Monday, February 17, 2014
Sunday, February 9, 2014
Monday, February 3, 2014
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.
Sunday, January 26, 2014
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
Sunday, January 5, 2014
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.
Thursday, January 2, 2014
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