Welcome to Pastor Jack Buckley's weekly blog and podcast.
You have three ways to hear his weekly message:
- Read Pastor Jack's GODblog.
- Listen now to an audio of the scripture reading and Pastor Jack's sermon.
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Saturday, January 28, 2006
Now You See It...
Psalm 119:9-16; James 1:22-27
"Faith That Works" is this week's recorded message. Spiritual wisdom seeks a system of beliefs that will stand the test of real-life experience. And that only happens when you remember first of all the Truth you have discovered, then sincerely set about to put it to work in your daily life.
Listen to the GODcast!
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What is it with cameras? They always get me wrong.
Look at any photo of my mug, and you see this old guy with white hair, a lopsided face, and what is politely called a goofy expression.
Not at all what I see when I look in the mirror. No, there the hair is definitely salt and pepper, with silver highlights. The face charmingly asymmetrical. And the eyes, oh the eyes. My inner teenager rules in front of a mirror.
I wish.
In fact, your mirror is one of life's great reality checks. Many a doctor visit originated with a second look at what was staring back from the looking glass. Inner teenagers and mid-life maniacs alike are given a daily chance to face the facts of life.
If they'll just remember what they've seen once they walk away.
That's a biblical theme, you know. James 1:22-25 uses the folly of forgetting what your mirror shows you to illustrate why you need to put into practice the things you believe.
Reading or hearing the truth doesn't do much for you until you figure out how to do the truth you've learned. And then actually go ahead and do it!
Suppose you made a new year's resolution to lose 20 pounds. (Go on, admit it.)
Among other things, you buy a book on nutrition and exercise. And you read that book, underlining and highlighting the good parts, and you read it through a second time. In fact, you resolve to spend 15 minutes every day with your healthy book. And then you actually memorize key sentences, even paragraphs.
But you never change your eating habits. And you postpone until tomorrow, on a daily basis, those sit-ups and that eliptical trainer.
Fat chance (heh) that you'll ever reach your goal!
There's a wonderful freedom in knowing what's really real and actually doing something about it. Then you've experienced the truth. That changes you, and charges you. And now whenever you tell the truth it packs a new persuasive punch.
Now, that would be worth catching on film!
posted by Jack Buckley at
11:19 AM
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
Say What?
Psalm 37:1-6; James 1:2-8
In this week's message,"Getting to Yes With God," Pastor Jack focused on the paradox of joy in the midst of trouble. The letter of James says we're wisest when we seek and find God's good will at work, even in the worst of circumstances. Pie in the sky?
Listen to the GODcast!
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"If everything seems to be coming your way, you're probably driving in the wrong direction." My wise-guy friend Olivier told me that.
"When things aren't going your way, that's the time to rejoice." A wise man named James tells us that. (The letter of James, chapter 1, verse 2)
You might think this James guy is a few cards short of a full deck.
But he's no pie-in-the-sky optimist, nor a hit-me-again-please masochist.
He isn't talking about being happy when life is hard, when your health is poor, or when your money's short.
Happiness depends on what's happening, on good circumstances. But joy goes to the bone, to the heart of the matter, even in the worst of circumstances.
When things are bad, God is still good. And God goes with you every step of the way through the deepest troubled waters and into the hottest of circumstantial flames. That's cause for joy.
When Jesus hung dying on the cross, he did cry out the bitter question, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?!" (Mark 16:34) But after that, just before his last breath, he said, "Father, into your hands I commend my spirit." (Luke 23:46) Enduring the most gruesome anguish, he was confident that God was there, taking care of his greatest need -- spiritual peace.
I don't know what troubles might be knocking you around right now. But I am confident there's a place of calm security for you right in the middle of it all. Not physical safety, maybe. Not necessarily financial success, nor relational happiness.
I do wish all of those for you. But most of all, I pray a centered place of serenity for your weary soul.
The 12-Steps people say a daily prayer: God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.
That simple little prayer is no escape hatch from real life. Far from it.
In fact, its first pray-er was Reinhold Niebuhr, a minister in New York City who devoted all his energies to the cause of social justice. The changes he was praying about were the kind of things that would help God's will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
So let joy be the keynote of your life. Not for happiness' sake, but to open the way for serenity, courage, and wisdom to do their good work in you, one day at a time. It will make a world of difference. For you and for the whole wide world.
posted by Jack Buckley at
9:54 AM
Tuesday, January 17, 2006
What Is Your Dream?
Psalm 8; Revelation 19:1-10
On Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday, Pastor Jack preached on human dignity here and now, and our glorious destiny for all eternity. Your fundamental vision of life's purposes drives every decision you make -- for good or for ill. Dream big!
Listen to the GODcast!
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Ms. Rosa Parks sat down one day and lifted from our eyes a heavy veil.
When she refused to give up her seat to a white man on that bus, he and every American were compelled to confess that all people everywhere are essentially the same. Underneath her dark skin, those tired bones and muscles looked an awful lot like his.
"Who are we," asks the writer of Psalm 8, "that God would even notice us? What in the world are we that God would care for us?" The answer: We're God's image and likeness in the created world, men and women whom God trusts to take good care of it all. And of each other in the bargain.
A few years later, Dr. Martin Luther King stood up and opened our eyes again with his soul-stirring rhetoric. With hundreds of thousands of pilgrims he stood before the Lincoln Memorial, calling on our nation to cash its overdue check of equal opportunity under the law. He also called on African-Americans to resist all temptations to violence and hatred in pursuit of civil rights.
And then he shared with all of us his great dream for America:
"I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.' I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood.... I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character....
"I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together...."
In the cadences and imagery of a prophet, Dr. King called on all of us to gaze with new eyes upon the fundamental truth that all people everywhere are brothers and sisters in the human family. And to affirm once again that we all share the same ultimate purpose and destiny.
C. S. Lewis once said that every person on this earth is becoming either more like God or more like the Devil, choice by choice. If the veil were lifted, he said, we'd be tempted to fall down in front of one person and worship her for all her dazzling glory, and to run away in panic from another because of his hideous evil nature. Choice by choice, step by step, we're spiritually investing in heaven or hell.
Revelation 19 shows a most inviting vision of heaven -- a wedding banquet for the Lamb of God (Jesus) and his Bride (all of us). An eternal love-fest!
Written during one of Rome's worst periods of persecuting nonconformists (like Christians who refused to bow down to the emperor), Revelation is a coded call to stand firm at all costs to what you believe about God and the world.
The wedding feast comes only after the "great whore" of government gone mad with power has been appropriately punished. Thank God, I guess, that Dr. King skipped that prophetic image when he challenged America to do the right thing.
On the inter-personal level and on the grand scale of nations, then, entire destinies are being formed one decision at a time. Those decisions are driven by our fundamental vision of what life in this world is all about, our dream for a final purpose that's worth pursuing.
Another prophetic voice, an unlikely one by popular standards, tells us in simple terms how to do it one day at a time:
"I believe that appreciation is a holy thing -- that when we look for what's best in a person we happen to be with at the moment, we're doing what God does all the time. So in loving and appreciating our neighbor, we're participating in something sacred." (Mr. Rogers)
posted by Jack Buckley at
4:43 PM
Monday, January 09, 2006
How To Be Spiritually Wise
Isaiah 60:1-6; Matthew 2:1-12
What made the Wise Men wise is not mysterious, even though an awesome air of mystery surrounds them. Matthew calls them "Magi." Whoever and whatever they were, three simple yet profound things led them into a wise way of life.
Listen to the GODcast!
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They came from Eastern lands, trekking westward to find God's "Sun of Righteousness, risen with healing in his wings." (That's the Messiah, in Malachi 4:2.)
We call them the 3 Kings. Which makes sense, sort of, since they gave three gifts to the baby Jesus in Matthew 2:11. But there could have been two or twenty of them. And Matthew doesn't call them kings, either, but "Magi." Maybe wizards, or astrologers.
One thing tradition and the text do agree on is that these pilgrims were Wise Men.
That's in contrast to King Herod and his spiritual advisors, who look pretty foolish this time around.
When the visitors drop into the royal palace to pay their respects to the newborn royal baby, he's not there! Scratching their heads, they tell how a special star led them to the Jewish homeland where they'd find the prophesied Jewish Messiah lying in his crib.
Now it's Herod and the scholars' turn to do some scratching. Prophecy, eh? A fast Google search through sacred scrolls, and -- Bingo! "Go to Bethlehem! When you find the baby, do your worship thing. Then come back with a map so we can pay our own respects."
They roll up the scrolls, tuck them safely away, and then they fold up their hands and fall spiritually fast asleep.
Why didn't they hit the road with the Wise Men? What did these religous professionals miss that made the Wise Men wise?
For one thing, their perspective was horizontal. They didn't consider heaven's point of view. Unlike the Magi, who scanned the heavens and followed the magical star.
Give them points for knowing their Bible, the User's Guide for Jewish and Christian people of faith. That's the best source for your beliefs and behavior guidelines.
But they had no concern to do what it told them. What good does it do to cross-refer prophesies, plot salvation history, cross textual t's and dot interpretive i's -- if you don't put your faith into practice?
Christmas cards and bumper stickers tell us "Wise People Still Seek Him!"
I say, Let's you and I walk in the Wise Men's footprints, looking for signs of Jesus each step along the way.
The most obvious place to find him is in your Bible. But he'll catch you by surprise every living day, if you're watching and listening for his clues. When you catch them, please, don't forget to let them do their work in your daily life.
posted by Jack Buckley at
4:20 PM
Tuesday, January 03, 2006
Taking Stock, Moving On
Ecclesiastes 3:1-13; Matthew 25:31-46
How do you make and keep a good new year's resolution? Pastor Jack finds both practical advice and spiritual encouragement in this week's Bible passages.
Listen to the GODblog!
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I'd be willing to bet money that one of the most common new year's resolutions (if made on New Year's Day) is, "I'll never do that again!"
In any case, it's a natural impulse on such a landmark day to stop, take stock, and decide where we want to go from here with our lives.
An old hymn says, "Here I raise my Ebenezer, hither by thy help I've come; and I hope by thy good pleasure safely to arrive at home." Well, what the heck is an Ebenezer?! (Tip: This song is not about Scrooge.)
Fact is, that's the name of a stone monument the judge Samuel erected at the place where he won an important battle. He did it to honor God's protection that far, and to promise he'd follow God faithfully the rest of the way. (See 1 Samuel 7:12)
Let's you and I, at this time of new beginnings, follow in his steps. Let's take stock of our life journey so far, and get our bearings on where to move on to from here.
Sociologist Tony Campolo reports on a survey taken among fifty people over the age of ninety, who were asked, "If you had it to do over again, what would you do differently?"
Three basic answers converged at the top of the list:
1. I would reflect more.
2. I would risk more.
3. I would do more things that would live on after I died.
I invite you to join me in applying those three goals in our own lives during 2006.
1. Let's set aside our busy work at regular intervals, to evaluate what our various tasks really mean, to notice just where they're taking us. And to consider what God might think about it all.
2. Let's take chances now and then, to see what God might do with our willing hands and minds to make a real difference in our world.
3. Let's keep eternity's values in view as we decide what's worth doing, when and how to do it best. And whether its effects are what we really want to be remembered for as God's people in this time and place.
Here's another, more serious tip: Experts say that a new year's resolution, put into practice every day, turns into a habit in twenty-one days. When you've done it day by day for six months, it's become a part of your personality.
Imagine these three simple principles as a whole new lifestyle... To have it be second-nature for us to tune in to God's wavelength, to take the chance that God might use us for something good, to leave a good legacy that keeps on going even when we're long gone.
Happy new year! Happy new life!
P.S. Thanks to Steve Goodier's Life Support System newsletter for the survey story.
posted by Jack Buckley at
4:48 PM
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