Sermon Video: God has a plan for each one of us - Ephesians 2:10

Ephesians 2:8-9 is an amazing ode to God's plan to save those who trust in Christ by grace.  However, God's plan for his people doesn't stop with saving their souls, God has a plan for each one of us here in this life.  What is it?

To do good works.  In a mind-blowing revelation, Paul reveals that God has prepared opportunities ahead-of-time which those whom he has renewed through the Holy Spirit are equipped to accomplish.  When a potential good deed is in our path, it isn't a random moment, rather it is our Heavenly Father's desire to partner with us in fulfilling his will.

Sermon Video: Saved by Grace - Ephesians 2:8-9

The essence of the Gospel is our salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.  This is a simple message, but also the most powerful one that ever has been.  It challenges human pride and it rests upon the love of God.  Attempts have been made to supplement God's grace with human effort, these have all ended in the failure that such folly deserves.  In the end we are left with this joyous message: By grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, to the glory of God alone.

Sermon Video: Seated at the Table with Jesus - Ephesians 2:6-7

We don't deserve to be there, but that's not something that God worries about.  Instead, God chose to bless us, all of us who believe in Jesus, by offering us a place at the heavenly banquet alongside our Lord and Savior.  The kindness of God never ends.

A reflection on the life of Pope Francis

 

{Disclaimer: While I am a lifelong Baptist, and an ordained minister of that denomination, my wife of nearly 24 years, Nicole, is a practicing Roman Catholic, I have attended Saturday afternoon Mass with her about a thousand times by now.  This offers me an outsiders insight into that tradition.}

History judges some people more leniently than their contemporaries and others more harshly, in time we have perspective on their contributions and their failings.  That being the case, it is far too early to understand what the impact will be upon future generations of Catholics, or upon the worldwide Church, of the life and pontificate of Francis.  The question for today is much simpler: What impression did his choices and priorities make upon me?  Undoubtedly others will have a different view, this is simply mine.

I won't spend any time on our theological differences, as a Baptist minister I will have them with any Catholic priest, let alone a pope, those are obvious enough to anyone familiar with the Reformation.  Instead, let me offer this as a measuring stick: How did Pope Francis reflect the heart of the Gospel?

If you're like me, your initial thought when hearing, "The heart of the Gospel," is to jump right to salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.  When we think of the "heart" as the center or essence of something, that's a definition straight from the hand of the Apostle Paul, one that would be recognized and approved of in any generation of the Church.  Among many other places, this essence of the Gospel is professed in Ephesians 2:8-9.

There is an additional aspect to the "heart" of the Gospel that interests me in connection with Pope Francis, and that is its emotional quality.  How should the message of the Gospel make us feel, and how should the commandment that Jesus has given his followers to share that message to all direct our lives?  It is absolutely necessary that we retain and proclaim the apostolic understanding of salvation in/through Jesus Christ, but we also need to be a people whose attitudes, words, and deeds reflect that we were all once lost sinners saved by God's grace.

This is where the life of Pope Francis speaks to me the most.  Throughout his life as a priest, bishop, and eventually his elevation to being pope, it was evident to those who knew him that Jorge Mario Bergoglio cared deeply for the poor, the disenfranchised, the downtrodden, and forgotten.  He had a heart for those who needed help the most.  Whatever else he managed to accomplish in life, this passion reflected one of the qualities of Christ-likeness.  As we all know, Jesus famously embraced the prostitutes, tax collectors, and "sinners" of his day, much to the chagrin of his critics who despised them.  Jesus made this outreach to the downtrodden a centerpiece of his proclamation of the Kingdom of God.  In the community that Jesus was establishing, all would be welcome who came to him in faith, even lepers, Samaritans, and a woman caught in adultery.  

If your life is remembered for nothing else, would it not be a life worth celebrating if we could say that you were inspired by Jesus to love the unloved?

History will in time put Pope Francis' life in perspective, in this moment at least, it seems clear enough to me what was important about it.  Everyone who chooses the servant's path of imitating Jesus' love for those in need deserves to be honored, and so I offer up my own appreciation for how committed Pope Francis was to seeing the value in each person.

Because of His Great Love for Us - Ephesians 2:4-5, Sermon Video

The Apostle Paul offers us hope with a well placed "But."  Immediately after proclaiming that humanity is spiritually "dead" Paul continues by telling us that God didn't leave us in that woeful state, but did something about it "because of his great love for us."  Love was the answer to humanity's turmoil, God's love.  God worked with mercy to provide salvation through Jesus Christ.