Tag Archive: Jesus

Fight Like Jesus

March 8, 2023 0 Comments

Have you ever wondered, “Was Jesus a peacemaker and should His people take up His ways”? Maybe you have wondered, “Was Jesus a pacifist?”

If you are not reading Jason Porterfield’s book, Fight Like Jesus during Lent, there is still time to order it and start reading before Holy Week. His subtitle “How Jesus Waged Peace throughout Holy Week” sets us up to take a journey with Jesus through the seven days leading to the cross and the resurrection.

Jason began working out the realities of peacemaking in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver. In the preface he confesses that he was young and naive, but that’s not the real problem. He goes on: “The combination of so many destructive forces at work in the Downtown Eastside soon proved too much for me… Over the course of a few short months, my neighbourhood’s brokenness had broken me. Despite my claiming to be a peacemaker, it was now readily apparent that I had no idea how to make peace.” p. 16.

Most of us are ill-equipped to actually make peace in conflictual settings, but Jesus affirmed the place of peacemaking among His followers as a response to His Kingdom. “Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called children of God.” (Matthew 5:6) As well James, one of Jesus’ brothers who became a leader in the church in Jerusalem, affirms a distinctive quality of Jesus’ followers in the world when they have the “wisdom that comes from heaven.” He writes that we will be “Peacemakers who sow in peace” and that we will “reap a harvest of righteousness.” (James 3:18)

So how?

Jason takes us through the lessons Jesus delivered to His disciples on each day of the week as He journeyed to the Cross in Jerusalem. I found myself at times surprised and delighted by Jason’s observations of Jesus’ journey and teaching. I learned something new in almost every chapter. Jason challenged the internal assumptions and reflexive movement toward violence that most of us have learned from our culture, our society and perhaps even from our churches. He shows how this reflexive movement toward violence colours how we read the witnesses of Jesus’ life, ministry and teaching. 

I imagine that most of us, as Jason notes, race through Palm Sunday into Holy Week and miss the announcement of Jesus’ theme for the week. The crowd is waving palm branches joyfully but Jesus is weeping. He cries out, “If only you knew on this of all days the things that make for peace.” (Luke 19:42)

Jason writes, “What if Jesus’ lament is more than just an intriguing glimpse into his innermost thoughts and desires? What if it was placed at the start of Holy Week as a marker so that it might guide us down the correct interpretive path? What if Jesus spoke these words on the first day in order to introduce his primary objective for the week?

Jason goes on: “This book makes a bold claim: Jesus’ lament is the interpretive key to Holy Week. His lament suggests that the events of Holy Week are best understood when viewed through the lens of peacemaking. And it encourages us to see the central struggle of Holy Week as a struggle for peace.” (p. 21)

In Fight Like Jesus, Jason Porterfield writes in a very approachable style as he examines the events and teachings of each day to draw out lessons for the peacemaker. He shows us how Jesus himself corrects our tragic approaches to life and conflict. He show us how Jesus makes it possible for us to live into and out of the love of God in a world that desperately needs His peace. 

Jason Porterfiled, Fight Like Jesus: How Jesus Waged Peace throughout Holy Week, 2022, Herald Press.

Change, Discipleship, Jesus

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Prayer of the People, 5 February 2021

February 8, 2021 0 Comments

Heavenly Father,

We delight in you because the blood of Your Son Jesus Christ has covered our sin and marked us as forgiven. Your perfect love has cast out our fear. You have cleansed us and set us apart for your communion — the communion of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Thank you!

Now in this grace we see Jesus, close to us — sharing in our humanity, serving us, and humbly laying down His life at the Cross. Now in this grace we see Jesus high and lifted up, exalted to your right hand and interceding for us. We bow the knee and we joyfully confess Him as Lord.

We have been united with Jesus in your communion. Send your Spirit, Lord, among us, that we might move toward each other with tenderness and compassion, and in the power of your love.

We confess Lord, our minds are occupied too often with selfish ambitions and trivial pursuits. Show us how to repent of our desire for applause and to take off our pretentious robes of self righteousness, so we might value others and take an interest in their concerns, unleashing gifts of creativity and the hope of the resurrection through service.

Lord we lift up people being run over by selfish ambition, by rage, and sometimes hate. Fortify the people of Myanmar, of Northwest China, and of Yemen with hope. Reveal yourself and call out people for yourself as peacemakers and good neighbours.

Lord we lift up families being ravaged by the covid-19 pandemic. Comfort them and provide for them in communities that care. Renew our hearts through generosity and the power of your Word.

Lord we lift up students here in Vancouver. Call out to them again Lord with your gracious invitation for life, for redeemed purpose, and for true freedom.

Lord we need you and so we pray as Jesus teaches us: Please join me in the Lord’s Prayer.

Oh Lord we need you and so we pray…
(Please join me in the Lord’s Prayer.)

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one;
for yours is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory, 
forever. 
Amen.

This prayer was part of the Origin Church Weekend Broadcast on 5 February 2021

Prayer

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Prayer of the People, 22 January 2021

January 25, 2021 0 Comments

Heavenly Father,

You have made it possible for us to live in your kingdom now as brothers and sisters drawn together through our confession of Jesus, “He is Lord!” How is it that we share in your communion except by grace? Thank you for doing everything necessary for us to enjoy your communion — the communion of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Help us Lord.
As you have forgiven us may we also forgive one another.
As you have accepted us may we also accept one another.
As you have mercy-ed us may we also grant mercy to one another.
As you have spoken truth to us may we also speak sincerely to one another.
As you have loved us may we also love one another from the heart.
Come Lord Jesus.

May the prevailing ministry of your Spirit continue to free us from the grip of sin and our old deathly habits. Transform us Lord according to your will and your Word. May we become more like Jesus together.

Oh Lord, we lift up to you our government leaders and representatives in this region and country; please grant them wisdom from heaven. Turn good ideals for service into reality.

We lift up to you medical and health care providers in our country who are feeling weary under heavy loads of extra precautions and of loss during the pandemic. Oh Lord, refresh their souls, assure them of your company with them, and reveal yourself to them.

We lift up to you our work-places and pray that you would fortify us with grace and wisdom to do good work and to be steady, watchful, servants in your Name and for your Kingdom.

Oh Lord we need you and so we pray…

(Please join me in the Lord’s Prayer.)

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one;
for yours is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory, 
forever. 
Amen.

This prayer was part of the Origin Church Weekend Broadcast on 22 January 2021.

Prayer

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Two Houses. One Longing.

January 15, 2021 0 Comments

“After the festival was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but there were unaware of it.” Luke 2:43

After his parents spent three maybe five days apart from the 12 year old Jesus, and at least four of those days absolutely frantic about him, he tells his parents, “Why were you searching for me?

Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house.”

Now that is not what most of us would want to hear from a kid on the way to becoming an adult, even a young adult. But Jesus seems to have been tuned into his longings and doing something about them.

Some of us are quite tuned into our longings and grant them high value in our decision making. However, our vision of Christian maturity as a follower of Jesus, doesn’t just unleash every one of our longings as the finished and ultimate truth about us. We recognize that our own longings though they may be good are also susceptible to the kingdom of darkness.

Where there once was innocence now there is guilt.
Where there once was honour now there is shame.
Where there once was trust now there is fear.

In the Kingdom of Darkness guilt longs to be right, shame longs to be respected, and fear longs for security and strength. The answers provided by the Kingdom of Darkness bend us away from Jesus and His ways. We all grow up with some kind of vision even a warped vision of what it means to be a strong, secure, respectable, and righteous human. Warped visions will move toward control, greed, violence, and hateful contempt of Creation, people, including self, and of Jesus.

In the Kingdom of Jesus though guilt is forgiven, shame is covered, and fear is replaced with love. This is what the grace of Jesus accomplishes for us through His incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection and ascension. When we are living fully in this grace the power of longings and will  are gathered up in a conviction, “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house.” “I had to be.” This phrase get’s its urgency from a little greek word, “dei.” Sometimes translated “must,”so in some translations this passage reads, “Didn’t you know I must be in my Father’s house” or “I must be about my Father’s business.”

After Jesus’ baptism He would use the word “dei” to describe with urgency and necessity of the movement of his life toward the Cross. “The Son of Man must (dei) suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and he must (dei) be killed and on the third day be raised to life.” (Luke 9:22)

Jesus knew that His longing to be in the things of His Heavenly Father required the Cross. He was compelled to move according to the heart and will of His Heavenly Father.

But Jesus also used the word to describe His movement into another house, the house of Zaccheaus. This wealthy tax collector had profited from his relationship with government officials, probably on both sides of the Roman / Jewish conflict in order to take advantage of many people. But on this day, he wanted to see “who Jesus was,

but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.

When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him ‘Zacchaeus, come down immediately.

I must stay at your house today.’

So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.

All the people saw this and began to mutter, ‘He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.’

Wow! There it is again. Jesus links His longing to be in the affairs of His Heavenly Father with his actions. This time going to the house of Zaccheaus. 

“I must (dei) stay at your house today.”

Jesus invited Himself to home of a notorious and wealthy man who may have been considered by some to be a traitor, a cheat, a thief, a short man who made their lives mightily difficult. 

Jesus was not all about the religious house or Temple of God. Jesus is all about the interests of His Heavenly Father for people in any house, so that each person may be transformed as the temple of God.

The fruitfulness of actions are not always so obvious. But on this occasion the wisdom of Jesus’ actions are on display for us.

“But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, ‘Look Lord! Here and now I give half my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.’

Jesus said to him, ‘Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.’”

A Prayer:

O Spirit of God, 
I would tune my heart 
to the longings of Jesus,
but my ear lacks perfect pitch.
I open my heart so 
the Father’s heart 
might define 
my reputation.
Your grace must spark 
holy moments 
of redemptive fire 
so what really matters
remains.

Discipleship, Relationships

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Prayer of the People, 20 Nov 2020

November 23, 2020 0 Comments

Heavenly Father, 

We praise you Father for you have loved us with a strong and faithful love. You have dealt with us gently and have sent your Son to us. He arrives and says to you, “I have come to do your will.” Your will is that none would perish, so He gave Himself once and for all that we might be free of our sins and the destructive reign of the evil one. Oh Lord! — Thank you for delivering us into your communion — the communion of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 

Apart from you we can do nothing. May your Spirit keep calling us into deeper communion with you. We confess Lord — we are easily distracted. The opinions of others are forming how we think and feel. Our airwaves ripple with anxiety and unbelief. Our sight lines are filled with shallow comforts and dissatisfaction. So Lord we need your Word to penetrate deep into our lives and bear the fruit that you intend. 

May your love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control abound in our lives and shape our relationships with you, ourselves, with others, and with the stuff of earth. Your priestly work has made us acceptable to you so we hold out the word of life to this generation. As your kingdom of priests we intercede with you for this generation.

Oh Lord, comfort those who grieve.
Oh Lord, show your tender mercy to those who doubt.
Oh Lord, shine your light on those who are lost.

Bring a just peace to the unrestful regions of Ethiopia, Armenia, Mozambique, and Peru.
Bring help to the storm weary regions of Nicaragua, Honduras, and the Philippines.
Bring neighbourly wisdom and generosity to communities battling the Covid-19 virus. 

Praise be to Jesus our Saviour. There is no other name in heaven or on earth by which we may be saved. Hallelujah to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  As we gather together as sisters and brothers called by Him to His table, we pray as He teaches us:

(Please join me in the Lord’s Prayer.)
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one;
for yours is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory, 
forever. 
Amen.

This Prayer was part of the Origin Church Weekend Broadcast, 20 Nov 2020.

Discipleship, Prayer

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