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Just Like Me

Mark 10:35-40 “35 Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him. “Teacher,” they said, “we want you to do for us whatever we ask.” 3...

Monday, March 18, 2024

Just Like Me

Mark 10:35-40

“35 Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him. “Teacher,” they said, “we want you to do for us whatever we ask.” 36 “What do you want me to do for you?” he asked. 37 They replied, “Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory.”  38 “You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said. “Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?” 39 “We can,” they answered. Jesus said to them, “You will drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with, 40 but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared.”


There is a story about a preacher who, after 25 years of sermons in one particular church, began asking members of his congregation about the details of his sermons. Not one congregant could remember any of his sermons.  The preacher quit that day and became an artist.


In this scripture we see James and John as they were, warts and all.  Jesus had just announced to them, for the third time, that he was going to die in Jerusalem and He had actually described what was going to happen to him.  As a result of hearing that, James and John asked Jesus if , when the event was over and He was in His glory, they could have the honored seats beside His throne.


This is everything that Jesus had preached and taught against.  Pride, arrogance, ambition, selfishness, putting oneself before others, etc., have no place in the spiritual life, according to Jesus.  How he held his emotions in check while he spoke to them I will never know.  How could James and John have lived with Jesus for three years, sat at His feet, heard Him teach and preach, and dared to ask this question?


Had they not listened?  Had they not heard any of His sermons?


But then I wonder,  how long have I walked with Jesus?  How long have I sat at His feet? Do pride and arrogance and selfishness still rule in my life?


Maybe this is the point of the story.


The disciples were just like me.


May the love of Christ be with you,

Rev. Eric Lanier (Retired)

Saturday, March 16, 2024

The Walk


Matthew 20:17-19

“17 Now Jesus was going up to Jerusalem. On the way, he took the Twelve aside and said to them, 18 “We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death 19 and will hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day he will be raised to life!”

This was the third time that Jesus told the Disciples of His impending death.  He needed them to understand what was going to happen, to prepare them.  First he told them of the darkness of it all, the arrest, the mocking, the flogging, the crucifixion.  Then he told them of the light, the resurrection.  My guess is that they fixated on the darkness.

Jesus intentionally included the Disciples in the details of His impending death and resurrection.  It seems that even Jesus needed his closest friends to help Him through this ultimate trial; at the very least he needed them to understand the intimate details of the path He would walk.

The Christian community is a caring community that reaches out to those who are suffering and who are in need.

At the very least, we are a people who can understand the walk that you walk.


May the love of Christ be with you,

Rev. Eric Lanier (Retired)


Friday, March 15, 2024

The Vineyard


Matthew 20:1-7

“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. 2 He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard. 3 “About nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. 4 He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ 5 So they went. “He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing. 6 About five in the afternoon he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’ 7 “‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered. He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’”

I love going to vineyards or driving by vineyards and seeing all the neat rows of vines bursting forth with grapes.  

I like to think of the kingdom of heaven being like a vineyard, where there is sun, fresh air, green plants and God given work to be done with your body and mind. 

I also like to think that the people who do this work are full of God’s grace.

In this parable we find that this is not necessarily so.  When it came time to be rewarded for their work,  many were unsatisfied with the way they were paid.

Why is it we do the work of the Kingdom?  Is it for the reward?  

As Christians, our reward is our faith; our reward is the Holy Spirit dwelling within us; our reward is eternal life.  We receive our reward before we do any work for the kingdom.   

Our work in the vineyard is done because of the love that flows from our faith.


May the love of Christ be with you,

Rev. Eric Lanier (Retired)


Thursday, March 14, 2024

Blessed are the Children


Mark 10:13-16

“13 People were bringing little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them, but the disciples rebuked them. 14 When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. 15 Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” 16 And he took the children in his arms, placed his hands on them and blessed them.”

The disciples, always pressed by the crowds, and acting in their roles as the gatekeepers and protectors of Jesus’ time, thought that people with illnesses and disabilities should be given preference rather than parents wanting their children to be blessed. So they rebuked the parents.  They saw the children as nuisances and wasters of Jesus' time and energy.

Throughout the scriptures we read that Jesus had a special relationship with children, but on this occasion, as Jesus was on his way to the cross, when his time on earth was short and he knew it, children and their innocence may have seemed especially precious and wonderful.

It is in this moment that we find in Jesus a most human emotion.

He took the children in his arms.  

We have a savior who, near the end of his life on earth, took children into his arms and blessed them.

This is the Christ.  This is the Messiah.

This is who we serve.


May the love of Christ be with you,

Rev. Eric Lanier (Retired)


Wednesday, March 13, 2024

The Tax Collector


Luke 18:13

13 “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’”

The Pharisee and the Tax Collector is a well known parable that Jesus told to a crowd of people who were “confident of their own righteousness” who “looked down on everyone else.” Luke 18:9.

This means that they did all the right things, read all the right things, and said all the right things, but they did them with arrogance and pride. And in this pride and arrogance they did not acknowledge their sins.

The Tax Collector was a sinner and he knew it, and he acknowledged this before God.  In his remorse he begged for God’s mercy.

The Holy Spirit leads us, if we are willing, into an ever deepening relationship with God.  In this process comes an ever increasing sense of self awareness.  We become increasingly aware, not of the sins of others, but of our sins.  With this awareness comes a deep conviction that will not let us rest until we fall on our knees and beg for forgiveness.

We don’t know if the Tax Collector changed his life after he left the temple, although Jesus said that he left being justified (made right) by God.  The Pharisee left the temple still unaware of his sins, still unforgiven, and unjustified.

Let us all pray to be as self-aware and as repentant as the Tax Collector. 


May the love of Christ be with you,

Rev. Eric Lanier (Retired)


Tuesday, March 12, 2024

Take the Lowest Seat

Luke 14:7-11

“7 When he noticed how the guests picked the places of honor at the table, he told them this parable: 8 “When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited. 9 If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give this person your seat.’ Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place. 10 But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, ‘Friend, move up to a better place.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all the other guests. 11 For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

I was once a supervisor in a large workplace.  The supervisors were asked by management to rate how well they thought they were managing their work teams.   After we rated ourselves, our employees were asked to rate how well they thought they were being managed.  The result was that the supervisors thought they were managing their teams very well, while the employees felt they were not being managed very well at all.

There is often a disconnect in how we see ourselves.  Some people think too little of themselves and others think too much.   In this scripture, Jesus was addressing those who automatically think that the empty chair at the most honored spot at the table is for them.

It is wrong to exalt ourselves, especially in spiritual things.  As Christians, we are to remain humble, recognizing that anything we accomplish is due to the grace of God and in the name of God; that we do not serve ourselves but the one true God.  However important we believe ourselves to be, we are yet sinners who are forgiven by a merciful and forgiving God.

“So, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”

(1 Corinthians 10:31).


May the love of Christ be with you,

Rev. Eric Lanier (Retired)


Monday, March 11, 2024

The Voice of the Messiah

John 10: 24-28

“24 The Jews who were there gathered around him, saying, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.” 25 Jesus answered, “I did tell you, but you do not believe. The works I do in my Father’s name testify about me, 26 but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. 27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish;no one will snatch them out of my hand.”

Who are you?  This is a question that we have to answer frequently for others and for ourselves.  Most often, when we answer this question, we state our name, where we live, where we came from and what we do for a living.  This seems to satisfy most people.

The Jews who surrounded Jesus wanted to know who He was.  “Tell us plainly,” they demanded.  While Jesus may not have told them in so many words, he thought that his works spoke louder than words.  After all, as he said to John the Baptist when John asked if Jesus was the Messiah, “The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor.” (Matthew 11:5).

After witnessing such miracles, why would they not believe He was the Messiah?  Why did they need to hear it from his lips?  Some things do not need to be put into words.  Every one of Jesus’s miracles was a shout to the world that the Messiah, as foretold by Isaiah (35:5-6), had come.  Maybe they did not believe and would never believe in the Messiah, no matter how loudly the miracles or the scriptures announced His arrival.

Sometimes the obvious truth of God is obscured by our own prejudice and refusal to believe.

But His sheep know His voice.  

And they follow.  


May the love of Christ be with you,

Rev. Eric Lanier (Retired)