What Child is This?; Luke 2:22-38

This might be my favorite part of the Christmas story, although it’s not really Christmas. Jesus is just over a month old. This is his first trip to Jerusalem. Mary and Joseph are too poor to offer and substitute with 2 doves or pigeons. And as they make their sacrifice in the Temple, they meet two senior saints—Anna and Simeon. Anna is a prophet and has served in the Temple since she became a widow. Both of these senior saints knew the Scriptures and recognized the promised Messiah and gave thanks for him. As Mary and Joseph hear what is said about this child, they are amazed. They can’t help but ponder, what child is this? I want to focus a bit on what Simeon says about Messiah Jesus. Simeon answers the question, what child is this? Simeon says that Messiah is God’s salvation for all peoples, a light of revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of His people Israel. First he says that this Messiah is God’s salvation prepared in the presence of all peoples. This is God’s means of salvation for all the peoples. The word for peoples is laos and refers to people in general, many individuals. The Messiah is the Way—the Way in which all peoples can be reconciled to God. Jesus knew this. Jesus would later say, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no one comes to the Father but by Me.” The world would finally know that Yahweh is real and God cares about God’s people and will in fact deliver them. But Israel wasn’t destined to become a superior nation because… Simeon goes on to say that Jesus is a light of revelation to the Gentiles. The world for Gentiles is ethnos—ethnic groups. In the original covenant to Abraham, God said that God would bless Abraham and make of him a great nation so that he would be a blessing to all the nations. God intended for God’s salvation to reach to the ends of the earth. Jesus wasn’t just for the people of Israel, but a light to all the ethnic groups. As recently as a few decades ago in Japan it was surprising for the Japanese to learn that Jesus was born in the Middle East. They had only thought of Christianity as a Western religion. And while the Middle East is still far west of Japan, it was a surprising thing to learn and trips to the Holy Land by Japanese tourists became quite popular. The discovery helped them to realize that Jesus really did come for all ethnic groups, not just one. Third, Jesus is the glory of God’s people, Israel. In the beginning of this story we read that Simeon was promised he would not die until he saw Israel’s Consolation. Jesus would be the proof that everything God promised to His people would come to pass and it would come to pass in Jesus. Finally, all of Israel’s humiliation would come to an end. But just as in the Old Testament times, there would be people who would continue to resist the Word of God. Just as the prophets were resisted, disobeyed, mocked, and killed, Jesus would be treated the same way. Simeon elaborates that Jesus will cause the falling of some Jews and the rising of others. He notes that as glorious as Messiah will be, He will also be opposed because Jesus has the capability to reveal thoughts. Jesus challenges our notion of self-preservation. Because Jesus is the means by which all are saved, Jesus exposes our weaknesses. Jesus shows us that we cannot save ourselves. Jesus breaks through our disguises and reveals the truth, the ugly truth hidden in our hearts and minds. Some will be exposed and fall, but many will be exposed and rise—be resurrected—as they place their trust in the Savior. Simeon also lets Mary know that her own soul will be pierced. As thrilled and thankful Simeon is to hold Messiah in his arms, he knows that Jesus’s life will not be easy. Simeon understands the spiritual role of Messiah. For Messiah to fulfill His role would entail great suffering. The refrain, for the second verse of “What Child is This?” which we sang on Christmas Eve says, “Nails, spear shall pierce Him through. The cross be borne for me, for you. Hail, hail the Word made flesh, the Babe the Son of Mary.” And even Mary must endure the same scrutiny of heart that we all must endure at the eyes of Jesus. Jesus treats his mother as he would anyone else. He doesn’t have any higher regard for her. Think of the wedding at Cana, or the time when Mary tried to get Jesus to return to the family and Jesus replying that the people He was with were His true family. And yet Mary continues to follow her Son. She places her trust in Him all the way to the cross. And it is there that Jesus cares for her as Son. He entrusts her to John the apostle’s care. He makes sure Mary is looked after and provided for. Babies don’t stay babies for very long. They grow up, and this baby had a destiny. Even our new mothers in this room can tell you that their babies have changed a lot since they were born. And next year, at this time, they might even be standing. It’s hard to imagine what your child might become when you are just thrilled to have a child, when you are getting used to being a first time parent and feeding and changing diapers, when you are too busy noticing the small daily changes you see in your child as facial expressions emerge and different noises become associated with meaning. It’s hard to picture what they will be like when they are in their 30’s. Mary and Joseph are amazed at what they hear. And yet they’ve heard it before. Mary heard it from an angel and from Elizabeth. Joseph, too heard it from an angel. They both heard it from the testimony of shepherds. And now from two senior saints that they probably haven’t previously met, they hear again. They marvel that so many people know already that this child is special, that this child is really the Messiah, and yet they probably can still hardly believe it themselves. As often as Mary and Joseph heard what their child would be, it still caused them to marvel. They don’t cease asking, what child is this? Jesus was a child to be marveled at. He would bring both salvation and judgment, vindication and restoration, division and unity, not only for Israel, but for the world. This child would be a light of revelation, showing all ethnic groups what God is like. Our response to this child is what makes the difference in Christ’s function. His role and nature were determined well before his birth and confirmed in his infancy. The light has been given. Salvation, consolation, and glory have been offered. What child is this? What single person could do all of that? Only God’s right arm, the Anointed One, the Christ, the promised Savior and Deliverer, who was also the Babe, the Son of Mary.

Light in the Darkness; Psalm 89

A repeated theme in Advent is light. As we light another candle each week, the light grows brighter in anticipation of the True Light entering the world. But what about when the darkness seems to overcome the light? What about when it seems as if God really has broken God’s promises? I talked to the children about promises and broken promises and told them that God never breaks God’s promises. That’s what the Bible says, but in today’s psalm, it seems as if God has not only broken a mere promise, but God’s very covenant that God made with David. If you know about covenants, you know that they are binding legal agreements and that the penalty for breaking them is death. So if God can break promises is God really God at all? This psalm is interesting. The last verse 52 is not really part of it. You see, the psalms are actually made up of 5 different sections, or books. Psalm 89 is the last psalm in section 3. Verse 52 denotes the end of this section of psalms. This book has been made up of royal psalms—psalms about kings, mostly David, but even more than that, they celebrate the Lord as King. Since verse 52 is not part of the psalm, that means this psalm ends with a series of questions and a plea for God to remember God’s covenant. Second, we know who wrote at least part of this psalm—Ethan the Ezrahite. From I Kings, we find out that Ethan is wise. King Solomon is declared to be wiser than all the wise men, including Ethan the Ezrahite. This means that Ethan was a very smart dude. We also find out from I Chronicles that he was a musician. He was a singer, songwriter, and played the cymbals. He and some of his fellow musicians were commissioned to write, sing, and play. Third, this psalm is divided into 3 parts. Verses 1- 18 offer praise to God. This section contains all four Advent themes—hope in the sure promises of God, peace because God has conquered all God’s enemies. This victory is expressed in the picture, “You crushed Rahab like one of the slain.” Rahab is a metaphor for Egypt, and with the other references to the sea, symbolizes the crossing of the Reed Sea. Rahab was also a sea dragon in Canaanite mythology. It represented chaos. God brings order out of chaos. In fact, God created the world out of chaos. Genesis 1:1 says God created the heavens and the earth. In verse 2 of Genesis one, the earth is described as formless and void. The Hebrew is stronger, describing the water-covered earth as a big mess. The New Testament tells us that God is a God of order and not of confusion. When has God created order out of chaos in your life? Rahab also symbolizes demonic power. God is greater than all evil. The rest of that verse says, “You have scattered Your enemies with Your mighty arm.” Christ is often referred to in the prophets and New Testament as God’s mighty right arm. Joy is seen in verse 15, “Blessed are the people that know the joyful sound!” The “joyful sound” is a group shout of triumphal praise. It cannot be made by a lone individual. It is like cheers at a football stadium. What would it sound like if we shouted for joy for who God is and what God has done like when our favorite team scores a touchdown or makes that 3 point shot right before the buzzer? The people of the Bible didn’t know modern sports, but they knew this sound. It was common at their festivals and it was directed to God Almighty. Love is seen in the second section of the psalm as well as the first as God’s forever covenant with David is described in detail. And of course there is light. To describe the totality of the Lord’s kingly reign, the mountains Tabor and Hermon are used. Tabor means light and Hermon means a “consecrated place”. Mt. Tabor is also the likely place of the transfiguration, which is appropriate as its name means “light”. This is where Jesus radiated light brighter than the sun. He was revealed in glory. Tabor is west of Jerusalem and Hermon is east. With the north and south and with heaven and earth, it is shown that everything belongs to God and every being belongs to God. Again, God’s hand is mentioned, pointing to the kingship of Christ. Christ is light and Christ is holy. Again, this royal psalm speaks more of Christ’s reign than David’s. Verse 18 says, “The Holy One of Israel is our king.” Yes, David was holy and chosen by God, but Christ moreso. He is absolutely holy. And His being chosen from the people speaks to the incarnation. He is fully man, but He also is Lord of heaven. He rules over the sea. He is the One who calls God, “Abba, Father.” He is the anointed Christ. He is the firstborn. We also know this psalm is about Christ because the angel Gabriel quotes from it in his annunciation to Mary when he says, “He shall reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.” David was great, but Christ is greater. Scholars are divided as to whether Ethan wrote the second and third sections of the psalm in addition to the first, especially the 3rd section, which is a lament. In this section, the lamenter reminds God of God’s forever covenant with David, but the external evidence points to God breaking that covenant. If Ethan wrote it, he may be referring to Absalom’s rebellion, or perhaps he outlived Solomon and saw the kingdom divided. If it is a later addition, perhaps it was written during the exile or even right when Assyria conquered Israel or Babylon conquered Judah. We don’t know, but it is clear that this is a continuation of the psalm as it calls into question all the “forevers” promised by God. Notice that forever 4x’s in reference to God speaking plus an additional time by the psalmist as a pledge of praise and it is alluded to even more times than that. So this psalmist wonders, “What happened to ‘forever’?” Is it possible God renounced this covenant? Have you ever wondered if God has broken a promise? When has it seemed like God is not keeping God’s promises? Even this week, we learned of the massacre of school children far worse than the one in our country 2 years ago, the murder of more than 132 children and 9 staff in Peshawar. This was an act of darkness. It is evil. If God’s covenant is a forever one made to bless all the peoples of the earth, did God leave out Pakistan? Where is the light? The psalmist or psalmists recognize that there is a warning from God about punishing the descendants of David if they break God’s commandments, but even so there is a promise of restoration, grace, and that the covenant will never be broken. And yet, whatever the psalmist is describing is far worse than punishment or discipline. The psalmists’ questions are legitimate—“What man can live and not see death? Can he deliver his life from the power of Sheol?” It has been said that the psalms are the prayers of Christ. I can imagine Jesus praying this psalm in the garden. He was the One who had to bear all the many peoples in His bosom. He was the One who had to endure our shame. Even Jesus had to die. The only two who never died were Elijah, who was taken to heaven in a whirlwind and a chariot of fire, and possibly Enoch, who walked with God and was no more. But Jesus had to die. And the answer to the second question is, “Yes!” The psalmist might not have known it, but Jesus did rise from the grave! Even as He grieved in the garden, He already knew the positive answer to the question. He endured the cross for the joy that was set before Him. God’s covenant was not broken, and it will never be broken, even though it seems like darkness triumphs temporarily. Because of Christ, even we are light. Ephesians 5:8 says, “For once, you were darkness, but now in the Lord, you are light.” We didn’t just live in darkness; we were darkness. We were enemies of Christ, but now in Him we are light. We don’t just live in the light; we are light. We can illuminate the way for others. And so Paul exhorts us in the rest of that verse, “Live as children of light!” We can sing of the mercies of the Lord forever. We can make known His faithfulness to all generations. We have been reminded this season that our timetable is not God’s, and yes, God will always remain true to God’s word. We can claim all these victorious promises. With Christ, who is, as the Nicene Creed says, “Light from light, true God from True God,” the darkness will never win, and has in fact, been given a deadly blow. His death and resurrection made certain of that. Even so, Lord quickly come.

We Will Rejoice; Psalm 126, I Thessalonians 5:16-28

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Experiencing God's Shalom; Psalm 85, II Peter 3:8-15

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We Too Are Pilgrims; Colossians 3:1-17

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Our Triumphant King; Psalm 21, Ephesians 1:15-23

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Making Sense of the Senseless; Ps. 44, Matthew 5:10-12, I Peter 4:12-19

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Proclaiming the Gospel; Acts 6:8-7:53

The first Great End of the Church is the proclamation of the gospel for the salvation of humankind. This was Jesus’ final command statement prior to His ascension. Every gospel records Jesus giving a command to spread the good news to everyone. Spreading the gospel is part of the reason for the church’s existence. As Catherine Gonzalez says, “The cause of the church is God’s desired future…It is not our past that creates the church, but God’s future.” Gonzalez is the author of Proclamation of the Gospel for the Salvation of Humankind, part of the series of books on the Great Ends of the Church. I’ll quote frequently from this book today and commend it to you for further study. We know from Scripture that God’s desired future is for all to know who God is. God has chosen and called us to make that happen. A proclamation is a public statement. Gonzalez says, “The church exists to make something public.” Though we each have a personal faith, the gospel itself is to be public. The gospel is fact for all people, not just for us. Proclamation of course carries a risk. But there has always been risk in proclaiming the gospel. We don’t carry as much risk as many before us or even today those who live in other parts of the world, and yet we have often failed in our mandate to proclaim the gospel. We see Stephen risking his life for the gospel in our Acts passage this morning. Fear of death did not stop him from telling the truth. Our own Book of Order states that “The Church is to be a community of faith, entrusting itself to God alone, even at the risk of losing its life.” (F-1.0301) There is a difference between advertising the church and proclaiming the gospel. Inviting people to church is important, but it is not proclamation. Telling people how the church can benefit them is important, but this is not the proclamation of the gospel. Even sharing what our own relationship with God is like is not proclamation, although any of the above can be precursors to proclamation. Proclamation of the gospel is telling who God is and what God has done for the world. Proclamation is vital. So what we are to proclaim? We are to tell the sacred story. This is what Stephen does in his sermon. We talk about God as Creator who made a covenant with us, which we broke, so God made a way to restore the covenant and sent Jesus. We tell about how Jesus lived, what He did, and who He was. We let people know that in Jesus there is a new creation where sin is forgiven, reconciliation is accomplished, dividing walls are torn down, eternal life is given. Stephen tells the story beginning with Abraham, moving through the patriarchs, and then to Moses. He includes the Exodus, the golden calf, the tabernacle, and Joshua. He mentions David and Solomon’s temple. He quotes specific scripture verses. He declares Jesus as Messiah. He points out the people’s failure to keep the law. How well do you know God’s story? You cannot proclaim something you don’t know. Reading and knowing God’s story for ourselves is important. This is the story we recount in the prayer of Great Thanksgiving that we will pray before Communion, so listen for it next week. We ourselves need to be reminded often of God’s story. It gives us cause for celebration and praise. And we need to know it so we can share it with others. We live in an increasingly secular and pluralistic society. You might be amazed at how many people know little to nothing of God’s story. We cannot take it for granted that people have a general idea of what we are talking about. The proclamation of God’s story includes Law as well as gospel. Gonzalez explains it this way: READ paragraphs marked on pgs. 22-23. It has been said that the church exists for the benefits of its nonmembers. Gonzalez says it this way, “We proclaim for those who are not yet part of the community of faith. The church nurtures those who are already part of its life (which by the way is the second of those Great Ends—the shelter, nurture and spiritual fellowship of the children of God). [The church] proclaims to those who are not [part of its life].” I’m sure you’ve hear the phrase, “I’m just saying,” but that’s what proclamation is. It’s just saying—putting the truth out there and letting the Holy Spirit and people do with that truth whatever they desire. The Spirit is the one who applies the Truth to the hearts of people. We don’t have to worry about converting people. That is not our job. That is the Spirit’s job. But we must be faithful in proclamation. The Book of Order also gives us ways in which we are to proclaim the gospel. In F-1.0302d, it says, The Church is sent to be Christ’s faithful evangelist: making disciples of all nations in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; sharing with others a deep life of worship, prayer, fellowship, service, and participating in God’s mission to care for the needs of the sick, poor, and lonely, to free people from sin, suffering, and oppression, and to establish Christ’s just, loving, and peaceable rule in the world. You may have heard the quotation attributed to St. Francis of Assisi, “Preach the gospel at all times. When necessary, use words.” At some point, words are necessary. Proclamation is words. Again, our Book of Order states that our life together ought to be a witness to the gospel, but we also have to as the apostle Peter writes, “Be ready always to give an answer to anyone concerning the hope that is in you.” We need to be able to proclaim, and again let people know that this is not just good news for us, but good news for them and the whole world. The gospel does not change, but how we proclaim it changes somewhat according to our cultural context. We are to speak within and to the surrounding culture without being overcome or watered-down by that culture. Gonzalez warns that when “the gospel is made compatible with what the wider culture already believes, then nothing new is being proclaimed.” The church ends up being merely another social club or therapeutic group. Our proclamation must still keep the good news “good” and “news”. The first believers simply proclaimed, “Jesus is Lord.” It is a true statement that Jesus is Lord, Lord of all, the only Lord, whether or not one believes that He is. Gonzalez reminds us that we are only capable of creating idols, not gods and that “If we worship the true god, it is not because we have elevated God to this position, but because we have encountered the One who has [the rightful] claim to our lives…If Christians assume that the God we worship is not the only God, or that the God we worship did not create all people, then we have compromised the faith we proclaim at its very heart. We also would have no reason to proclaim anything.” It may indeed seem an arrogant statement that there is only one true God, but it doesn’t make the statement any less true. Yes, absolute truth claims can lead to persecution, but it is a risk we must be willing to undertake. It does not mean, however, that we persecute others. This is contrary to the way of Jesus, although it has happened and continues to happen. As the Scriptures say, the truth must always be spoken in and with love. Speaking truth in love requires humility, not arrogance, on the part of the proclaimer. Proclaiming is not simply reporting what we’ve read, but what we know to be true because we have experienced its reality in our lives. Again from Gonzalez: “Ultimately the witness of the church is that we are those whom God has redeemed through the work of Christ, and therefore, our lives have been transformed. We are inviting [others] to participate in such transformation. [Still,] the focus is not who we are or even who we have become. It is who God is, what God has done, and is doing.” To present the gospel as simply an optional lifestyle is not proclamation. The gospel must be proclaimed as good news for the world at large. If you don’t believe the gospel, if you don’t believe that this is truly good news and God’s intended desire for the world, then most certainly, do not proclaim it. But if you know that this is true, then don’t withhold it. To do so is to direct disobedience to Jesus’s last commandment. Yes, it is risky; it cost Stephen his life. But others have risked themselves so that we could know the truth too. The only way the Church grows is through the multiplication of disciples. It is not only the pastor’s job to make disciples, but it is the commission Jesus gave to each of us. Disciple-making begins when we live and proclaim the gospel. So as you go, make disciples—live and tell the good news.

Cooperating with God's Will; I Samuel 23:14-29, 26; Psalm 54

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What about Good People?; Psalm 53

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Peacemaking 101; Matthew 18:15-20

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Make Like a Tree, and...; I Sam. 21:1-10, 22:6-23; Psalm 52; Col. 1:15-23

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Sacrifices God Wants; Psalm 50, Hosea 5:15-6:6, Matthew 9:9-13

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Costly Redemption; Psalm 49, I Peter 1:14-21

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Lasting Consequences; Joshua 9, II Sam. 21:1-14

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Sacred Space; Psalm 48

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God Knows You; Ps. 139

Leland Ryken classifies Psalm 139 as an ode. It is of course an ode to God—extolling God’s omnipresence, omniscience, and omnificence, or God’s all-creating power. But this ode doesn’t celebrate these aspects of God on a grand, cosmic scale, but on a very personal and intimate scale. It is, “God, You know absolutely everything there is to know about ME. There is nowhere I can go that You are not. You created Me.” Verses 1-6 describe God’s omniscience of us. These verses aren’t simply testifying that God knows everything, but that God knows everything about us! God knows our actions as well as our thoughts. God knows what we’ve done and what we are going to do. God knows our innermost being. The psalmist says, “You are acquainted with all my ways.” This acquaintance is not a casual knowledge but a deep familiarity. In verse 5 the psalmist says, “You have hedged me behind and before and laid Your hand on me.” A hedge can represent protection, but it can also represent imprisonment. There is no escape from the scrutiny of God. This kind of intimacy can make us feel trapped. (Who has been married 50 yrs?) Our parents don’t know us this well. Our spouse doesn’t know us this well. Today, we have social media. On the one hand, you have people sharing too much information. On the other hand, much of the communication by these same people is shallow and very superficial. It is amazing the things that are not shared. Many people truly don’t know how to really communicate. Our information comes in sound bites, and we make grand assumptions from these. I believe one of the reasons many marriages fail is that people are unprepared for intimacy, and the give-and-take that is necessary for lasting commitment. And yet, God knows everything. In verse 6 there is a confession that not only is the extent of God’s knowledge of the psalmist beyond one’s comprehension, but the truth that God knows us better than we know ourselves. The second stanza, verses 7-12, describe God’s omnipresence in that there is no place we can go that God is not. God not only knows us but pursues us. Even in the grave, God is there. The darkness is as bright as the noon to God. We cannot hide from God. There is no escape from God in either time or space. Separation from God is a choice. You’ve probably heard the saying, “If God seems far away, guess who moved.” The truth, however, is that even if God seems far away, God is not far away. In Eastern Orthodox theology there is a description of eternal punishment for the unbeliever not as a complete separation from God, but the experience of God as the “Consuming Fire” spoken of in the Old Testament and in Hebrews. For one who has sought to escape God one’s whole life and who has refused to embrace the love of God in God’s omniscience and God’s omnipresence, the presence, knowledge, and love of God is experienced as pure torture. This deep knowledge is humiliating and humbling. It is reassuring and yet terrifying. I don’t know how many of you are familiar with TED Talks, but Brene Brown has a very popular one on “Vulnerability.” As a social researcher, she found that people who are most fulfilled with their lives are willing to be vulnerable. This research sparked her own personal crisis which she shares in this talk. We all resist vulnerability because of the corrupting and incapacitating power shame. Fear and shame keep us bound. But vulnerability opens us up to opportunity. But though God knows all about us, God still loves us. In verse 10, as the psalmist contemplates escaping God in the depths of the sea, he says, “Even there Your hand shall lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me.” God not only knows and sees us, but also guides us and guards us. God cares for us and loves us despite the parts of us that we would rather God not know about us. This is the grace of God. And so this intimate knowledge, from which one cannot escape can actually be freeing when you realize that you cannot hide from God. In the presence of God there is no need for pretense or fakiness. We can be completely honest because are honestly known. This love is seen in God’s omnificence—God’s all-creating power, that God has intentionally created us as individuals. This is seen in verses 13-18. God carefully crafts us in our mother’s wombs. We are planned children. We are a conscious labor of God’s love and design. Though verse 14 is most often translated, “I will praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made,” the word “made” is not in the text, and the most ancient manuscripts read, “I will praise You for You are fearfully wonderful.” Praise is due to the Lord who made us, who knows us, and who keeps us. Regardless of the original reading, we ought to praise our Maker. In this description of God’s creation of us, it is clear that God not only created us but owns us. We belong to God; we are not our own. Verse 17 can be translated, “How precious are Your thoughts to me, O God.” That is, the psalmist contemplating all that God is to him. Or it can be translated, “How precious are Your thoughts toward me, O God.” That is, we are always on God’s mind. God is always thinking about us. Hopefully our thoughts are full of God. For certainly, we are always on God’s mind. Verses 19-21, which are often left out of the lectionary, seem to indicate a shift or be out of place, but the scholars and commentators all agree that they belong here and ought not be left out of reading and study. In light of the fact that God is all-seeing, all-knowing, all-creating, and all-powerful, it becomes clear that God is absolutely holy. Wickedness stands out. The author wants to be removed from any association with wickedness and rightfully longs for the destruction of the wicked. Friedrich Nletzeche writes of the death of God in “Thus Spake Zarathustra.” According to the Ugliest Man, God had to die. He could not stand the incessant scrutiny of God. There are many today who feel this way. These are those who “speak against God wickedly.” But the author pauses. He too has known the incessant scrutiny of God and has already contemplated how to escape. But instead of escape, the author chooses surrender, which results in praise of God. And so the author closes with an invitation for God to do what God already does, “Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me, and know my anxious thoughts.” There is an invitation for God to share one’s fears. “See if there is any wicked or idolatrous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” The author has already been convicted of his own sin. He knows his proclivity for wickedness. He has expressed desire to not be associated with the wicked, and so invites God to search for any wickedness that needs to be confessed and repented of. The author knows that God must seek it out, for even the author is capable of denying his own sin, as we all are. He requests an examination. Do I really hate what you hate? Am I really as good as I think I am? Am I one of the wicked? This ode, which recognizes the scary fact that there is no escape from God, turns to praise and wonder when one surrenders to God. The truth is God cares about us as individuals. This is an ode by an individual about the focus of God on an individual. It is just as true for each of us as it was for the psalmist. The proper response to God, from whom there is no escape from God’s all-searching presence, is surrender. Surrender becomes sweet and freeing when you realize you can’t hide and so you don’t have to try to hide. Someone said, “You are the closest to the people who are most interested in you.” God is most interested in you. Desire to be close to God; for God desires to be close to you.

The Unity of Believers; Mark 4:21-25, Ephesians 4:1-16

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Do Not Fret; Psalm 37

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God, Our Defender; Psalm 26

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Risen & Reigning; Ps. 24, Phil. 2:4-11

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Active Praise; Psalm 66

The Easter season is a season of praise and rejoicing. Psalm 66 is a psalm of praise to God. Someone suggested that this psalm moves “from the macro to the micro: that all the earth and all creation are commanded to praise God first, then the people of God, and then from the individual. Indeed, praise is due God universally: from all levels of society; from all aggregations of peoples; from all nations and cultures; from the meek to the powerful; from the rich to the poor.” What strikes me in this psalm is all the different active verbs. Praise is not simply a noun but a verb, manifested in action. The first verb is “shout”. Think about times that you shout. We shout when we are angry and frustrated. We shout when we are excited. We shout words of encouragement at sporting events and performances. What would it be like to shout our praise to God? Charles Spurgeon said, “If praise is to be widespread, it must be vocal; exulting sounds stir the soul and cause a sacred contagion of thanksgiving.” Someone else said, “Those who think the praise of God must be carried out in whispered tones, in solemn, quiet buildings must find this and many others psalms strange.” Our shouting to God ought to be characterized by joy. Loud exclamation is a natural expression of enthusiasm and amazement. The second verb is sing. This is easier for some of us than others, but God appreciates a joyful noise. Yes, we sing in church, but where else can we sing God’s praises? We can sing in the shower, in the car, while we are doing housework. We can whistle while we work. I find myself singing when I’m walking in the woods sometimes. You can get together and make music with family and friends. Remember too that this is a verse that applies to all creation. Birds sing; frogs sing. Whales sing. If you have lived anywhere that has geckos, you know they sing. I was watching a program this week on infrasound, the low frequency noises that planets make! The planets sing. The trees sing when the wind blows through their leaves. The third verb is “say.” Saying is more subdued than singing and shouting, but no less important or glorifying to God. What praises do we say to God? As we address God, we are not so much reminding God of what God has done, but reminding ourselves of the wonderful things God has done. We also acknowledge to God that we recognize God’s activity in our lives, in our world, in our history. We can say to God the things that God has promised to do. Again, this reminds us that God’s promises are sure. Many scholars and saints of the past have seen verse as looking to the day of the new heaven and the new earth. Again from Charles Spurgeon: “All men must even now prostrate themselves before Thee, but a time will come when they shall do this cheerfully; to the worship of fear shall be added the singing of love. What a change shall have taken place when singing shall displace sighing, and music shall thrust out misery.” The next set of verbs are “come and see.” Matthew Henry wrote, “The reason why we do not praise [God] more and better is because we do not duly and attentively observe what God has done.” The verse following this exhortation to come and see specifically mentions the parting of the Red Sea. One way to “come and see” what God has done is to read Scripture and other writings telling of what God has done. We also need to keep our eyes open to what God is doing now. “God is always at work all around us, and God invites us to become involved with God in God’s work,” as Henry Blackaby reminds us in his wonderful study “Experiencing God.” Again we have another pair of verbs: bless, which is the way to cause the sound of God’s praise to be heard abroad. “Bless” comes from a verb that means “to kneel down before.” Kneeling is another action of praise. Our praise ought to witness to others of the glory of God. Verse 9 gives reasond for God’s people to praise: “He has preserved our lives and kept our feet from slipping” (vs. 9). Someone reminded, “We live because God chooses to “preserve our lives”: every breath of air, every heartbeat is under His control.” Even when we endure hardship, we do so under the sovereignty of God. Verse 10 goes on to say, “For You, O God, tested us; You refined us like silver.” We are purified through the trials and tests of this life. “The presence of affliction and hardship in one’s life is not a sign of being forsaken by God. On the contrary, it is a sign that you are one of God’s children.” Yes, we can even praise God for the trials through which we are brought. The psalmist specifically mentions captivity and the return from exile. Metaphors of fire and water are used. I have always found the doctrine of the sovereignty of God to be a comforting one, especially when the hard times come. It is comforting to know not only that Someone is in control, but also who that Someone is—that God will use it all for good, even though I may not know why or how, there is a purpose to everything. Sometimes we do get to see the good in retrospect; other times the question of why is never answered, but we know that God loves us all the while, and that nothing can separate us from God’s love. Certainly the crucifixion of Jesus was one of those moments that only in retrospect can we humans see how it was good. The final pair of active verbs are “come and hear”. It is directed to all who fear God—all who have a sense of the power and holiness of God. I read a wonderful article on the fear of the Lord this week describing it as “fear that attracts”—like the sense of trepidation you get when you are about to get on a rollercoaster or climb a steep, rocky , mountain path, or look over the edge of a canyon. These are things you want to do but are scary at the same time. And so it is with God—God is mighty and far above all we can imagine or think, and yet, we are drawn to God. In this case, the verbs tell us that listening to the testimonies of others is part of praise—verse 16b, “Listen, and I will tell of what the Lord has done for my soul.” How would you tell others what the Lord has done for your soul? How has hearing the testimony of another encouraged you to offer up praise to God? The testimony that is given in this psalm is an answered prayer. The psalmist notes that if he regarded iniquity in his heart, the Lord would not have heard. To regard iniquity in one’s heart is to excuse known sin. Sometimes a “no” answer from God is a result of one having an unrepentant heart. Even so, God is never obligated to answer our prayers, but God does answer our prayers because God is gracious and merciful. Presbyterian pastor Albert Barnes said, “There is no more proper ground of praise than the fact that God hears prayer—the prayer of poor, ignorant, sinful, dying men. When we consider how great is His condescension in doing this; when we think of His greatness and immensity; when we reflect that the whole universe is dependent on Him, and that the farthest worlds need His care and attention; when we bear in mind that we are creatures of a day and know nothing; and especially when we remember how we have violated His laws, how sensual, corrupt, and vile our lives have been, how low and groveling have been our aims and purposes, how we have provoked Him by our unbelief, our ingratitude, and our hardness of heart—we can never express, in appropriate words, the extent of His goodness in hearing our prayers, nor can we find language which will properly give utterance to the praises due to His name for having condescended to listen to our cries for mercy.” May we be a people of active praise—those who shout, sing, say, kneel, come and see, and come and hear about the wonderful things our great and mighty Lord has done.

Christ the Cornerstone; Psalm 118, I Peter 2:1-10, Matthew 21:40-46

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Mourning into Dancing; Psalm 30, Isaiah 25:6-9, Revelation 7:9ff

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The Reality of the Resurrection; Isaiah 2:5-22, Matthew 28:1-15

Easter sermon To listen, click here.

Hearing the Good News; John 20:1-18, Acts 10:34-43

Easter Sunrise Sermon To listen, click here.

Out of the Depths; Psalm 130, Romans 8:20-39

Today marks the fifth Sunday of Lent. Passion week begins next Sunday with Palm Sunday, and though we are nearing the end of Lent, the end is not here yet. Easter is still two weeks away. Maybe at this point in our journey toward the cross, the Lenten discipline is getting particularly hard. Maybe you have even fallen by the wayside. Maybe you can’t believe Easter is almost here and despite all your good intentions, you never started any sort of Lenten discipline. Maybe outside circumstances beyond your control keep getting in your way. Or perhaps you have been faithful, making more room for Jesus, and expecting an encounter with God that has not come. Today’s psalm is a prayer for those in the depths. It is another psalm that is fairly easy to memorize and very singable. A 16-year-old girl in the church I served when I lived in Massachusetts wrote a wonderful tune to this psalm. She is now a mother of 3 and still using her musical gifts to praise the Lord. Hearing this psalm sung had a great impact on John Wesley. According to R. F. Prothereo, on the night that John Wesley felt his “heart strangely warmed”, and sensed the assurance of his salvation by faith, he had heard Psalm 130 sung as an anthem that morning in a worship service, and it had stuck with him throughout the day. We are not the only ones who experience times in the depths. It is part of life for all people. Like the challenges with our Lenten disciplines times in the deep have many causes. They come from our own sins, enemies, and even God. The deep or depths symbolize the abyss, watery chaos, confusion, darkness, and death. The depths are things that make us say, “Life isn’t right.” We are at a loss of what to do about it, and as Larry Jennings Jr. says, “we get to a point where we feel that we can go no lower.” Many people in the Bible experienced this. Daniel cried out to God from the Lion’s den. Jeremiah cried out from the bottom of a well. Paul cried out with a “thorn in the flesh.” Hannah and other women cried out in their inability to have children. Jonah cried out from the belly of a fish. Elijah cried out in the wilderness by the brook of Kidron. We all experience times in the depths. Maybe now is one of those times for you. When we are in the depths, we feel separated from the community as well as feeling separated by God. These are the times you feel utterly alone. We await deliverance from the depths more than the watchman waits for the morning—waiting for the dangers of the night to be over and waiting for his shift to end. We await deliverance, but like the morning, deliverance too will come. We wait for the fulfillment of God’s word—that God will act in accordance with what God has already said. This past Wednesday’s Bible study reminded “sometimes it is necessary to pray all night long.” The context of the Bible study was the incident when Jesus prayed all night long before choosing the 12 apostles from among His disciples. Jesus also prayed all night long on the night He was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane. Certainly Jesus’ garden prayer was a prayer out of the depths. Despite our sense of utter isolation, God is with us even in the depths. In Psalm 139 David says, “Even if I make my bed in Sheol, You are there.” Our Romans passage ends reminding us that absolutely nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. It doesn’t matter how dark things are. It doesn’t matter if we were the cause of our own misery. It doesn’t matter the extent of our sin; if we are in Christ, nothing can separate us from God. The problem is that we lose our awareness of God. Crying out to God from the depths reminds us that God hears us. Sometimes God waits for our cry so that God can reveal Godself, thus bringing God more glory in the response. God also uses our prayers as a prompt for God to act to remind us, as Craig Broyles says, that our relationship with God “is personal, not robotic.” Even though we experience the depths, our hope of God’s presence and deliverance is a sure hope. Both of today’s passages remind us that our hope is a sure hope, not wishful thinking. Though we feel separated from God in the midst of our despair, God is still there. To cry out to God out of the depths affirms God’s faithfulness. We fight despair with the sure hope in the mercy of God. And when we cannot cry out for ourselves, the Holy Spirit intercedes for us with groans too deep for words. As J. Clinton McCann Jr. says in his Theological Introduction to the Book of Psalms, though life may not be right, we can be in the right “not by accomplishing our own wills, but by finding refuge in God.” This is precisely what Jesus did on the cross. Though He experienced utter forsakenness, He was still, as we said last week, fully committed to the will of the Father. The cross was the deepest of depths, and yet it is there that God’s love and God’s power are most manifested. At the Lord’s Table this morning, we remember the shed blood of Jesus for the forgiveness of our sins. Sometimes we truly are in the depths because of our own sin. Out of the depths we cry to the Lord for forgiveness. We ask forgiveness because we know God will forgive. We know God does not hold our iniquities against us; otherwise, we’d all be toast. God’s forgiveness is offered through God’s grace. With the Lord is unfailing love and full redemption. We aren’t just partially redeemed, we are fully redeemed. This is what Romans 8 tells us too. In Romans 8 we see all three persons of the Trinity, Spirit, Father, and Son, at work, securing our salvation from beginning to end. We are saved from the penalty of sin and the power of sin. We have the ability to live in holiness and obedience through the Holy Spirit. Christ, who could condemn us does not. And the Father initiated it all. Forgiveness results not only just in gratitude to the Lord, but also fear of the Lord because we ought to remember that God is not obligated to forgive us, even though we can trust that God will forgive. God could always act by justice, but God is also merciful, and chooses to deal with us by mercy. God doesn’t owe us anything, but we owe God everything. On Ash Wednesday, we sang the old spiritual, “Kum by Ya”, “Come by here, Lord”. It is a prayer that we can use when we are in the depths, all the while remembering Jesus’s promise to be with us. Wednesday’s spiritual was “I Couldn’t Hear Nobody Pray.” Don’t let that be the case for you. When you feel like you can’t pray, let someone else pray for you, and know that the Holy Spirit prays for you with groans too deep for words, and Jesus intercedes for you before the Father’s throne, and above all, God loves you. The psalm ends as many other psalms, moving from the personal to the community—“O Israel trust in the Lord; for with the Lord there is mercy, and with Him is plenteous redemption…” God may use your journey out of the depths to teach someone else about the trustworthiness of God. When we are in the depths, let us learn the lesson that God taught the apostle Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you. My power is made manifest in weakness.” Let God reveal God’s strength and power to you and through you in your weakness. How might you witness to others about God and God’s character from your experiences in the depths? What have you learned about God?

Fully in God's Hands; Luke 23:44-46, Psalm 31

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Guidance Along the Pilgrim Way; Psalm 25, Isaiah 54:4-10, Zephaniah 3:14-20

Last week we looked at Psalm 121, a psalm for those setting out on the pilgrim journey and reminding us of God’s protection all the way from beginning to end. Today’s psalm is a modified acrostic wisdom psalm. It is a prayer for guidance along the pilgrim way. Our psalm begins, “Unto You, O Lord, do I lift up my soul,” or my life. The lifting of one’s soul is an invitation for God to teach. It is an openness to God. If we want God to guide us, we must surrender ourselves to God. Are you teachable? Are you open to God? Then there are several petitions in the psalm for God to teach God’s path and to show God’s ways. God’s ways and paths aren’t so much about decisions that we are to make as it is about knowing what is right and true by God’s definition. God’s way is characterized by love and faithfulness along with truth and righteousness. Truth must always be accompanied by love. God’s way is about how we are to relate to God and to one another. Four times in the psalm, the word, “ashamed” is used—three in verses 2-3 and again at the end. Shame can be paralyzing, and in some cultures is more significant than a wrong act itself. Is there something for which you still feel ashamed even though you know you have been forgiven? Shame allows our enemies to triumph, but our enemies can be defeated. Enemies are those who distract you from the Way. Who or what distracts you from following the Lord? Don’t let enemies distract you from the way. The good news is that Jesus died for our shame as well as for our sins. He didn’t just take away the penalty of sin but the effects of sin in our lives and on the lives of others. Yes, sin still has consequences, but we do not have to be bound by destructive feelings. Listen to what God promises about taking away our shame: READ Isaiah 54:4-10 and Zephaniah 3:14-20. In Jesus, we have a new identity free of shame. If our hope is in God, we cannot be put to shame. The pilgrim way involves recognition and confession of sin. Willingness to admit our faults and failures is an indication of our ability to be taught. We must recognize our tendency to be rebellious against the Way, and we must rely on God’s mercy to bring us back to the Way. David asks for forgiveness of various types of sin: he mentions, “the sins of my youth,” transgressions, which is the breaking of God’s laws, iniquity, which is deliberate wrong-doing, and sins in general—the ways we fall short of God’s standards through wrong things we do or through not doing the right thing. He is honest about the scope of his sin. We too need to be honest about the scope of our sin. The good news is that though we are rebellious, God instructs humble sinners. Note that David wrote in this psalm, “God instructs sinners in the Way,” not “God instructs the righteous in the Way.” The humble person admits that he or she needs to be instructed, and instruction is granted. If we already think we know it all, we leave no room for God to teach us. The basis for humility before the Lord is the fear of the Lord. Psalm 25 says that God confides in those who fear the Lord and they will dwell in prosperity and their descendants will inherit the earth. Fear of the Lord acknowledges God’s sovereignty, power, holiness, and utter transcendence. Too often we forget about how awesome God is. We acknowledge God’s grace but we gloss over how much we really need it, which actually trivializes grace. We have forgotten that God is holy and demands holiness, and although we cannot be holy without the Lord’s work in our lives, we seem to have lost our passion for holiness. The humble person realizes that God requires holiness even as he or she admits failure to live into holiness. But God will grant the spirit of holiness to the humble soul. Lent is a great time for examination. At the pancake supper, I gave an example of a pattern for a daily examination of conscience. But it is not only about being honest in regard to the wrong things we’ve done, but also recognizing the good things God has done in and through us. The pilgrim offers praise and prayer for God’s covenant mercies. God remembers God’s covenant with us yet forgets our sins! Too often we are the opposite—we forget and neglect the vows and promises we make and yet keenly remember every wrong done to us. How wonderful to have a God who remembers the good and forgets the bad. We can pray with confidence for the forgiveness of sins, for mercy, and for guidance because God is faithful and true to the promises God has made. Part of the journey is waiting. There are periods in our lives when we are called to stop moving and to be still. God wants us to rest as well as learn from the “in-between times” as Reverend Doctors George & Beverly Thompson like to call them. Bernhard W. Anderson says, we wait “for the time when the reality of God’s presence and the sovereignty of God’s purpose in the world will once again be clear.” To wait on the Lord is to depend on God for vindication. The Scriptures equivocate waiting on and trusting in the Lord to loving the Lord. Isaiah 64:4 says, “From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides you, who acts for those who wait for him.” Psalm 31:19 says, “Oh, how great Your goodness which You have laid up for those who fear You, which You have prepared for those who trust in You.” When the apostle Paul quotes these verses in I Corinthians 2:9, he uses the Septuagint translation, which says, “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” To wait on God is to love God. And if we lovingly wait on the Lord, God has amazing things in store for us, so much so that we can’t even imagine them! I believe Paul equates waiting with love because waiting is difficult. If we want to be proper pilgrims, we need to know the way to go. Praying this psalm helps orient us to the Way. Jesus said, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no one comes to the Father except by Me.” Jesus is the Way. We must not only be guided by but live in Jesus. The last verse of this psalm doesn’t fit the acrostic, and goes beyond personal prayer to intercede for the community. The pilgrim on the Way remembers that there are other pilgrims on the Way and asks God to intervene on their behalf as well. Rev. Richard Burkey notes that guidance has within it the word “dance”. If we let God lead the dance and we follow, we will move gracefully in the Lord’s path.

Traveling Mercy; Psalm 121

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A Fast God Chooses; Isaiah 58

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The Glory of Christ; Psalm 99, Exodus 34:29-35, II Corinthians 3:4-4:6, Luke 9:28-36

Today is Transfiguration of the Lord Sunday. We, along with Peter, James, and John get to see Jesus in the glory He had before the incarnation and that He has now. This is the last glorious picture of Christ before the resurrection. Yes, Palm Sunday is triumphant, but the people really did not understand who Jesus was. He was not the Messiah they were expecting. But in the Transfiguration, Jesus is revealed to these chosen witnesses as the Divine King of Glory. This incident occurred during the last Feast of Tabernacles before Jesus’s death. This would have been during the fall of Jesus’s last year on earth. The Feast of Tabernacles is important because it symbolizes the dwelling of God with man. This is who Jesus is. He is Immanuel, God with us. Jesus had said, “I am the Light of the World.” Peter, James, and John get to see Jesus literally in light as light. This is light that comes from Christ Himself. It is that visible shekinah glory that Moses had seen on the mountain. The glory of Christ was displayed as pure, white fiery light. Glory is often thought of as light, but it is much more than that. Glory is splendor, brightness, amazing might, greatness, magnificence, excellence, honor, wealth, renown, character, fame, reputation, genuineness, power. Glory is the essence of who one is, the worth of something; it is the fullness of the divine nature. In John 1:14, John describes his experience with Jesus’s glory, “And we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” Moses, representing the law, and Elijah, representing the prophets, testifies to Christ as the fulfillment of all things. God the Father also testifies to the divinity of Christ in the form of a thick, thunderous cloud, from which He roars, “This is My beloved Son; listen to Him!” When God says, “Listen!”, God means, “Obey!” In the Transfiguration, Peter, James, and John, and we too are reminded that Jesus is far greater than we think. He is limitless. He is powerful. He is a close friend, but He is far more than a friend—He is the Lord of the Universe. He does not fit into a box. Glory is also connected with opinion, with what one thinks, specifically judgment. I think this is why fear is the initial response to the glory of Christ. When Moses came down from Mt. Sinai with the 10 Commandments, the Israelites were afraid to come near to him because his face shone, so he put a veil over his face. Peter, James, and John were terrified at the transfiguration. The Torah was given as the basis of judgment. The transfiguration anticipates Christ’s return as Righteous Judge. Jesus will come back in all His fullness. There is fear too in seeing Jesus exalted because the more of Jesus we come to see and know, the more we realize how much we don’t know—how unfathomable God is and how ungodly we really are. And yet, Jesus invites us again and again to come into His presence. We see this tension in our psalm reading as well. There is excitement about seeing God on His holy mountain and a desire to worship Him, but there is trembling. God is forgiving, but also punishes His children. In the transfiguration the glory that was rightly Christ’s from the beginning is restored to Him and is witnessed by the inner three along with Moses and Elijah who testify to the fullness of Christ. Christ is the glory of God. Jesus doesn’t simply reveal, reflect or radiate God. He is God visibly. The glory of the Law was fleeting—it had an end. It was fading glory. The glory of Christ is permanent, it always was and always will be His except for the brief period in which He surrendered it during His life on earth. The transfiguration was Jesus’s true, exalted state. It is the state He has even now. As the people who belong to Jesus, we reflect His glory. Moses covered his face because the people couldn’t look at him. They couldn’t pay attention because they couldn’t see beyond the glow to the end. They couldn’t see the meaning of what Moses was saying or the true meaning of the Torah. They couldn’t see that the law pointed to Jesus, who is the end of all things. Moses hid his face because the people didn’t “get it.” There are people today who are also blind to the glory of Christ. Without the Holy Spirit people are blinded to truth and power of the gospel. Whenever the gospel is preached or the Scriptures read, the veil is over their hearts. But the time for hiding the light is over. The fact that some hearts are blinded did not stop Paul from preaching boldly and openly as one unveiled. We ought to do the same. It is God who blinds and God who allows the veil to be taken away. It is our job to proclaim clearly the glorious gospel of Christ. The process of repentance, which begins with the Holy Spirit, allows one to hear, understand, and be changed by the gospel. We too were once veiled to the gospel. We were darkness, but now in the Lord we are light. God shines in our hearts through Christ. Are you hiding the glory of Christ? Moses is mentioned in all of our readings this morning. Moses’s face revealed the glory of God. The shine on his face further validated that the Torah he carried came from God. This was the second time that Moses received the Torah, even though this time he had to carve it instead of God’s finger carving it. Still, his transformation proved that this was indeed the law of God, not something Moses created. The glorification of Jesus validated the Scriptures and the gospels as well as the fact that He not only came from God, He was God. Paul’s life and teachings and that of the apostles revealed the glory of Christ through the gospel. Moses was transformed from being in God’s presence. His face glowed. We too are transformed when we spend time in God’s presence. Peter, James, and John saw Jesus transfigured as they were gathered with Jesus to pray. In prayer we discover more and more who Jesus is. The more see Jesus and spend time with Jesus, the more we become like Jesus. Paul says we are changed from glory to glory in Christ. We become more and more like Jesus. As we become more and more like Jesus, we are to act more and more like Jesus. We are saved and glorified to serve, to be the voice and feet and hands of Jesus. From our Exodus reading, it sounds like the glory on Moses’s face was renewed every time he went into the Tabernacle to meet with God. We too are re-energized as we spend in the presence of God. When we do not spend time in God’s presence the glory can fade. Can others see the glory of Christ in you? Now before you wonder too much, Moses didn’t know at first that he was glowing. But others should be able to tell that you have encountered Jesus. We ought to be different from being with Jesus. If Jesus doesn’t change us, have we really been with Him? Do we really know Him? The change that occurs as a result of being with God is physical as well as moral and ethical. Just as Moses’s face shone, we too will be changed. When Christ returns, our bodies will be changed to incorruptible, spiritual bodies. Holiness is another characteristic of Jesus revealed in glory. Jesus was uniquely set apart—the definition of holy—in the Transfiguration. It was clear that Jesus was different. Our psalm today is divided into three stanzas, each ending with the phrase, “He is holy.” The “holy, holy, holy” reminds us of the angels’ proclamations of God in Isaiah and Revelation. It reminds us of the Trinity, and it tells us that the King is holy and the King is God. Jesus, the Divine King, is set apart and above all. Unlike Christ, whose glory is His own, the glory we are given is reflected glory. We only have it because of Christ. We reflect Christ to the world. But Paul also describes us as beholding ourselves in a mirror. In other words, in this reflected glory, we are able to see ourselves as Jesus sees us. This means we learn to identify ourselves by Christ and not by external things. The glory we share with Christ in Christ emboldens us to tell and live the gospel, enables us to renounce shame and to be open and honest. It empowers us to stop hiding who we are. The glory of Christ in us calls us to be set apart from the world as well. And the glory of Christ also gives us strength and perseverance in the face of suffering and persecution. The glory of Jesus lights our way forward through our Lenten season. Though many think of Lent as a time of darkness, let it be for us a time that we draw closer to Jesus and walk in the light of His glory and grace. I hope that you will experience the glory of Christ in more and more powerful ways not only during Lent, but in every season of your lives.

Blessed Nation; Psalm 33, I Peter 2:13-20, 3:13-21

Do go back and read I Peter 2:13-20. It also speaks very well to this message. To listen, click here.

"Saved from the Pit" or "The Prayer to Which God Always Answers 'Yes!'"; Matthew 25:31-46, Psalm 28, Hebrews 13:18-25

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Kingdom Blessings; Mark 4:26-34, Psalm 20

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Bigger Than the Scout Law; Psalm 19

In our litany this morning, we heard the Scout Law and saw how all the points of the Boy Scout Law connect to God’s word and God’s commandments. God’s law found in God’s word is even bigger and more important than the Scout Law. In the children’s message, we learned that God’s law is better than the sweetest honey and lots of the finest gold. God’s law is so wonderful because it reveals the glory of God. Our psalm also tells us that creation reveals the glory of God. Whether originally written as one psalm or later combined together, the two parts of Psalm 19 make a whole, stating that the revelation of God is amazing. Both creation and God’s law involve the word of God spoken. God created the world by speaking it into existence. God spoke the law to Moses on Mt. Sinai. In return both speak. “The heavens declare the glory of God.” The glory of God is the part of God that is visible. I listened to a fascinating lecture series on the original meaning of the zodiac. The stars tell the same story that the Bible tells—the story of Creation, the Fall, our search for God, God’s pursuit of us, our struggle with sin, the sending of Jesus as our sacrifice and savior, our reconciliation with God, Jesus as the Groom and the Church as the Bride. The psalmist particularly points out the movements of the sun. God’s light is brighter than the sun’s. The sun also points to Jesus as the Bridegroom. The prophet Malachi calls Jesus “the Sun of Righteousness.” We also know the movements of the stars and planets are controlled by physical laws. These physical laws point to the moral law that God gave Moses. It’s all there in the sky! God’s handiwork isn’t just in the creation itself, which indeed is marvelous, but in the story that Creation tells, the revelation of God’s glory. The heavens speak without words. God’s law, the Scriptures, tell the God’s story with written words. J. Clinton McCann Jr. puts it this way: “God has broken through the silence of nature with the written word.” First they were spoken words, passed down until they were written. Then God wrote the 10 Commandments Himself in stone tablets. God also revealed God’s name—Yahweh, “I AM”. God’s commandments, laws, statutes, and precepts warn God’s servants. Again from McCann: “The instruction of the Lord is all encompassing, restoring human life.” God’s law tells us what it means to be human at its best. Just as the sun’s orbit is described as all encompassing, so is the law is. And indeed, you find laws about everything, some of them quite particular and peculiar to us. But our lives need constant recreating, and each new day reminds us that we can begin again. Even more than the spoken word, creation and the Law involve the Living Word. Jesus Christ is the Living Word. We know this from the gospel of John—“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning of God.” That passage along with other Scriptures, like Colossians 1 tell us that Jesus created all things. Creation declares the glory of the Creator. The earth was made with care and intentionality by the Holy Trinity—Father, Son, and Spirit. As the living Word, when Jesus came to earth, He taught that He came to fulfill the Law, not to abolish it. Jesus shows us and gives us the full meaning of the law. He said that everything in the Law and in the Old Testament speak only of Him. Law and creation tell us that Jesus is the revelation of God. Again, Jesus said, “If you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father.” Jesus is the visible glory of God. Paul tells us that in II Corinthians 4:6, “For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” What Jesus, the Law and Creation reveal is that God is Love. Love is the highest Law. Love is bigger than the Scout Law or any other law, though if we follow the Scout Law and if we follow God’s precepts, statutes, and commandments, hopefully we will be loving. It is never enough to know the law; it must move from the heavens to our hearts. Our psalm ends with the statement that in keeping God’s laws is great reward, but immediately after this, the psalmist exclaims, “Who can detect or discern errors?” In other words, who knows their own hearts well enough to be able to say with confidence, “I’ve kept God’s law perfectly.” No one can! Not only do we not know the depths of our hearts, we also cannot keep God’s law perfectly. Just as we fail to keep the Scout promise or any other promise at times, we find it impossible to keep God’s law. We need the forgiveness that the God of Love offers every day through Jesus Christ. Even the psalmist realizes this and prays, “Cleanse me of my secret faults.” Forgive me for the things I don’t even know I do that are wrong. As God chooses to reveal God’s glory, we often try to hide our wrong actions, even from ourselves. That’s why in 12 step programs, the first step is to step out of denial. We sometimes like to think that what we do isn’t all that bad. So cleanse me from my secret faults. And then the prayer goes, “Let my thoughts and words be in tune with Yours, God.” God’s law is bigger than the Scout Law because it doesn’t just teach us how to live; it points to Jesus, who points to the fullness of the Godhead, who is Love. The God of Love wants so much to be known. God revealed Himself first through creation. Then God gave us the Law. Finally He came to earth in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus, the Living Word, did keep the Law perfectly. And Jesus can live in us. If Jesus lives in us, we are forgiven, and we are better able to keep God’s law of love through the power of the Holy Spirit. And so we respond in praise and wonder for the revelation of God’s love. If you do not know the God of Love, I pray that you will come to know Him. God has been using everything in creation and in your life to draw you to Himself. If you ask Him, God will give you the eyes to see Him, to behold His glory in the face of Jesus Christ. God is in hot pursuit of you because God loves you. If you are beginning to realize this for the first time, and you know that God loves you and wants to have a relationship with you, you can begin that today. You don’t have to know or understand everything. Pray with me as I pray or use your own words, but let God know that He’s got your attention, and you want to know this love.

Praise God for Answered Prayer; Psalm 18

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Justified by Jesus; Psalm 17, Luke 18:9-14, Rom. 3:19-28

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Be a Star; Matthew 2

When you ask kids what they want to be when they grow, you often hear little girls say things like “princess” or “dancer”. Boys might say “football player” or “baseball player” or some other professional sports player. Some will say they want to be a rock star or an actress. Others want to be singers. They want to be stars. Many don’t outgrow it. We see this with the proliferation of reality shows—“American Idol”, “America’s Got Talent”, “Top Chef”, “So You Think You Can Dance”, “America’s Top Model”. We like the limelight, and we want our 15 minutes of fame. There’s certainly nothing wrong with being a performer or professional athlete. God gave us talents and gifts, and we can use them to glorify Him in a variety of arenas. But who really wants to be a star in today’s world? Who wants to be hounded by paparazzi all the time? Who wants one’s whole life on display from the mundane to worst mistakes made public to everyone? Stars have become the people we emulate, but often with very unhealthy consequences. Dysfunctional family life has become glamorized. Unhealthy body imagery as well as unhealthy sexual behaviors have become mainstream and portrayed as “normal”. It’s become an anomaly to see healthy, well-grounded stars, but I’m so glad that there are still a few out there, and that they are doing what they do! The crazy, extravagant stars sometimes seem to shine brighter, but they also burn out faster. Too often they become supernovas of self-destruction. In our Scripture reading today we have a different kind of star. We have an astrological phenomenon that pointed to the Messiah. There are lots of different explanations for the star. One phenomenon which makes the most sense to me is the triple conjunction of Jupiter with Regulus which began on Rosh Hashanah in 3 BC within the constellation of Leo. Whatever it was, there are some interesting things about this star. First, it announced that a Jewish King was born. This star was seen by learned Gentile men, who not only correctly interpreted the meaning, but followed the star so that they could worship this king! Men from another country far from Israel, men who had learned about the signs from their ancestors, who learned from men like Daniel about the Messiah didn’t ignore the meaning of the stars, but kept faithful watch. Second, the star also endured over time. The magi journeyed a long time over a great distance. These men were persistent. We know that Jesus was over a month old because this takes place after Mary’s purification and the presentation of Jesus in the Temple, but not older than two years old, because of Herod’s proclamation to kill the baby boys in Bethlehem two years old and under after his careful inquiry as to the exact time the star appeared. He is called a child and not a new born nor an infant, which in Greek is up to 18 months. So Jesus is between 18 months and 2 years old. All this time the star kept moving through constellations across the sky, telling more of the story of who this King really was. The Jewish scribes and priests, who should’ve been looking for the sign, weren’t paying attention. They didn’t choose to go with the wise men to worship the king even though they knew from their study of Scripture that the king would be born in Bethlehem, just a few miles down the road from Jerusalem. They wouldn’t have had to go very far at all. They should have been able to find Jesus easily. But they weren’t paying attention to the heavenly signs in the stars, and they weren’t really interested in the Savior. They weren’t paying attention when the parents of the King brought their baby into Jerusalem to offer purification for Mary and to dedicate their baby to the Lord. In contrast Simeon and Anna, whose stories Sonny read for you last week, immediately recognized the King. They knew the Scriptures. They were paying attention, and they recognized when this King entered the Temple. They worshipped Him and prophesied over Him. They couldn’t necessarily interpret the stars, but they were looking for and expecting the Messiah, and they were in tune with the Holy Spirit. Do you look for signs of the King and the Kingdom as you go about your life? Do you look for Jesus to show up? Are you paying attention to the signs God is giving you? Are you indifferent to God’s work in the world? Or is your life in tune with the Holy Spirit? Herod was interested in the star, but only so he could destroy the One to whom the star was pointing. He knew exactly what the star meant, and took is seriously, but he did so with entirely selfish motives. Herod was foolish. He died not too long after his proclamation, (Mary & Joseph probably didn’t spend more than a couple of years in Egypt, if even that), and Herod had already killed several would-be successors to his throne including two sons. What threat could this baby be to his reign? And yet he was troubled, as was the city of Jerusalem with him. They should have been celebrating Messiah, but instead they were fearful and anxious. Are you troubled when God does something that you aren’t expecting? How often do you try to turn the good gifts of God into selfish gain? Do signs from God make you look inward or upward? Do you celebrate God’s answers to prayers and seek to build up His kingdom? From these people we learn that the star couldn’t make people follow it. The star couldn’t make people worship Jesus. The star simply did its preordained job. It pointed to Jesus. The star told the story of Jesus’s birth to the best of its ability and enabled willing followers to have an encounter with the living King. Finally, the star stood over the place where Jesus was. The star in its movements had been telling about Jesus, pointing to Jesus. Now it stopped only when it came to where Jesus was. With all of the stars out there not worth emulating, here is one that is! Be a star! Point others to Jesus. Keep that steady glow of God’s fire in your heart and radiate it outward through your life. We can’t make people follow Jesus, but we can provide guidance for people who are looking for Jesus . We can lead willing people to have encounter with the King. We can tell the story of Jesus to the best of our ability and help them along with us as we seek Jesus together. Some will pay attention and some will not. Some will know more than others. Some will make the journey more quickly, and others will have to overcome greater obstacles. It is the Holy Spirit that draws people to follow Jesus, but we can keep pointing to Him and keep shining for Him, faithfully enduring until we are called to stop when we reach our home with Christ.

Immanuel; Isaiah 7, Matthew 1:18-25

Christmas Eve sermon. To listen, click here.