of a small group of committed people to change the world. In fact, it is the only thing that ever has.”

   We don’t need large numbers of people. All we need is the voice of the Holy Spirit showing us the way. And our willingness to follow its direction.

   We discover who we are when we know whose we are.

   Jesus is looking for followers whose lives begin with the transformation that comes when we encounter Jesus. When we receive the gift of faith and are baptized.

Jesus is looking for followers whose eternal life begins when we say “yes” to God’s gifts.

   Jesus is looking for followers whose commitment comes every day in response to what Jesus has done for us on the cross.

   Jesus is looking for you.