One God For All People

Our Father in heaven,
    may your name be kept holy.
May your Kingdom come soon.
May your will be done on earth,
    as it is in heaven.
Give us today the food we need,
and forgive us our sins,
    as we have forgiven those who sin against us.
And don’t let us yield to temptation,
    but rescue us from the evil one.
Matthew 6:9-13 (NLT)

I heard a sermon recently....well, actually I heard a couple of lines in the sermon where the speaker pointed out in that in The Lord's prayer, it starts out with "Our Father." (That's where I stopped listening and started pondering.) Ours. Not yours. Not mine. Not a certain denomination, religion, race, gender or behavior but all of ours.

He doesn't belong to any one person. We are all in this together. The prayer goes on to say

Give us
Forgive us
Keep us
Rescue us

For those of us that somehow turn those into me statements, well, that's not what it says. How did our faith get so messed up that we began thinking it was about 'me'? How did we make it exclusive instead of inclusive?

God is so much bigger than that. I wish we were too.

Because I AM

Jesus fully realized all that was going to happen to him, so he stepped forward to meet them. “Who are you looking for?” he asked. “Jesus the Nazarene,” they replied. “I am he*,” Jesus said. (Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them.) As Jesus said “I am he,” they all drew back and fell to the ground! John 18:4-6 (NLT)
*Or “The ‘I am’ is here”; or “I am the Lord”; Greek reads I am; also in 18:6, 8. See Exod 3:14.

When Moses ran into God in the wilderness and God said "I am sending you to Egypt." Moses argued. Can't say I blame him. This was totally out of the ordinary. It didn't look like what he was used to. It was bigger than where his mind could take him. 

We might be tempted, like Moses, to say "God, this is too hard. I can't do that. I don't have what it takes. That's a different spiritual gift than I have." And my guess is all these things were popping around in Moses' head....well, except the spiritual gift thing....that's a new excuse for us but he basically said the same thing when he said "I am just a shepherd." What came out of his mouth though was "They will ask me your name. Who should I say sent me?" 

And what did God say? He said "I AM."

Many centuries pass and the same thing happens again. Jesus is in the Garden of Gethsemane and the mob is looking for him to arrest him. They ask "Which one of you is Jesus of Nazareth?." Except, unlike Moses, Jesus doesn't offer excuses. He knows who he is and he says "I AM"

Do you know Jesus is saying the same thing to us today.....every single time we cry out to him?

Lord, I can't walk through another day of pain. I AM
Lord, we need help with our finances. I AM
Jesus, I feel so lonely. I need more to my life. I AM
Please, please help my children. I AM
I don't know what to do next. I AM

In those words, Jesus offered the solution to everything we will ever need. He offered himself. He knew that no matter how big the task seemed, no matter how hopeless it looked, he was enough. He knew that because of those words we would be able to take another step. With just those two small syllables we could be brave. 

Jesus knew we could walk one more day with assurance that no matter what was happening, we would be OK because not only was he the great I AM, HE STILL IS. 

Who Is Better?

Don't do anything from selfish ambition or from a cheap desire to boast, but be humble toward one another, always considering others better than yourselves. And look out for one another's interests, not just for your own. Philippians 2:3-4 (GNT)

We read these verses and we think "Yes! we should always think of others better than ourselves." But, we rarely do. If we were going to be real and honest about it, we may think of others as equal to ourselves but rarely do we think better.

What does someone have to do for you to think of them as better? Usually, they need to be more educated, an expert in something, have done some heroic act, served in some way, have more money. Our lists are long.

But not Jesus. He was always reaching out to people others rejected. He was always caring for those that were outcast. He chose to mingle and dine and live among those in society that were deemed not worthy to live life with. But probably one of the most poignant acts of his life was at the end. It clearly demonstrated what Jesus thought of 'the pecking order.'

Jesus was the Teacher. He was the Master. In his group of disciples, he was at the top of the chain. The disciples were next and then after them would come any servants of the household. When they were eating their last meal together, there were no servants. When they walked into the house there was no one there to wash their feet and remove the dirt before they placed them next to the table. Tradition said that only the servants did that. They were not servants so they did not do it. 

But Jesus did. He took off his outer clothing, took the basin and the towel and began to fulfill the task of the servant. He placed them in a position that was better than himself - even though he was/is the King of the World.

As I reflect on this, I know I have a very long way to go before I am modeling Jesus in this way. My heart and mind do not always reflect the attitude of a servant and I am not accustomed to thinking of everyone as better than myself.

Father God, please. Help me in this. Make me more like Jesus. Amen