The Hometown

Luke 4: 28-30

“28 All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. 29 They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff. 30 But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.”

Jesus encountered a lot of angry religious people during his ministry.  I have often wondered about this especially since the Hebrew scriptures are full of warnings against anger.  One that comes to mind is from Proverbs 14:29  “Whoever is patient has great understanding, but one who is quick-tempered displays folly.”

Jesus was in his hometown of Nazareth, preaching in the synagogue. The people remembered him and liked his reading of Isaiah 61:1 and the beginning of his remarks.  But what angered them was Jesus saying that during certain times described in the Hebrew Scriptures, the Gentiles had been favored by God over the Jews.

The anger of the religious when they hear something that does not fit in with their own personal beliefs or prejudices continues today.  We must realize that whenever the scriptures are used to support oppression, suppression, and ostracism it is a direct contradiction of the teachings of Christ.

The people of Nazareth tried to throw Jesus off a cliff.   Let us not be guilty of the same.

May the love of Christ be with you,

Rev. Eric Lanier (Retired)

The Lampstand

Luke 8: 16

16 “No one lights a lamp and hides it in a clay jar or puts it under a bed. Instead, they put it on a stand, so that those who come in can see the light.”

Who are you?  This is a question that you have to answer every day.  Are you a disciple of Christ or not?  We all have a fear of being seen as different. Yet, this is just what Christ asks us to be.  

We are to be different, not in a negative way,  but in the way we love.  We are to show love and mercy and forgiveness even in the midst of hate and retribution, even to our enemies.

This love is our light that shines forth into the world.  It is to be a beacon to the lost, the lonely, and the suffering; a light that should never be hidden.

May the love of Christ be with you,

Rev. Eric Lanier (Retired)

The Storm

Mark 4: 35-41

“35 That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” 36 Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. 37 A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. 38 Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” 39 He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. 40 He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” 41 They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”

Storms can be scary.   Even though I have lived through a tornado, hurricanes, and terrific thunder and lightning storms, I am still awed and occasionally terrified by the forces of nature.  They make me feel small and not in control.

The Disciples, even though they were seasoned fishermen and had encountered storms before, were still awed and terrified of the forces of nature that sent waves crashing over their boat, nearly sinking it.

Jesus was asleep on a cushion in the back of the boat.  The sea was churning, the waves were swamping the boat, the wind was blowing, the Disciples were in a panic, and Jesus was sleeping.  It is just human nature that, when you are afraid and someone with you is sleeping through the scary event, you get a little irritated.

The Disciples woke Jesus up, and they asked him if he did not care that they were about to drown.  When a boat is in trouble on a violent sea, it is all hands on deck.  No one is exempt from trying to save the boat and the lives of the crew.  No one gets to sleep through the storm.

Jesus calmed the storm.  And this terrified the Disciples as much as the storm itself.  It was as if they had discovered that Jesus really was who he said he was.

When we encounter the living Christ, when we first realize who He is, it is frightening. It is not until we experience His eternal, unconditional love that we realize the sea that he has calmed is in our hearts.

And we know His peace.

May the love of Christ be with you,

Rev. Eric Lanier (Retired)

The Sower

Matthew 13: 1-23

3 Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4 As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6 But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. 8 Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. 9 Whoever has ears, let them hear.”

Each spring and fall I would spread grass seed over my lawn. There were areas of my yard in which the grass seed sprouted readily.  In another area seed sprouted but was thin.  And in yet another area, grass would never grow. Despite my mixed success, I seeded each spring and fall, without fail.

We can look at the parable above in two ways.  The first is to see the sower as Jesus Christ, who spreads the seed of the good news to the world where most of the people reject it.  Despite this rejection, Christ keeps sowing and some people come to faith and produce much fruit.

The second is to see ourselves (people of faith) as the sower of the good news. We sow the good news with our words, through our service, and with our example. We may succeed with some and fail with others, but we are to keep sowing. We are  not to be preoccupied with success or failure but with our relationship with Christ.

In either case, the message is to keep sowing.

In our spiritual lives this means that  we are to keep praying, keep studying, keep worshiping, keep serving, and living the faith...with our eyes always on Christ.

May the love of Christ be with you,

Rev. Eric Lanier (Retired)

The Fig Tree

Luke 13:6-9

“6 Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it but did not find any. 7 So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’ 8 “‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. 9 If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’”

I have often wondered if the gardener resolved the problem or cut the fig tree down.  All gardeners love their plants and cutting one down is very hard.  We have all had plants or shrubs in our yards that will not grow or flower or bear fruit, no matter how much we baby them. 

Our plants are precious to us, and when we finally realize that this plant is never going to be what it is supposed to be, we still hesitate before we cut it down.  We hesitate because we have this picture in our heads of this plant with beautiful blooms and green leaves, and limbs filled with fruit.

This is how God sees us, and this is why he forgives us time after time for our shortcomings.  This is why he gives us his Holy Spirit, why he speaks to us through his word, and why he leads us into the lives of others and leads others into our lives at just the right moment.  

God wants us to bloom and bear fruit.  And, during our lifetime, God will never give up on us.  

We are all precious in his sight.

May the love of Christ be with you,

Rev. Eric Lanier (Retired)

Clean Hands, Dirty Hearts

Luke 11: 37-41

“37 When Jesus had finished speaking, a Pharisee invited him to eat with him; so he went in and reclined at the table. 38 But the Pharisee was surprised when he noticed that Jesus did not first wash before the meal. 39 Then the Lord said to him, “Now then, you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. 40 You foolish people! Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also? 41 But now as for what is inside you—be generous to the poor, and everything will be clean for you.”

The first thing my mother would make her five children do before we sat down at her table to eat was wash our hands.  After we washed, Mom would inspect us and send us back if there was even a trace of dirt.  

The Pharisee that Jesus was preparing to have a meal with was surprised that Jesus did not wash his hands before eating.  To be clear, Jesus was not sitting down to eat with filthy, dirty hands.  The Pharisee was concerned with ceremony and ritual.  The law stipulated that hands had to be washed in a certain way before a meal and had to be repeated between courses.  Every detail of the washing was detailed in the law and people were expected to follow these details to the letter in order to be ceremonially clean during the meal.

To a Pharisee, to omit any of the complicated details was a sin.  Jesus replied, in effect, that instead of worrying about another person’s hands, Pharisees would do well to worry about the cleanliness of their own hearts.

Sometimes we can’t see the forest for the trees.  We let the details of ritual and ceremony get in the way of true spirituality.

Dirty hands can be cleaned by soap and water.  A dirty heart can only be cleaned by God.

May the love of Christ be with you,

Rev. Eric Lanier (Retired)

The Sign of the Messiah

Luke 11: 29-30

“29 As the crowds increased, Jesus said, “This is a wicked generation. It asks for a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah. 30 For as Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, so also will the Son of Man be to this generation.”

Have you ever misread a sign and ended up in the wrong place?  All of us have at one time or another.  We look for the sign, we read the sign, but we misinterpret the sign.  Sometimes we don’t see the sign at all and we pass through the place we wanted to go.  We want signs, but we don’t always use them correctly.

People were always asking Jesus for a sign that he was the Messiah.  They could not see that the greatest sign that they could have ever received was Jesus himself; that Jesus himself was the sign.  The sign was among them, but they did not see the sign.

Jesus told them that the only sign they were going to see was the sign of Jonah.  Just as Jonah was rescued by God after three days inside a great fish, Jesus would be resurrected after three days in a tomb.  

The primary sign of Christ’s messiahship is his resurrection, and this sign leads us to our salvation.

May the love of Christ be with you,

Rev. Eric Lanier (Retired)