Matthew 18:1-14  |  God’s kingdom is breaking into ours. Through you.

But not because you’re so great.

Nope. In fact, our own greatness gets in the way.

When we rely on our competence, our skills, our effort, we fail to recognize the actual places and ways God wants to use our gifts.

Oh, I know, it often starts with God’s prompting. But then we take it and run. “Thanks, God, I’ll take it from here!”

And if we do succeed because we’re so great, such kingdom breakthrough will be attributed to our power not God’s. And the breakthrough won’t really be as great and lasting as it could be.

In being about what God is about, humility is the name of the game.

Unless you’d rather that people celebrate you instead.

Psalm 29 | Genesis 50 | Matthew 18:1-14

Do not fear, for you will not be ashamed. Isaiah 54:4

When they bring you to trial and hand you over, do not worry beforehand
about what you are to say; but say whatever is given you at that time,
for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit. Mark 13:11

Merciful Father, we thank you for always being with us. We are thankful
for the power to see clearly the task set before us provided by the Holy
Spirit who dwells within our hearts. Amen.

Matthew 17:14-27 | “Do you think I’m always going to be around? Do you think I’m always going to be here to heal people? I won’t.” Jesus was frustrated. It was one more instance of his disciples not getting it.

The crowds wanted healing. They had been experiencing the power of God’s kingdom breaking into ours – the power of grace, love, forgiveness, reconciliation, healing, wholeness, life. Today, the disciples had given it a go, but they were unable to heal a suffering boy.

But Jesus wouldn’t always be here to be the one through whom the kingdom would be poured out. While Jesus would be the only Messiah, Jesus didn’t intend for him to be the only one through whom the glory of God’s kingdom could be experienced.

“That’s why,” Jesus says to the disciples, “I’m pouring my life into you. I’m giving you everything I have. I want you to be able to do what I do. God’s kingdom is here – through you.”

It is their birthright as children on God. It is your birthright, too. You are God’s kids. Therefore, you are heirs (Romans 8:14-17). Everything that belongs to God, our Father, our Abba, Daddy, belongs to you.

But the disciples didn’t have faith in this promise. That is, they weren’t claiming their kingdom authority as God’s kids representing their Daddy in the world. How were they – and how are we – to claim that authority?

“The Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. (John 5:19)” The Son is about what the Father is about. This is where kingdom authority comes from. Staying alert to where God is and to what God is doing in the world, and then going there and being about what God is about.

And we are only able to do this through humility. We must give up our own agendas and put on God’s agenda. We must surrender our need to be in control in order to recognize that God is in control. We must empty our hands, releasing everything we carry – all that weighs us down, all that holds us back, all the hurdles we put in our own way, all our struggles, all our joys, all our competency, all our skills – we must release everything we carry and allow God to sort through it and then give back to us the tools we need to do the job God is calling us to accomplish.

Your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom (Luke 12:32). And we can only receive what God has to give us if our hands are empty.

Psalm 28 | Genesis 49 | Matthew 17:14-27

Ash Wednesday
Joel 2:1-2,12-17; Psalm 51:1-17
2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10; Matthew 6:1-6,16-21

You have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling. Psalm 116:8

Peter got out of the boat, started walking on the water, and came toward Jesus. But when he noticed the strong wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!” Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him. Matthew 14:29-31

Creator of the universe, only you can deliver our souls from death. When we become overwhelmed with the activities of the world, let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, our Lord and Savior. Amen.

Psalm 27:8 | My heart tells me to pray. I am eager to see you face.

We live with a God-shaped hole, that nothing else will fill. We try. Our appetite tells us to consume our way to meaning and satisfaction. Our ambition tells us to compete with others, doing unto them before they do it to you, showing them who’s boss, who has the power, taking all that you can get. We strive for affirmation – please, please, please tell me I’m good enough, I’m popular, celebrate me. (For an excellent unpacking of this, see Mike Breen’s original blog post).

In the beginning, God scooped up the dust and formed us, molded us into his people. God’s fingerprints are all over us. God’s handprint marks us. We were always intended to live with the outstretched presence of God’s hand on our lives. It’s how our Abba, our Daddy, created us.

He gives us our identity. We are his children. Because he says so. It’s all gift. It’s all love. It’s all grace.

And as we live in the power of God’s grace, as we live in the gift of our identity as God’s child, others can’t help but be impacted by it.

Matthew 17:1-13 | Up on the mountain the promise of identity is proclaimed once again. God declares about Jesus to the disciples, “This is my own dear Son, and I am pleased with him. Listen to what he says!”

Jesus is what it looks like to live fully in your identity.

In conversation about this Transfiguration event, one of my colleagues offered that the difference between transfiguration and transformation is that transfiguration is a transformation that reveals God’s glory and God’s kingdom here in our midst.

As we live more and more out of our identity as God’s children, your life is not just transformed, it’s transfigured.

God is saying to you, “With you I am well pleased. You are my beloved child.”

Embrace your identity. And as you do, you will see that God’s kingdom is breaking into ours. Through you.

Psalm 27:7-14 | Genesis 48 | Matthew 17:1-13

Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary;
his understanding is unsearchable. Isaiah 40:28

God has not left himself without a witness in doing good – giving you
rains from heaven and fruitful sea-sons, and filling you with food and
your hearts with joy. Acts 14:17

Creator God, you will not faint or grow weary of your people. Your love
is endless and your provisions are bountiful. We joyfully give you
thanks and praise for your goodness towards your whole creation. Amen.

Psalm 27:1-6 | Genesis 46:28-47:31 | Matthew 16:21-28

Do not fear or be dismayed! Joshua 8:1

Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, and the living one.
Revelation 1:17-18

Father God, when disappointment arises and fear is all we can see ahead
of us, let us hold on to our Sa-vior, the Alpha and the Omega, the one
who lives forever and ever. Amen.

Psalm 26 | Genesis 46:1-27 | Matthew 16:5-20

Consider this. This rock upon which Jesus builds his church is not Peter himself, but Peter’s confession (or the content of Peter’s confession): “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

John Nolland points out that the Gospel writers regularly speak of him as Peter, but they record Jesus calling him Simon. “[This] suggests that Jesus gave the name ‘Peter’ to Simon not as an affectionate nickname nor even in the first instance as an alternative name, but rather as a means of marking destiny in some manner. ‘Peter’ is not used to address Simon during Jesus’ ministry, but it becomes the name by which he is called when this destiny is being worked out in the early life of the church.”

Every time those early followers of Jesus said Simon’s (new) name they were reminded of who Jesus is and what Jesus is about and, therefore, who they are and what they are about.

They are God’s very own, beloved children who have inherited God’s kingdom and are being called to extend God’s kingdom in the world. This is the church that Jesus is building, a kingdom community. The church is not so much an institution, but a gathered group of God’s people and, also for Jesus, a renewed and restored nation.

Jesus’ words call Simon into a new role and a new future. They do to us as well.

These words recall Jesus’ words in Matthew 7:24-25: “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.”

It’s about hearing and doing. A confession like Simon’s calls for a response. Faith expresses itself in fruits. Experiencing the kingdom invites us to live in the kingdom which calls us to extend the kingdom.

I can’t confess, “Jesus, you’re really making a difference in my life!” and then not make a difference in the lives of others. Jesus’ doing something in my life looks like me doing something in the life of others.

I’m not allowed to become comfortable, that is, to become complacent. We are called into a kingdom future.

Believe. Then act.

Psalm 26 | Genesis 46:1-27 | Matthew 16:5-20

Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights.
Isaiah 42:1

Jesus Christ received honor and glory from God the Father when that
voice was conveyed to him by the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my
Son, my Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” 2 Peter 1:17

Heavenly Father in whom the world delights, we give you honor and
praise. You sent your Son into the world to redeem us of our sins. Your
voice still echoes, “This is my beloved Son.” Thank you for the
confir-mation that Jesus Christ is Lord. Amen.

Psalm 25:8-22 | Genesis 45 | Matthew 15:29-16:4

Genesis 45 | Joseph could have chosen to hold a grudge or to exact revenge against his brothers. He had every reason to do so. They beat him up and had him kidnapped, selling him into slavery in a far off land (this after their oldest brother Reuben talked the rest out of going through with their plan to kill him!).

Who could let such a thing go? Many of us would allow those kind of life circumstances to define us for the rest of our lives. We’ve been wronged! It would be a weight we would lug around forever, a heaviness that would beat us down. We would be burdened by resentment, bitterness, distrust, lament. And we might even come to be proud of our suffering “No one has suffered like I have.”

But not Joseph.

The truth was Joseph’s brothers did send him away in order to end his life. But, Joseph recognized that it was equally true that God sent him ahead in order to save lives.

Joseph chose to see how God was working in the midst of all that life threw at him.

He chose to see that reconciliation was overcoming separation. He chose to see that wholeness was repairing that which was broken. He chose to see that order was being brought from chaos. He chose to see that being joyful was a better way to live than being miserable.

God’s power to free is greater than the world’s power to bind. Actually, Gods weakness is greater, too.

I choose to find my identity in the one who can bring life from death.