25 December 2010

Psalm 2, 85; Zech 2.10-13; 1 John 4.7-16; John 3.31-36

Verse 10 says to sing and rejoice and verse 13 says to be silent before the Lord of Hosts. Which is it? As Forrest Gump said, “I think it’s both at the same time.” We rejoice at the coming of the Lord so long as we love Him and are found in Him and yet His judgment on the earth and those who have rejected Jesus will cause us to be filled with awe and fear, not for ourselves but for the world to be judged. Today, however, we are thankful that Jesus came into the world not to condemn the world but through Him the world might be saved. We should rejoice and sing to the King who loved us and has come into the world, first in the form of Jesus and now in us through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Are there more beautiful words than, “Whoever believes the Son has eternal life”? We rejoice this day because the Son has come into the world and shed abroad the Holy Spirit who shares with us that God is indeed true and that He loved us enough to come to rescue us from death. The coming of God into the world is the most amazing story ever told. We should wonder and marvel this day at the birth of a child who contained all that is God. How could that possibly be true? Our God is amazing!

God took the initiative in loving us even though we were His enemies. We would rather be God than worship God but love overcame our opposition. We realized God was not against us but for us enough to die for us. When we believed in Jesus, He sent the Holy Spirit to live in us that He might make His home in us. Now, through the Spirit, we are able to take the initiative in loving others. Our love should not be dependent on their love for us, but we are to become like Him in reaching forth our arms in love to the world in the Name of Jesus. He came that we might be saved. We now take up the mission of making Him known to the world by loving Him, one another and the world just as He has done. Let us resolve this day to allow Christ to be born again in our hearts that we might be fruitful and multiply.

Steadfast love and faithfulness meet;
righteousness and peace kiss each other.
Faithfulness springs up from the ground,
and righteousness looks down from the sky.

24 December 2010

Psalm 45, 46; Isaiah 35.1-10; Revelation 22.12-21; Luke 1.67-80

Isaiah sees the restoration of all that is broken or incomplete. He sees it in the natural order of things and in human beings and rejoices. The prophetic word is hopeful and joyful. What would it look like to see the world transformed in these ways? How great would be our joy. In Jesus we can begin to see the world changing as Isaiah sees here and as Mary spoke of in yesterday’s Gospel reading. We can see lives changed by Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit. The kingdom is breaking in and yet it is not completely here. We can observe the spiritual kingdom and that should cause us to long for the restoration of creation to its intended order as well. As Paul wrote, all creature groans in anticipation of the revelation of the children of God. Everything will participate in the restoration as all things participated in the curse in Genesis 3.

Zechariah, John’s father, is moved to prophesy as well as we read here. The words are directed to his own son but in light of Mary’s son. He prophesies concerning John’s mission and ministry of proclamation and preparation. Zechariah sees a future where the enemies of Israel are defeated and a peaceable kingdom established. His vision awaits fulfillment although we could argue that the shalom of God is established spiritually in Jesus for those who find their rest in Him. So often we discount that establishment of peace within in the midst of the storms of life because we are, like Martha, anxious about many things. There is one thing needful, to wait upon the Lord and to rest in Him.

As we contemplate the coming of Jesus into the world He created in order to redeem it and as we await His coming again in great glory, we should indeed say with John, “Come Lord Jesus.”

Be still, and know that He is God.
He will be exalted among the nations,
He will be exalted in the earth!

23 December 2010

Psalm 80; Isaiah 29.13-24; Revelation 21.22-22.5; Luke 1.39-56

The kingdom of God is for those whose trust is in nothing else, who know their true poverty. The blind, the deaf, the meek and the poor shall have their reward but those whose portion is the world will not. Sounds a bit like Jesus’ statement on the rich man and the eye of the camel and begs the question of who can enter. The answer is in Jesus statement about treasure, what is our treasure and where is our treasure. The beginning of the passage speaks of flattery with the lips but their hearts are far from Him and this is the key, where is our heart. Do we possess things or are we possessed by them? Here He promises to do great things that will astound and stupefy them, just as Jesus did. The problem was that they didn’t give thanks to God for the things He did, they wrongly attributed His works.

These two women and their encounter with one another is one of the most beautiful passages in the entire Bible. Elizabeth’s joy at Mary’s visit and her outburst of praise for this young cousin is wonderful. She who has been married for many years and yet was barren now delights both in her pregnancy and in that of this young woman who is not yet married and claims to be a virgin and yet is pregnant with child. There is no jealousy or bitterness in Elizabeth and her words presage John’s own willingness to be less than Jesus. Mary’s praise song is one of the most familiar passages in the Bible for those of us who use the Daily Offices from the Book of Common Prayer. Mary’s song shows that she has pondered well in her heart concerning the meaning of this pregnancy. It was spontaneously given but reveals a young woman of great depth who had given much prayer and thought to her situation.

Clearly Mary’s treasure was with the Lord, she had given up respectability in some ways to bear this child for Him. She would live with the questions asked behind her back, the rumors that attended here situation. Here we see that true treasure is indeed in heaven, and we will appreciate and enjoy it throughout eternity without needing to own things. All we could need or want is the Lord Himself and He has provided for us richly. Why store up things here when we can’t take them with us and they would add nothing to what we have there?

Restore us, O LORD God of hosts!
Let your face shine, that we may be saved!

22 December 2010

Psalm 72; Isaiah 28.9-22; Revelation 21.9-21; Luke 1.26-38

“For by people of strange lips and with a foreign tongue the LORD will speak to this people…” The Lord announces that He will speak to His own through others. The Good News, the teaching of the ways of the Lord, will come from outsiders. The Lord says that His covenant people will not hear His words, they have turned away to lies and will not heed His voice. Like Adam listening to the voice of his wife, so have these people been allured by the voice of another to call them away from Him. There will be no refuge from His judgment and it will be a judgment of righteousness and justice and these will be firmly established. We are those who have heard the word of the Lord, who have received Jesus as not only our Messiah but Israel’s Messiah and it will be us in the church who are the people of strange lips and a foreign tongue that will speak the word of the Lord to His people.

It would be hard to imagine what this young woman was thinking during this conversation. An angel has appeared and referred to her as “favored one” and her reaction is to try to discern what this greeting might mean and all she is told is that she has found favor with the Lord and that she will conceive and bring forth Messiah. If she was troubled at the greeting she was certainly confused by what she was promised and yet her simple question was to ponder how this could be since she hadn’t been with a man. Mary knew enough biology to know how things work. The Holy Spirit will come upon you and overshadow you is the complete explanation from the angel. Today we might respond with something like, well there you go and roll our eyes but Mary just says, ok, I am the Lord’s servant and if that is what He wants then that is the way it shall be. Are we ready for God to give us such an answer and say trust me, you can’t understand but I have it?

The city of God is shown to John. We should not make too much of the numbers here except to note that 12 is common to nearly all the measures and multiples of 12 are common as well, twelve being a Hebrew number that represents perfection and unity with God. He is the unifying principle of the new city, He is its architect and its light. The gates bear the names of the initial twelve tribes of God’s people and the foundation stones bear the names of the twelve apostles (whose name is on the 12^th stone, Matthias or Paul?). The beauty of the city is indescribable. We will see the unity of God’s people, old and new covenant, under the headship of Jesus, it will be a glorious reunion!

Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel,
who alone does wondrous things.
Blessed be his glorious name forever;
may the whole earth be filled with his glory!
Amen and Amen!

21 December 2010

Psalm 66, 67; Isaiah 11.10-16; Revelation 20.11-21.8; Luke 1.5-25

The passage speaks essentially of a return from exile or a second exodus. When Messiah comes the remnant will return from all the places to which they were scattered as they came from Egypt with Moses. He will dry up the rivers so that they can come back walking in sandals. They will come from all over the world back to Jerusalem and He will also restore the unity of the nation, the unity that was broken in the two kingdoms of Israel and Judah. They will once again be truly one nation under God. In this the prophet sees that the breach between the nations is sin, against God’s will and something that needs to be healed and unity restored. The enmity between the two nations was great and rhetoric heated, this restoration would be truly a work of God. In Messiah they will find the basis for unity, their confession of Him. Reconciliation is a work done by Him.

It is important that Zechariah and Elizabeth be described as blameless and righteous, the same words that apply to Job. They have done nothing wrong to have caused her to be barren. Opening her womb is a work of the Lord, just as it was with Abraham and Sarah. These two have been faithful to God and He has not kept His part of the bargain and yet we are not told that they have become embittered against Him. They have borne this burden in faith. The child will take a Nazirite vow, he will be dedicated solely to the Lord, and he will fulfill the prophecy of Malachi concerning Elijah coming before the Messiah. Zechariah asks for a sign of an angel that he sees in the temple. He has been given a visitation and is still alive, how could he doubt? Just as it seemed unlikely to Moses, so it does to this man. Elizabeth conceives and her joy is great, the Lord has taken away her reproach. Her joy is the joy of Hannah when she conceived Samuel.

I thought we were to be judged by our faith in Jesus and not by our works. Works reveal faith. Who we are should be the proof of what we believe. Would Jesus recognize a person who claims to have faith in Him without evidence of that faith in our lives. He cares about fruitfulness in the lives of Christians because His Spirit makes possible that fruitfulness. If we are to enjoy the eternal kingdom we must begin to live in and for that kingdom now. Now is time to worship the King and to proclaim Him by word and deed. Where can you begin today to live in such a way that the world would know you are living for Jesus?

Shout for joy to God, all the earth;
sing the glory of his name;
give to him glorious praise!
Say to God, "How awesome are your deeds!
So great is your power that your enemies come cringing to you.
All the earth worships you
and sings praises to you;
they sing praises to your name.