31 December 2014

Psalm 46, 48; Isa. 26:1-9; 2 Cor. 5:16-6:2; John 8:12-19

“You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.”  The more I live the more I know this to be true.  When we fix our minds on Him, as Brother Laurence describes in The Practice of the Presence of God, we find peace because we have fixed our minds on that which is both eternal and unchangeable while the world around us, all else we could fix our minds upon, is ever changing and time-bound.  We are too often unsettled, people of double-minds, and when we are it is because we are distracted by the immediate rather than resting in the eternal.  We have duties and obligations in the world, we have also emergencies and crises, but if we settle ourselves in faith and are of a single mind about Him then we actually perform better in those situations.  How much time have I wasted in considering all the potential outcomes of a decision and how it will affect others when I don’t actually know either the probable outcomes or their expected values.  Peace is an outcome of staying our minds on Him and trusting in Him.  The chicken and egg question is answered right there.

Here’s is another testable truth claim, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”  We can test that claim by following Him can’t we?  Sometimes we think of the words of Jesus as simply words to memorize when they are actually challenges to us to live out.  He makes a very clear claim that if we follow Him we will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.  The light of the world, in Jewish thought, was that first light that God spoke into being.  That light dispelled the darkness, the darkness that was over the face of the deep.  Because it was first it was essential, the light of the world.  Torah is light, David says the word of God is a lamp to his feet and a light to His path.  God has always given man light and has always bidden us to follow where He leads.  In Jesus, we have both the light of the world manifest and the Word of God, light also, manifest.  He is the one on whom we are called to stay our minds and trust in Him and His promise is peace.

I love this statement of Paul’s, “Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer.”  Paul knows that he indeed once regarded Christ according to the flesh and he made an enormous mistake, so he has given up trying to make a judgment based on earthly wisdom about anything or anyone.  In Christ we are to be new creations and that means that we no longer make earthly judgments about things like good and evil, we see beyond the surface and know truth.  We are ambassadors for Christ in the work of reconciliation.  We tend to think of that as proclamation of the Gospel in words but an ambassador does more than that, his life is tied up completely in his work, everything an ambassador does represents his country.  Some of the worst ambassadorial failures have to do with life screw-ups not proclamations.  Following Jesus and walking in the light is a lifestyle issue.  If we want peace we have to be literally new creations in thought, word and deed.

30 December 2014

Psalm 20, 21; Isa 25:1-9; Rev. 1:9-20; John 7:53-8:11

The prophet exults in the deliverance of the Lord from the nation’s enemies.  He sees the cities of those nations who come against Israel as destroyed and the people of those nations as knowing that their strength was and is no match for the Lord of Israel.  In the end, Isaiah sees that the result of all this is that all peoples will be gathered in and invited to taste and see that the Lord is God.  It is not a victory for the nation whereby all others will bow down to her, all are invited to the feast to share in God’s victory.  He is gracious to the nation and to the vanquished.  Salvation is the removal of the covering that spreads over all people, death, and it will be swallowed up forever.  No one foresaw how He would swallow up death, by experiencing it and overcoming it.  The idea and vision were no match for the reality.

There is little or no evidence that the penalty of stoning was carried out for adultery and the Romans would certainly have had a problem with this being done, so why do they bring the woman to Jesus to test Him?  The writing in the dust baffles us all, we have no idea what Jesus wrote those two times that ultimately led them to walk away from this scene.  Did He write, as the Father had done, the Ten Commandments?  Whatever it was must have been to convict them of their own sin based on His words, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.”  He could have cast that stone and then it would have been on.  Where was the paramour?  She couldn’t commit adultery alone.  This was early in the morning, how did all this come about?  There are many unanswered questions by this passage and, it must be said, the passage doesn’t find its way into any of the most ancient manuscripts.  In the end, it is an enigmatic story that defies easy interpretation and can only lead us to see the grace of God in Jesus’ unwillingness to begin or even join in the judgment of this woman, leading Him to admonish her to “Go and sin no more.”  The sin wasn’t ignored, it was forgiven.

John sees a vision of one like a son of man, and it is a fearsome sight to behold.  The chief characteristic of this one is the brightness, the light that is part of every trait he describes for us.  The hair, white as wool, like snow, his eyes aflame, his footwear not only bronze but burnished bronze, the face shining like the sun in full strength.  No wonder he fell to his knees before this Him, it would have been overwhelming to see such a one.  He holds the keys of Death and Hades, the power over these things, the most terrifying power imaginable but at the same time, comforting to know that He, no one else, holds this power.  It is grace alone that bids John fear not when in the presence of such power.  The measure of grace is restraint of power and in all three lessons today we see the Lord forebearing in mercy.  The nations who oppose Him and His nation receive mercy by sharing in the feast.  The woman caught in sin punishable by death is freed from judgment and finally, John is given mercy in standing in the presence of the Lord in all His glory.  We need to see His grace anew from the perspective of His greatness and holiness shining its light on our sinfulness.

29 December 2014

Psalm 2, 26; Isaiah 49:13-23; Matthew 18:1-14

Today is the day in the calendar that we remember those who are known as the Holy Innocents, those children Herod had put to death after the visit of the Magi as recounted in Matthew 2.  Remember the Magi came looking for the king who had been born as heralded by the star and they were warned not to return to Herod to tell of this king.  In response Herod ordered all Hebrew children in Bethlehem and the region under the age of two to be killed.  There is certainly a parallel to the story of Moses in there as the one who came to deliver His people and who survived the attempt by a ruler to destroy Him.  It is one of God’s ironies that the family fled to Egypt for safety before returning. 

Here in the Isaiah passage we hear the nation being comforted by the news that when they return to the Land there will not be enough room to contain all the children because He will so greatly bless them in this regard.  Again and again the prophet sees the image of abundant children in the Land, so many that the women will not believe it possible that they could have borne them.  We live in an age where there are Holy Innocents as well, children who were never born because it was inconvenient or for some other reason.  Our situation is worse because we the people have been complicit in this situation.  The citizenry has not only allowed it but funded it and supported it in defense of the right to choose.  Every year on this day I experience deep sadness and contrition that for too long I bought into that “right” and failed to lend my voice to truth. 

When the disciples ask who is the greatest Jesus gets a child and sets him in the middle of the group and answers the real question, “What can I do to be great?”  The answer is to humble yourself like a child.  In that culture children were not idealized and the center of attention in the family or in the society.  Children were important to the extent they were the ones who would carry on the traditions and the faith but they were to be instructed until the age they could read Torah for themselves, the high points of childhood were survival of birth and the day they could read Torah and therefore become responsible members of Jewish society.  The child was under guidance during those years and submitted to parents and teachers.  This, Jesus says, is the model for greatness, humility and submission.  Teaching children to sin was a terrible sin in itself Jesus says, everything you do teaches and leading a little one astray was a serious offense in the kingdom.  It would have been shocking for Jesus to answer in this way.  In baptism, we take this passage seriously when the community vows to be responsible for their upbringing and education in the faith.  We have a solemn and sacred responsibility.

28 December 2014

Psalm 93, 96; Isa. 62:6-7,10-12; Heb 2: 10-18; Matt. 1:18-25

As Christians how do we apply this prophetic word from Isaiah.  What do we do with “Jerusalem”?  We pray for the peace of God’s city and we know that ultimately there will be a new Jerusalem where the presence of God will be for eternity.  For today, we pray for the church, where the glory of the Lord is when His people gather to worship.  We work for the prosperity of the church and we pray for it to be the pure, spotless bride He deserves.  We have watchmen who guard the teaching of the church and who call it to account for its witness in other ways as well.  We are to give Him no rest in building up the church for it is His promise to be with us until the end of the age.  It is also the body of Christ, our redeemer, and as such it has a part to play in the salvation and redemption of the world as the instrument of His continuing activity in the world.  The church is an integral and indispensable part of the plan of redemption.

If you were Joseph wouldn’t it require an angelic visitation to convince you that Mary was a virgin?  He knew enough basic biology to know that virgins don’t give birth.  Even without researching Jewish customs concerning betrothal and marriage, you should see something in the word “divorce” in this situation, betrothal was more than an engagement in our society.  Children conceived during this period were treated as legitimate if, in fact, that was the case. The other options were a public and formal trial involving charges of adultery or the “private” divorce proposed here by Joseph, dissolution of the contracted marriage.  Joseph is described here as  a just man and that justice is demonstrated by what appears to be mercy in choosing the private option.  The angelic visitation convinced him that the story Mary surely told him was indeed the truth, implausible and impossible as it seemed.  He had to know that this decision was going to make him the butt of humor and not enhance his personal reputation if the story of the conception was made public.  The virgin birth is an important part of our faith, Jesus was either God’s only-begotten Son or God somehow adopted Him at baptism but the loss is the very nature of Jesus, the God-man. 

The writer points to the reason why Jesus’ humanity is important, that we have a high priest who knows what it is to suffer.  This life promises suffering to every single person.  Suffering is simply part of the package of living in a world of sin and if Jesus did not share our humanity then He did not suffer, only seemed to do so.  That is part of Docetism, an early heresy that is also a part of the Islamic belief about Jesus.  Docetism means that Jesus seemed to be a human but really wasn’t, He was essentially wearing a human suit.  One way Docetism gets around the cross is to say that when Simon of Cyrene took the cross, the Jesus spirit entered the Simon body and vice versa and therefore it was the spirit of Simon which suffered and died and Jesus, in the Simon body stood apart laughing.  It is important to the understanding of the church as the body of Christ that it is, like Him, both human and divine, made up of women and men empowered and animated by the Holy Spirit.  The church, the bride, is fit for its groom in this way.

27 December 2014

Psalm 97, 98; Proverbs 8:22-30; John 13:20-35

This passage speaks of the personification of wisdom, the first thing brought forth by God, before there was a world or anything else.  Wisdom came into being and by it all else came into being.  How wisdom came to be we are not told, it is the underlying principle of creation as well and the continuing existence of the universe.  In our day there are many who deny the wisdom or intelligent design of the universe rather holding to blind chance and random mutation as the means by which all things came to be as we know them.  How does this explain beauty?  Indeed, how does it explain the central question of all existence, why is there anything at all instead of nothing.  Abraham Heschel, the great Jewish scholar wrote, “The biblical man does not begin with being, but with the surprise of being.  Being is neither self-evident nor self-explanatory.  Being points to the question of how being is possible.”  This reality he wrote points beyond itself, “The supreme question is not, ‘Who made the world?’ but rather, ‘Who transcends the world?’”  The only way the answer is correct is if you get the predicate right. If you don’t begin with the possibility there is a God who created in wisdom and skill, you can’t find the answer in Him.  Wisdom tells us this isn’t random or haphazard, the world operates according to scientific and mathematical principles, is it any wonder those disciplines discover them as far as they are able before descending into theory?  Wouldn’t it be more humble to say it was created by a wiser scientist than we can imagine, an intelligence beyond our own.

It is amazing isn’t it that Jesus gave bread and wine to the man who would betray Him.  If communion saved you Judas was good to go, but Jesus says otherwise.  After he had gone Jesus gave the command to love one another as the new commandment.  We need to take these words to heart in our own churches but also in the larger body of Christ that is the church all over the world.  We have brothers and sisters in our communities and also in other places who need us to love them and encourage them in this journey.  Life is tough and we were told to expect rejection just as Christ was rejected.  We are entering a new phase in our own country where we are no longer the dominant worldview and we will need one another even more as this time stretches out.  In His wisdom He created not just the world but the church to be that body of support for one another.  We are not alone in this world because we have one another and we have the Holy Spirit.  His coming into the world made all that possible.  I am truly thankful for this as one more thing the incarnation means.

26 December 2014

Psalm 28, 30; 2 Chronicles 24:17-22; Acts 6:1-7

What do you do when the leaders want to follow after other gods?  You see it today in some churches with leaders becoming either bored or doubtful about the faith once delivered to the saints and then they lead the flock under their care astray.  We’ve seen it in our own tradition, it is the reason we exist today at our little church in Asheville.  I know of two places where there were good, evangelical bishops of the church who retired and when they did the laity replaced them with men who were definitely not committed to upholding the faith and I watched dozens of churches spring up from the faithful who left their former churches.  I have seen what happens afterward with the persecution of those who leave.  They are sued for their buildings, threatened with taking away pensions of clergy and other forms of harassment.  When the leaders commit themselves to walking away, their hearts become hardened in a way that makes them enemies of the true Gospel.  Zechariah found out that speaking the truth to those who have chosen a different path, the path that leads to darkness, is a dangerous business but he also knew that it was the only thing to do.

When the church began after Pentecost there was no organization.  There were eleven men who chose another to fill out the complement of twelve.  Soon, they were overwhelmed by the remarkable growth of the church and the needs of those who looked to them to provide food on a daily basis, the widows and orphans who had previously received from the temple.  The apostles had to make a decision about what to do and they chose to create their own group of semi-Levitical servants, the deacons.  They had the community choose men with specific skills, “men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty.”  This was so the apostles could devote themselves to prayer and the ministry of the word.  There was much to study and learn in order to understand all they had seen and heard over the past three years and assimilate what it all meant and teach the people to understand.  The last little bit of that lesson always amazes me, “a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.”  These men had to give up everything, prestige, their birthright, family, etc in order to do this.  When you recognize truth you can do nothing but walk in it, whatever the cost.

25 December 2014

Psalm 2, 85; Zech. 2:10-13; 1 John 4:7-16; John 3:31-36

The last time the Lord appeared on earth was way back in Exodus at Mt Sinai.  The people were frightened out of their wits by the signs accompanying that theophany.  Smoke covered the mountain and it trembled.  The sound of trumpets was heard on the mountain and people were warned to keep far from it.  Zechariah announces that He will be in the midst of the people and you have to wonder was he thinking that this meant something like the glory of the Lord filling the tabernacle and temple rather than a physical presence.  What did he envision when he heard the Lord declare these things to him?  How glorious it would be to experience that again!  More surprising was the idea that the Lord might walk among them as He did way back when with Adam and Eve in the garden.  That would be unsafe for all concerned.  Surely He would send a human representative, the Messiah, the son of David.  Little did anyone know or imagine that He, Himself, would walk among them.  It is unthinkable.

Could anyone believe Jesus literally came from above?  When He made such statements it would be hard not to wonder what He really meant because He surely couldn’t mean what it sounded like.  He claimed to have pre-existed and to have been in the very councils of God, to speak truth in an absolute way, with the knowledge that what He said wasn’t interpretation it was exactly what was not only said but intended.  Surely Mary’s story about His conception was part of the lore surrounding Him and yet no one believed that either.  The truth is too good to be true isn’t it?  How could the God who created all things take on human form and live among sinful humanity.  The theologians of the time could never get their heads around it, it couldn’t be squeezed into their plausibility structures.  It can’t be today either.  If you believe it true, thank Him because without the Holy Spirit you couldn’t believe it.  It sounds mad.

John makes two propositional statements here that go together.  First he says, “No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.”  Second, “Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.”  Love was the motive for sending the Son.  If we receive the Son then we receive the motive.  If we have those two together then our response is love for God and for one another.  He is formed in us by faith and the Holy Spirit.  He is the true and perfect humanity and by the power of the Holy Spirit love is to be perfected in us just as it was in Him.  If we take away one thing from the incarnation let it be that God’s motive was purely love for those created in His image and let that be our motive for making Him known and let it be also our methodology.  What was too good to imagine is true because of love.

24 December 2014

Psalm 45, 46; Isa. 35:1-10; Rev. 22:12-21; Luke 1:67-80

Waiting can give you weak hands and feeble knees.  Life can do that to most of us from time to time and we can lose our hope.  We are called to speak encouragement to one another as we wait, not in judgment but in love.  We need to be reminded to lift up our eyes to see Him rather than being cast down at what happens here on earth.  Our hope comes from the Lord and we know that He will not disappoint, He will come again in glory and His kingdom shall have no end.  Everything that is incomplete will be made whole, from people to creation.  All the earth will worship its creator and joy and singing will be heard everywhere.  We can’t begin to imagine what this will look like, we have only seen the fallen creation, what we have made of what the Lord created.  Our imaginations cannot conceive of perfection.  Ask Him to show you His vision that you might have greater longing for it.

Zechariah’s lips are opened as his wife, Elizabeth’s womb is opened, and the words that come forth from him are highest praise.  He speaks as a prophet and that begins with pointing not forwards, but backwards.  All prophecy is based in promise and all prophecy is based in the past.  We look for a renewed creation and the Jews looked for the restoration of the kingdom.  What was old is made new.  Prophecy knows that there was once a time when things were as God intended them to be and looks forward to the restoration of all things.  Zechariah is standing on the promises of God to restore the nation while remembering that He has done that once already.  The “new thing” of prophecy is the “how” it is fulfilled.  Zechariah’s prophetic voice agrees with the words of Gabriel concerning his son as forerunner to prepare the way of the Lord.  His prophecy is simple agreement with the prophets and the prophetic word of the angel to him and he rejoices as though it were already fulfilled because he has seen this child of promise and prophecy.  That was enough to know the rest would be fulfilled.  Sometimes we rejoice in fulfillment and with God we can rejoice in knowing His promises are always fulfilled.

“I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.”  That pretty well sums up all the prophetic images of Jesus we have seen the past couple of days doesn’t it?  Isaiah referred to the Messiah as the root of David and Zechariah today refers to Him as the bright morning star.  The next verse bids us, “Come,” using the images Isaiah used in chapter 55 of his prophecy and using images Jesus used as well when He offered water to the Samaritan woman in John 4 and to the people of Israel in John 7.  The lectionary itself omits verses 18-20 from this reading which include the warning, “if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.”  How could they do that?  Primarily because they have omitted passages from the readings that they didn’t like. Sometimes the omissions are not theologically and agenda driven but sometimes they are.  If we start to remove things we don’t like, we have less reason to be thankful.  I rejoice knowing that whatever my sins may be, Jesus is the perfect righteousness of God and I am greatly forgiven.  I have no reason to diminish the work of the cross.  Let us never deny Him the opportunity to be praised and exalted.

23 December 2014

Psalm 66, 67; Isa. 11:10-16; Rev. 20:11-21:8; Luke 1:5-25

The promise is that on the day of the Lord He will gather in His people scattered among the nations.  He will bring restoration, not only of the city of Jerusalem and the kingdom of Judah but will restore the nation to the wholeness lost in the time of Rehoboam, three hundred years before when the ten tribes revolted and separated themselves from Judah.  The coming of the Davidic king will unite the kingdom once again, the remnant will be gathered back and they will triumph over their foes.  There will be a bridge from Assyria to Jerusalem and the exiles will come back to Jerusalem just as they people did at the exodus from Egypt.  It is a terrible thing to have separation and disunity in the kingdom of God.  As the people, descendants of one family, longed to be restored and reunited, so should we as Christians long for this same thing to happen in the body of Christ.  We too are descendants of one man, Jesus, and we should pray for our division to be healed.

It is important that Luke tell us that Zechariah and Elizabeth were “righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord”, because otherwise there would be some who would believe that there was sin involved in her barrenness.  He is telling us that this is a work of God to both close and open her womb.  As Zechariah offers up the incense, representing the prayers of the people ascending to the Lord, the people are praying and the angel appears to tell him his prayers have been answered, he will have a child of his own.  This child will be greeted with joy by many and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, which indicated that he would be a prophet, and the words the angel uses concerning Elijah and turning the hearts of the fathers to the children indicate that this child will be the fulfillment of the prophecy of Malachi 4, that he will be forerunner of Messiah.  Amazingly, standing in the holy place, speaking with an angel, wasn’t enough to convince Zechariah, it didn’t overcome what he knew of biology and so wanted some further sign.  The angel identified himself as Gabriel, who came directly from the throne of God and the sign was that the man would be mute until the fulfillment because he hadn’t believed.  It would certainly have been a sight to see when he came out the entrance into the courtyard after a long time and then couldn’t speak. 

What were the first books that were opened before the book of life?  They are books of deeds, the story of our life, what we did with what we knew and what we were given.  That doesn’t mean we receive eternal life based on our deeds but it does tell us that what we do matters in an ultimate sense in some way.  Belief in Jesus is all about transformation and a way of living that marks us as different from what we would be without that belief.  Does the coming of the new heavens and the new earth quicken your heart in longing for that day?  I want to see the perfectly renewed creation with Him in the midst of it.  We have much for which to long.

22 December 2014

Psalm 61, 62; Isa. 11:1-9; Rev. 20:1-10; John 5:30-47

“Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins.”  Do either of those words, righteousness and faithfulness apply to a man?  Both are descriptors not of men but of God.  This one who is promised will be different from all others not in degree but in kind.  He will, however, come from the stump of Jesse.  What seemed dead now produces a shoot.  The Davidic monarchy has been seemingly ended for a very long time but hope has not died, the Lord promised one from David’s line will eternally reign.  David can lay claim to a certain level of faithfulness and righteousness but David was a man of war and certainly an imperfect man in both righteousness and faithfulness.  This one will possess both these qualities and will also have wisdom and understand, counsel and might, and the knowledge and fear of the Lord.  His reign will not be like David’s reign in that peace will be its chief characteristic, a peace that has not been known since before Genesis 3.  Peace will extend beyond simply the absence of war among people, it will encompass all creation.  The reason for this peace is simple, the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord.

“I can do nothing on my own.”  Words to live by.  Jesus never acted independently, always from prayer and listening to the Father.  His aim was to please and glorify the Father, to make Him known.  He says that there are three testimonies to Him: John the Baptist, His works and the Father and they will not receive either Him or the testimonies and in this they are judged.  How is it that Moses accuses them to the Father?  Jesus says that they do not believe his (Moses’) writings.  What, in particular, do they not believe about Moses’ writings?  He could be thinking of the passage in Deuteronomy 18 when Moses says the Lord will raise up a prophet like him from among Israel and they are to listen to him but he could as easily be pointing to the entire body of Moses’ writing and Jesus’ fulfillment of all righteousness as defined in the Law.  He was righteous and faithful in all things and at all times.

Pre-millenialism is the belief that before the final judgment there will come first a thousand year reign on earth while satan and his angels are locked away.  After this thousand years satan will be loosed and will deceive many prior to the final judgment.  That idea is certainly not found in other parts of the New Testament where eschatology is at issue and there are problems with the belief because it doesn’t fit those other passages.  (See a good argument from Sam Storms on this issue here.)  The reign of Jesus is eternal and the swallowing up of death, the final enemy, begins that reign.  We know that in the end all things are destroyed and there will be new heavens and a new earth.  That peace promised in our first reading awaits this recapitulation in Jesus.  We were told to pray for the coming of the kingdom, this is the kingdom for which we long, “Come quickly, Lord Jesus.”

21 December 2014

Psalm 24, 29; Isa. 42:1-12; Eph. 6:10-20; John 3:16-21

“I am the Lord; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols.”  This comes in the midst of announcing the Lord’s anointed and it points us to the reality of the Trinity.  This one who is coming is none other than the Lord Himself.  Jesus prayed in the high priestly prayer of John 17, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you…I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.”  We know from Revelation 5 that heaven worshipped and continues to worship Jesus with the same praise and worship it has given to the one seated on the throne in Revelation 4.  Here, we are told that the Lord will not give His glory to another and yet at the mount of Transfiguration Jesus was glorified and the voice from heaven said to listen to Him.  Later in the high priestly prayer, Jesus prays, “Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.”  He is worthy of all praise and He has come among us to save us.

Jesus tells His mission was not to judge the world as John thought.  He has come for judgment but He has come to save.  Judgment is based in our testimony of Jesus.  Either He is our salvation or He is our condemnation.  The most important decision we ever face is who is this person?  The Lord could have come in judgment and destroyed the world as He did in Genesis 6 but instead He came to reveal the depth of His lovingkindness and it is more than anyone could have imagined.  We are saved by faith but here Jesus says that works matter too.  Works, whether or sin or righteousness, reveal faith, they reveal whether we embrace God’s way or the darkness.  The Jewish belief about the light that emanated in the beginning, in response to “Let there be light”, is the light by which may be seen from one end of creation to the other, it is God’s light and makes relationship with Him possible.  Jesus says He is the light of the world.  Loving the light is loving Him, loving God.  Rejecting the light in favor of darkness is rejection of God Himself.  Walking in the light is important. It proves our love for the light.

I am coming to understand, albeit very late in life, that Paul was exactly right when he wrote, “we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”  I have expended a great deal of energy, even as a pastor, in fighting with flesh and blood and I am heartily sorry for that.  I have neglected this great truth and in the process people get hurt, including me, but more so the church itself whose witness is greatly compromised by internal fighting and the wounds that war creates.  How often have I failed to pray and ask God what the truth is in some little dust-up and instead allowed it to become a great conflagration that divided the church and caused people to leave angrily.  I can’t control how other people fight such battles but I can certainly control how I do.  Jesus always remembered who the real enemy was and fought with spiritual weapons and won when it looked like a loss.  Lord, help me to never fight flesh and blood ever again, but always remember who the enemy truly is.  Knowing that helps me fight like a Christian.

20 December 2014

Psalm 55; Isa. 10:20-27; Jude 17-25; Luke 3:1-9

What does it mean to lean on the one who struck you?  It is to depend on the strength and power of the conqueror.  The nation was once within Egypt and fearful of that nation while also dependent on its prosperity and power.  They will also be within the Assyrian empire for a time but they are not to do as their brothers in the northern kingdom have done and assimilate themselves into the nations.  They are to remain hopeful and dependent upon Him alone to deliver and restore them.  The promise is that soon He will bring judgment against the Assyrians, their power will be exposed as nothing at all.  Nonetheless, the promise is that only a remnant will return, many will fail to maintain faithfulness.  The prophecy is based in two significant events in Jewish history, the deliverance from Egyptian bondage and the deliverance from the Midianite oppression in the time of Gideon.  In both cases, no leader could be given credit for anything other than believing in His promises. 

Luke certainly pinpoints the timing of John’s ministry doesn’t he?  “In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness.”  John was in the wilderness when the word came to him and said to “Go.”  He pronounces that the Lord is coming in judgment and that judgment begins with those who are His people.  We bear greater responsibility by virtue of our unique status as His chosen.  In a court of law the person with greater knowledge is held to a higher standard and the same is true of the Lord.  Because the Jews had the Law they were held to its standard.  Paul will be clear in Romans 1 that no one can be exonerated as ignorant, we have all sinned against the revelation given to us.  Judgment, however, begins at the house of the Lord.

There are always scoffers, always have been, always will be.  What differentiates the scoffers of whom Jude speaks and of whom Peter wrote in our last several readings is that these will be in the church and in some cases leaders and teachers in the church.  Those who are inside the church are especially dangerous to us and we need to be incredibly intolerant of them in our midst.  Truth matters, it is in truth you are saved.  When Jesus claimed to be the Way, the Truth and the Life and no one comes to the Father but by Him there are two claims at work simultaneously.  The first is that there are not other paths that lead to eternal life and the second is that you can’t do it yourself.  Self-reliance is a non-starter.  We need in all things to be radically dependent, never self-reliant or proud.  Prayer must undergird everything we do, from reading to listening to teaching to everything else in life lest we be deceived.  Perseverance requires prayer, worship and study and reliance on the Holy Spirit.

19 December 2014

Psalm 40, 54; Isa. 10:5-19; 2 Pet. 2:17-22; Matt. 11:2-15

The Lord proposes to use Assyria as His judgment against His people.  Here, in particular, He is speaking of the southern kingdom of Judah as the northern kingdom has already been removed and assimilated into the nations.  His word is that as this people have committed the same sins as those other tribes, should He not punish them as well.  Although He chose Assyria as His instrument to accomplish judgment, they remain under judgment themselves.  No one is innocent simply because they do not know Him.  They, too will be judged by the Lord after their time of conquest is complete.  Judgment will be based on their arrogance in believing in themselves rather than recognizing that this is the result of His giving the people and the spoil into their hands.  They will know His power one way or another.

Is John questioning whether Jesus is Messiah?  If you read ancient commentary, that is never suggested.  If you read modern commentary it is almost always the interpretation.  Ancient commentators say that John was never in doubt and that he was sending his disciples to Jesus from confidence and a desire that they should see for themselves that indeed Jesus was the One.  Modern commentators say that John’s own situation caused him doubts.  If he was right, why was John under Herod’s judgment.  Jesus’ answer included high praise of John but also a statement about the kingdom itself.  The kingdom moves forward but not without opposition that is forceful and violent.  Those who would obtain the kingdom, however, are those who know they are unable to do so, those who humbly rely on Him for all things.  The kingdom isn’t advanced by force or military might, not by strength or power, but by the Holy Spirit convicting of truth.  We must always be aware of our need of Him and our utter powerlessness.  Our attitude is to be, all things come of Thee, O Lord. 

Peter is remembering Jesus’ teaching about driving out a demon without replacing it with something else.  The demon searches for another home and then returns with friends to find an accommodating place to reside in its former place.  Peter says, “whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved.”  His concern is that if the one who has been overcome now gains victory over his sin, and then returns to it, his new situation is worse than before.  Where have you made progress in the past but now find yourself struggling with the same thing?  What is overcoming you and enslaving you?  Confess your weakness in the face of this temptation and ask for His strength.  It’s your only hope.  It always is.  Don’t boast in your strength, boast in His.

18 December 2014

Psalm 50; Isa. 9:18-10:4; 2 Pet. 2:10b-16; Matt. 3:1-12

Isaiah sees wickedness like a runaway fire, devouring all in its path.  Truly we see that in our own society as the mores change from long-accepted norms right before our eyes and what was once called evil or sinful is now not only tolerated and accepted but celebrated all over the country.  Once Roe v. Wade was passed in this country the number of abortions performed was astronomical.  When “no-fault” divorce became the norm, no proof necessary of anything more than unhappiness in a marriage, the family broke down completely.  When we decided that bigger was clearly better there were no longer mothers who stayed home with their children, it was necessary to make more money to pay for the big house and the bigger, more luxurious cars.  Greed killed our compassion. Drugs became acceptable forms of relaxation, psychiatry determined that the best way to treat children was to drug them, anxiety required different drugs.  We are the most depressed and anxiety-ridden culture in the world but we have it all.  Isaiah saw his own society disintegrate and along the way he awoke to it and his desire was to awaken others to it as well.  That is the prophetic vocation.

Can you imagine how awkward it would be to have been there with John and hear him refer to the Pharisees and Sadducees as a “brood of vipers”?  These were the pillars of Jewish society, and in the case of the Pharisees, the ones thought of as righteous.  John’s standards for righteousness were different from theirs.  John had separated himself from society and lived an ascetic life in order to point back at the nation as having acclimated itself to the world and re-defined righteousness.  Certainly, the law was being re-defined and circumvented for commercial and other interests.  We see that in many places but most notably in the Gospels when Jesus throws out the money-changers and sellers of sacrificial animals from the temple but also in the decision by these same leaders that the best thing they can do to keep the place the Romans have allowed them was to do away with Jesus. 

Peter speaks of those who have completely lost their way and have come to believe lies about what constitutes moral behavior and truth.  Sensuality has become their god, if it feels good do it.  Judeo-Christian culture is indeed different, we have different ethics and morals from many other cultures and there is a reason for that, the Lord Himself determined those things for us.  Our doctrine of Biblical inspiration is inseparable from our moral theology.  If we have a high view of inspiration we will be more apt to be unwavering in our moral understanding.  I have too often heard people excusing things by suggesting that we take into account cultural change since the Bible was written but that implies God is changeable and that isn’t something the Bible gives us the ability to believe.

17 December 2014

Psalm 119:49-72; Isa. 9:8-17; 2 Pet. 2:1-10a; Mark 1:1-8

Here Isaiah uses four terms to describe the northern kingdom, Jacob, Israel, Ephraim and Samaria.  The Lord's judgment is against them and they don't get it at all. They think that even though the walls have fallen and they are destroyed it is no problem, they will rebuild with even better materials.  The Lord's anger, however, is not satisfied or completed yet.  There will be no rebuilding at all.  The fact there is a northern kingdom is an abomination.  The capital and temple are in Jerusalem and a divided nation is no nation at all.  His charge against them is plain, "everyone is godless and an evildoer, and every mouth speaks folly.^"  Everyone, not just some of them, all of them, just as in the days of Noah when the only intention of man's heart was only evil all the time, came under this judgment.  Leaders and prophets alike come in for this judgment as well as the young men.  There is no one exempt from His judgment on the people.  Nevertheless, they do not turn to Him. 

John's mission was to prepare a people to greet the coming of the Lord.  It takes for granted that there is not a people who are prepared for that coming.  John isn't willing to be immersed in society and he has withheld from himself all the "pleasures" of society.  He wore rough garments and limited his diet in a way that is even more restrictive than the Nazirite vow his parents took on his behalf.  He could have walked away from that vow when he came of age, but he not only renewed it, he took it to another level.  We certainly have reason to fast in our age, to distance ourselves from the privileges and pleasures of the world as we await the coming of the Lord.  It should be a regular part of our walk to fast and pray, isolated from the world for a time.  We can fast to come close to the Lord and we can fast to remember that there are many in the world today who hunger.  We are called to unity with all our brothers and sisters, not only those who are near to us.  The Lord wants "a" people and he wants us to be one.  Consider taking up a fast of some duration as a regular part of your disciplines to remind yourself of all you have and of those who don't have that.

Judgment is a reality.  Peter points to history to show that truth and to remind his readers to be vigilant concerning both sin and destructive heresies in the church.  The ruin of the church is when it becomes insensitive to these two things.  The church in the west today could use a good cleaning up.  We have tolerated both heresy and sin and the result is the decline of the culture at large, the culture has rotted from the inside out.  How is the church fulfilling its prophetic and priestly role in the culture and how is it failing?  We need a time of self-examination and repentance if we are to recover from our failures.

16 December 2014

Psalm 45; Isa. 9:1-7; 2 Pet. 1:12-21; Luke 22:54-69

The Lord will send a deliverer and there will no longer be gloom for the one in anguish.  If you think back to the Beatitudes you will find that the ones who receive are those who are in the poor in spirit, those in mourning, etc.  That is another of saying, those in anguish.  If your portion is the world, you will miss the joy of Jesus.  If, however, you see the world for what it is, you will receive Him with gladness.  In His self-declaration of His ministry in the synagogue in Luke 4, see if you can find those who prosper among those Jesus says He is bringing good news.  The one who is coming will come as a child and the government will be upon his shoulders.  For this reason, the Jews missed Him then and miss Him now.  Jesus did not take the government on His shoulders, He is not visibly seated on David's throne.  We know that what John saw in the Revelation, however, is no less real for not being visible to the eyes of all.  He needs to have the government of your life on His shoulders that you might laud Him as "Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."  It all begins there.

Peter is afraid.  He is afraid that this isn't going well and that by identifying with Jesus, or having others identify him with Jesus, he may find himself in Jesus' shoes.  There is a risk to Peter by being Galileean and speaking in that dialect, even if they don't know for sure he is one of the disciples.  His origins give him away.  All he can do is deny Jesus to save his own skin and yet, ultimately, that is the way to lose your life.  At this point, though, Peter doesn't know about the resurrection, he only knows about death.  He believes in the resurrection from the dead and he has seen Lazarus brought back from the dead but if Jesus dies what hope is there?  What could the council have made of Jesus' statement, "But from now on the Son of Man shall be seated at the right hand of the power of God"?  They are the ones in power, the ones who will decide His fate.  What can He mean by this declaration? 

Peter believes that his own death will not long tarry as Jesus made known to him.  What we know of this is that Jesus told the manner of Peter's death (Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.” (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) - John 21.18-19)  Peter says that he will make every effort to that after his death they will be able to recall what he has taught.  What he is referring to is writing these things down.  Jesus promised more than this.  He promised to be with His disciples to the end of the age.  They don't continue to the end of the age so the promise extends through them to their disciples to us and those we disciple.  Peter's claim is to be an eye witness to what he teaches.  He is not myth-making, these things happened in space and time and they confirmed the prophecies of old.  We have prophecy as well, the prophecy of Jesus concerning what will be and the prophecy of the Revelation.  We can rest in these things.

15 December 2014

Psalm 41, 52; Isa. 8:16-9:1; 2 Pet. 1:1-11; Luke 22:39-53

The binding and sealing of the testimony and teaching of which Isaiah speaks means that the prophecy awaits fulfillment.  The proof of its veracity will be seen in that fulfillment.  He has faithfully recorded what he has seen and heard from the Lord and now all there is left to do is wait, no editing remains.  He is confident and anyone who teaches otherwise is a false prophet.  There were those in Israel who, in direct contradiction to the Law, sought wisdom from necromancers, those who claim to communicate with the dead.  Their chirping and muttering was down to their insubstantiality, because they were less real in death, only spirits, they were presumed to be weaker in communication, somewhat the opposite of the fearsomeness in modern ideas about some spectral communications.  Preparation for the coming of the Lord includes knowing and believing the testimony of His chosen instruments, the prophets and those who deny this teaching and testimony are doomed to be at a loss for understanding on that day.  They will be angry with God because what they have prophesied is not matched by reality and they will then look to the earth to answer them and be disappointed there as well.  What has been cast down, the area of Galilee of the Gentiles, the region where Rome resettled pensioned soldiers in order to change the culture there, will be raised up.  Jesus' identification with Galilee should have been seen as fulfillment of this prophecy but the prejudice was too great to receive it.

The hour has come and Jesus is willing to do whatever the Father requires but in His humanity, prays that it not come to pass.  If we ever see clearly the dual nature of divine and human it is here in His anguish in the garden in prayer.  The human nature dreads what is to come and yet an angel appears to strengthen Jesus as He prays.  The disciples cannot remain awake and Jesus returns to make sure they continue in prayer with him until he finds them asleep.  One of the characteristics of the Passover is that the feast ends either with the dawn or with anyone at the feast falling asleep such that they cannot be awakened by speaking a word to them in a normal tone.  When Passover ends without Messiah coming there is some disappointment in the household.  Jesus knows that now the feast has ended, things will proceed as He knew they would.  He, of all people, will be like Isaiah, knowing how things will flow from here.  He has warned the disciples but they have been unwilling to hear and they will see these things as chaotic, not looking for the resurrection. 

How amazing is that Peter of all people can write to the church that their faith has obtained an equal status with the apostles?  Three years they spent with Him, Peter was with Jesus every step of the way, even when most of the others were left behind.  Peter was one of the first disciples, was with Jesus at the Mount of Transfiguration, there for part of the trial, the first to look into the empty tomb, and was restored to his place walking alone with Jesus on the beach after the resurrection but he says that the faith of these who were not there is equal to his own.  He is also clear that there needs to be more than intellectual faith, that faith should change their lives and if it does not, their fruitfulness and effectiveness will be diminished.  Knowing the truth, believing the teaching and testimony is only the first step in discipleship.  Walking in that truth is the real thing.

14 December 2014

Psalm 63, 98; Isa. 13:6-13; Heb. 12:18-29; John 3:22-30

When Isaiah wrote about the day of judgment, the coming of the Lord, he wrote from personal experience as no other prophet did.  His experience of seeing the Lord in the temple gave him a unique perspective on what it would look and feel like to see the Lord.  His reaction that day was to see himself as undone, hopeless, without a plea of personal righteousness, he was "a man of unclean lips living among a people of unclean lips".  Isaiah saw that he was no better than the people to whom he was sent as prophet.  That was an important thing to know, that God's holiness separates Him not only from "those sinners" but from us equally.  No matter how righteous we may appear in our own eyes or in the eyes of those around us, we are all sinners without hope unless He pardons.  So, when Isaiah writes here, "all hands will be feeble, and every human heart will melt. They will be dismayed: pangs and agony will seize them; they will be in anguish like a woman in labor", he knows what he is talking about.

John's humility before Jesus never wavered.  Jesus may not have done all John prophesied or that he hoped for but he knew his place in the grand scheme of things.  When Jesus presented Himself to John for baptism John already knew that he was unworthy to do anything of the sort and said it should be the other way round, Jesus should baptize him, he was unworthy to even untie His sandals.  Afterwards, when some have noticed that people are going from John to Jesus, the prophet is characteristically humble in saying that he has no ministry that was not a gift to him and that people should follow Jesus as He is greater than John.  The time has come for John to become less and Jesus to become more. 

In the first paragraph of the reading we see the difference between the giving of the Law at Sinai, the old covenant, and the new covenant in Jesus' blood.  The old covenant was given in fierceness and fearsomeness, no one was to come near the mountain lest they die.  The new covenant bids us come to this beautiful city filled with the glory of God.  The final sentence says we are called to "Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel."  The blood of Abel cried out for vengeance while the blood of Jesus cries out for our pardon.  You would think then that we should hasten to let go of that image of fear because of the work of Jesus but you would be wrong, judgment is severe against those who reject the Son says the second paragraph.  It ends with the admonition "our God is a consuming fire."  We should never lose sight of God's holiness and His attitude towards sin.

13 December 2014

Psalm 30, 32; Isa. 8:1-15; 2 Thess. 3:6-18; Luke 22:31-38

Isaiah prophesies the fate of the northern kingdom, that it will be taken away into Assyria.  This northern kingdom represents the tribes that followed Solomon's son Jeroboam after his father's death.  Only Judah and Benjamin accepted Rehoboam, another of Solomon's sons, as king.  This northern kingdom is referred to, variously, as Ephraim, Samaria and Israel.  These are the peoples sometimes now referred to as the "Lost Tribes."  They had their own worship center at Bethel and further north in the territory of the tribe of Dan to keep their people from Jerusalem.  They were enemies of what became the nation.  This judgment of God on Israel will not be finished by the destruction of the northern kingdom alone, it will also nearly overwhelm the southern kingdom of Judah, centered in Jerusalem as well.  They have failed to have faith in the Lord, as evidenced by Ahaz' fear of the alliance between Israel and Syria.  He will seek his own alliance as protection and for this failure of faith, God will come against them.

Peter can't imagine that his faith could fail.  Jesus says that He has prayed for Peter that his faith may not fail.  He also says, "when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.”  Did Jesus' prayer for Peter fail?  Peter denied Jesus just as prophesied, and he was restored and turned again but did Peter's faith fail?  It would certainly appear that it did and that it was important for Peter to have failed because it would make him gentler with others.  Peter had a flaw, he believed in himself too much.  He needed to see his own weakness in order to be a true shepherd which is what Jesus later commissioned him to be, to feed and tend His sheep.  Like Jacob, Peter had to be confronted in his strength and to see that it was insufficient and that his weakness became the place of God's strength.  Sometimes we fail in faith and it is fatal, like king Ahaz, sometimes our faith fails and it becomes God's way of making us truly strong.

Apparently there were some in Thessalonica who were idle and expected the community to see to their needs.  They may have believed the end was so near that it was not worth the effort to work and they were waiting idly for the coming of Jesus.  Paul says that the community is to have nothing to do with such people, they are not following the example he and his team set and they are not following what Jesus taught in all the parables of the servants awaiting the return of the master.  The time of waiting is to be filled with the mission we were given of making disciples.  Paul has no patience with those who will not work to earn their keep and they are to have nothing to do with them but not as enemies, as brothers under admonition.  Waiting is difficult, it is tempting to set aside that which must be done to wait for what we believe is coming.  We must attend to today as we were given gifts, talents and opportunity to do.  We are not to be idle but busy at the work of God.  Faith never means we do nothing.  

12 December 2014

Psalm 31; Isa. 7:10-25; 2 Thess. 2:13-3:5; Luke 22:14-30

Clearly there is a present application for the prophecy in the life of the king.  That a virgin will give birth is a prophecy we cite with regard to Jesus' birth but here the virgin refers to someone else.  This prophecy, in context, is given to indicate that soon and very soon the enemies will fall.  A young woman will give birth to a son who will know good and evil and choose the good and while this one is yet young, Ahaz' enemies will no longer pose any threat at all.  There will soon be a time when prosperity and peace will reign in the land.  The New Testament writers see the fulfillment of this prophecy in Jesus' birth to the virgin Mary.  The nations who oppose her indeed failed to carry out their intentions against Jerusalem and yet the promised time of peace and prosperity failed to materialize.  With prophecy we have to be careful to understand and appreciate the horizons.  John the Baptist, for instance, saw Messiah coming and yet what he saw was judgment and Jesus stated He had not come to judge.  Was John wrong? No, there were two prophetic horizons and the prophet failed to discern the difference, like we do when we drive and see mountains at a distance and they appear to be back-to-back when in reality there are many miles between them.  Seeing the valleys in between is important too.

When Jesus says, "I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes", the disciples clearly take that to mean that the kingdom will soon come.  They weren't prepared for what actually came next, His arrest, trial and crucifixion.  They immediately began thinking about which of them was going to be the greatest when Jesus came into that kingdom.  Who could blame them after Palm Sunday and the acclaim with which He had been greeted in the city?  Everything pointed to this being the moment when Passover would be completely fulfilled and they would again triumph over a foreign power and be restored to the glorious promise of the Land.  They missed the valley between Jesus receiving the kingdom and the kingdom being established.  The book of the Revelation tells us that indeed these men sit on thrones in the kingdom but for now we don't see it with our eyes.

While Paul has written a good bit to the Thessalonians about the end times and it has seemingly been an issue there in ways it doesn't seem to be in other places Paul established churches, what is more important is how to live in the valley between Jesus' ascension and the establishment of His kingdom on earth.  They have been saved but now they are called to stand firm and hold to what they have been taught.  We have eternal hope and good comfort in Jesus but we still have to live here and glorify Him as He came to make known and glorify the Father.  We live in the valley and we need to keep our eyes fixed on the mountain while we wait for His coming in glory.  

11 December 2014

Psalm 37:1-18; Isa. 7:1-9; 2 Thess. 2:1-12; Luke 22:1-13

When king Ahaz hears that the Syrians have joined forces with Ephraim, he is filled with fear.  He knows he can't win against these combined forces.  Because of his reaction, the people are also afraid.  The Lord sends Isaiah out to the king to tell him not to worry about this alliance.  The aim of this is to set up a king of their own choosing, Tabeel.  Isaiah is given a prophetic word that this act will fail to accomplish its goal and within a relatively short span of time both the king of Syria and the nation of Ephraim/Samaria, the northern kingdom of Israel, the other tribes of Jacob, will both pass away.  The appeal is not to military might but to faith and the word is that if the king is not firm in faith as opposed to his might or an alliance he might make, then he is not firm at all.  All firmness springs from faith, but we always need to have faith in the right thing or that firmness is no more than folly. 

We don’t know for sure why Judas chose to betray Jesus.  We can conjecture based on the little we know about him.  He was a zealot and also the treasurer of the group.  The zealots wanted Jerusalem restored to Jewish control.  They longed for a return to the good old days of the Maccabean kings, those warriors who defied all odds against them and led a revolt against the Seleucid Empire in the second century before Jesus.  Judas may have been frustrated and disappointed in Jesus' failure to do this work and may have wanted to force Jesus' hand to be who Judas believed and wanted Him to be.  That begs the question, however, as to why he would then have chosen to betray Jesus when there was no crowd.  We will never know for certain what his motives were.  Jesus gives the disciples a prophetic sign that they will know where they will have the feast, a man carrying a water jar.  Who generally carried water jars in that culture?  A man would have stood apart in this work, easily spotted, as this was "women's work."  On this day, however, he would receive great honor for doing so.

Paul reminds the Thessalonians what Isaiah reminded the king, that God is in control.  They need not be concerned when things begin to look out of control with the appearance and the rise of the man of lawlessness.  This is all activity of satan and these things have to be as signs of the end.  Some will be deceived by his actions and his false signs but this is because of a strong delusion from God.  This is like the hardening of Pharaoh's heart in that from our perspective the effect seems supernatural.  How could anyone have seen what Pharaoh saw and not let the people go and believe in Moses' God?  When we read apocalyptic literature like here and in the Revelation but also in the prophetic works like Isaiah we can ask the same questions.  How can people persevere in unbelief?  We see in our day those who can deny anything as a work of God so we shouldn't be surprised at this.  Whether it is a work of God to cause it or not we can't truly know.  If God didn't spare His own people, the nation of Israel, from judgment, however, why would we believe He would spare those who have denied Him?  

10 December 2014

Psalm 38; Isa. 6:1-13; 2 Thess. 1:1-12; John 7:53-8:11

The Lord's purposes will be accomplished but He commissions Isaiah as a prophet anyway.  Isaiah knows the Lord, is a man seeking Him in the temple but wasn't prepared for an actual encounter.  He realizes something of the incredible otherness of God in the vision and the proclamation of the seraphim crying "Holy, holy, holy!"  He is undone by fear, the beginning of wisdom and knows that even as a prophet he is a man of unclean lips, the very thing with which he serves the Lord.  The Lord acknowledges the truth of this statement and uses the seraphim to sear the prophet's lips in cleansing prior to commissioning.  The commission is to proclaim to a people who will neither see nor understand the message.  It will be a relatively fruitless ministry.  We start with grand visions of how our ministry will change lives and perhaps change society and yet here we see Isaiah's ministry will not bear fruit but it is God's will that it fail.  Why the fool's errand?  They will be without an excuse when judgment comes, the Lord has given them a witness and they will not hear his message.  Let us never fail to do what we were given to do, even when fruit is lacking.

What did He write in the dirt those two times?  That is the question of the ages.  Twice, once when they ask Jesus what should be done with the adulteress and then when He gives the answer, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her", Jesus bends down and writes in the dust.  Where is the man with whom she was committing adultery?  How did they catch them in the act?  There are many questions but ultimately someone there has to be without sin to begin this thing and the reality is that no one wanted to stone her, that was not normally done with adulterers.  Jesus could have then seized the stone Himself and hurled it and yet He does not.  In fact, they depart and His response is neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more.  He acknowledges the sin, whatever it may actually have been, but does not condemn her to death. 

Paul seems not to understand boasting.  He says that he boasts in the Thessalonians "steadfastness and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions that you are enduring."  He should know that you only boast in success (sarcasm).  Indeed, the church in Thessalonica was greatly persecuted and the intention was to end this movement in its infancy.  We need to realize that the world neither sees nor hears the Good News.  Paul reminds them that there will ultimately be judgment on those who refuse the Gospel, who reject not only Jesus but those who are His followers and proclaimers.  That, however, does not mean that we are to hunker down and hide from the world.  We are to continue to boldly proclaim, just as Isaiah did, in spite of rejection.  We are to proclaim not condemnation but salvation, just as Jesus did.  Whatever the result the commission remains the same.

9 December 2014

Psalm 26, 28; Isa. 5:13-17, 24-25; 1 Thess. 5:12-28; Luke 21:29-38

What does it mean that the people go into exile for lack of knowledge?  The first question is what knowledge is lacking?  Knowledge comes from a variety of sources but I am certain the knowledge that is lacking is not financial, scientific, culinary, or some other knowledge.  The knowledge that is in short supply is the knowledge of God and His ways.  This knowledge, more than military knowledge about their enemies and the strategic knowledge of how to fight, was the reason for their exile.  They could have all the other knowledge in the world but if they forget that He is their shield and defender, that He is in control, that He is omnipotent, that His will is being done, then they lack knowledge that matters.  This is not for lack of information, it is because they have rejected Him.  They have chosen another path than the path of wisdom and knowledge, they have trusted in themselves and in worldly wisdom.  That is well and good but if God has spoken on a matter, the wise course of action is to do that instead of what worldly wisdom counsels.  The stakes are eternal.

Jesus says that they have knowledge concerning earthly things but lack spiritual discernment.  They recognize the signs of spring, the fig trees and budding and blooming and therefore there will soon be fruit, but they lack the ability to discern the signs before them such as the works He is doing.  They see the signs but they fail to properly interpret those signs as they will soon demonstrate by crucifying their Messiah.  In 1 Chronicles 12 we get a list of all the tribes of Israel and the number of men who came to David's side in the battle against Saul but with respect to one tribe, Issachar, we are told not the number but that there came "men who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do."  They were an important asset to David.   We need men and women who have understanding of the times, those who can help us navigate as Christians on mission.  We need to remain alert and know the signs and what they portend for us that we might continue on the side of the Lord.

Paul gives sound parting advice on how to live in community.  He begins with treatment of the leaders among them, they should esteem them highly in love.  They are to be at peace with one another but they are also to confront idleness which was a problem in the church at Thessalonica and to encourage those who struggle, but to be patient with all.  They were to be constant in worship and prayer.  They were not to despise prophecy and weren't to quench the Spirit.  Relationships in the body of Christ are to be loving and encouraging.  They are meant to be building up not only the body but also the individual members.  In this way we are pursuing wisdom and listening to those who can interpret the signs.  We are fixed on Him and His kingdom and in that fixity we find true wisdom.

8 December 2014

Psalm 25; Isa. 5:8-12,18-23; 1 Thess. 5:1-11; Luke 21:20-28

The first verse of the Isaiah passage tells of increasing consolidation of wealth in the hands of a few.  The Lord had apportioned the land by families and over time some of those were unable to make a living from their portion for one reason or another and, in spite of the Law requiring a Sabbath and a Jubilee where the land was returned to its original owners, they were finding ways around the Law so that they could acquire the land of others more permanently.  The Law was intended to prevent crushing, inescapable poverty but they had circumvented the Law and some had now no hope of returning to their ancestral lands.  The Law took into account that there would be vagaries in yields and some would make poor business decisions but there was always that reality that they could return to the land through those Sabbath and Jubilee provisions.  Debt wasn't intended to last beyond those times, the amount of credit available was limited by those provisions and therefore the amount of risk anyone could take would be similarly limited.  How would we make changes in the system in which we live that would accomplish those aims?  Could there be a Christian economy within the larger economy based on lending and borrowing principles from the Law that would impose limits in the same way?

The beginning of the end is not a good time for the nation.  Wrath and judgment will come against Jerusalem and the people and great distress will be on the earth.  We also know that judgment begins at the household of God.  Restoration only comes after judgment has been enacted.  God's people must be purged of sin and idolatry prior to blessing.  We aren't capable of properly receiving God's blessing until we have the right values and the right understanding of both Him and ourselves.  Jesus says that prior to the coming of the Son of Man great woe will fall on the Land and it will be overrun by Gentiles.  That happened long ago and still they wait.  We are to be those who are anxiously awaiting and preparing ourselves and the world to meet its creator.  There is work to be done.

Paul seems to have been truly unconcerned with the end times.  He knew that the work to be done was evangelism rather than obsessing over looking for the end.  He knew the end would come and that all the parables Jesus told about the master going away and coming back concerned what the servants did with the time in between.  Were they doing their assigned tasks or were they spending their time working out what day the master would return to the exclusion of their work?  Paul's lack of concern with such things should inform the church concerning the mission given as it also mirrors Jesus' lack of specificity about the end.  The more important thing is the mission of making disciples, preparing a people.  The end and judgment will come, will you be found faithful in that day to what you were commanded to do, loving God with everything you have and your neighbor as yourself and what you were commissioned to do, making disciples. 

7 December 2014

Psalm 148, 149, 150; Isa. 5:1-7; 2 Pet. 3:11-18; Luke 7:28-35

The song of the vineyard describes God's wayward people.  He planted the vineyard, set a watchtower in the midst of it, did everything necessary to establish and protect the vineyard so that it would produce a certain variety of fruit.  Instead, at the time of harvest it produced wild grapes, something unintended and unwelcome.  When we go our own way, ignore His Word and His Way, we produce something other than the fruit the Lord intends.  We have a tendency to cross-pollinate and the intention is that we are to be pure and unadulterated fruit.  When we bring a little of this philosophy and understanding, a little of the Bible, a little worldly wisdom, we change at a core level and become something other than He intends.  That fruit then produces increasingly different fruit as it reproduces and sooner or later it is good for nothing at all.  His complaint is against those who have allowed this adulteration to occur so that the whole is no longer useful to Him at all and must be re-planted.

Jesus exalts John the Baptist as greater than any who has come before but says also that one in the kingdom of God is greater than John.  In what way is that true?  We, who live on the other side of Easter, know a truth John didn't know, we have a fuller understanding of the Gospel, a more complete message to share.  Jesus says, however, that this current generation is missing both John's message as well as His message about the kingdom.  On the one hand they thought John a madman because of his esoteric and eccentric ways and that Jesus is no more than a glutton because of His lack of attention to fasting and his choice of company.  The little proverb He uses points to the flaw in their thinking, they are calling the tune and expecting God's men to do their bidding.  Wisdom recognizes the problem in that logic.

Do you often ask what sort of person you should be?  Peter says we are to be different sort of people than we were before we met Jesus.  We are to be growing in holiness and godliness that we may be found without spot or blemish when He comes.  Instead of complaining that He has yet to come, Peter says we are to count the patience of the Lord as salvation, we are being given a fresh chance each time we fall to get back up and follow Him, pursuing righteousness in our lives.  As with that first lesson from Isaiah, He has invested much in the church, He sent His Son to die to establish it, making new people by the power of the gift of the Holy Spirit to us and too often we tell Him by our actions that we have little value for these things other than our ticket to eternal life.  The church needs to be on its knees asking for forgiveness for ingratitude just as the nation did in Isaiah's time.

6 December 2014

Psalm 20, 21; Isa. 4:2-6; 1 Thess. 4:13-18; Luke 21:5-19

What a wonderful picture of the glory of Zion.  After the judgment of sin, there will be a glory as has never been seen in the city.  All will be called holy.  Again, the picture of the city here is shared by John in the Revelation, "They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life."  Isaiah sees the city as covered by the same cloud and pillar of fire which accompanied the tabernacle in the wilderness but now it remains over the city, a beacon to the world,  a sign that this is the city of God.  Do you long for that day?  Even if you have never been to Jerusalem and even if you have no particular interest in going there, surely the vision of somewhere that the people are truly righteous and holy, a place without sin and therefore without dying, pain, betrayal, fear, or any other consequence of sin exists is a compelling vision.  "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven."

Jesus doesn't exactly give a comforting or encouraging picture of what is to come does He?  He does if you keep the long view in mind.  If we recognize that this is an imperfect world filled with sin and rebellion against its creator then we should expect anyone who aligns him or herself with the creator to be in the line of fire, an enemy.  The long view recognizes that this will end and there will come a time when the earth is restored and renewed to God's original intention.  We love this life even with its challenges and pain.  Most of us do, anyway.  Jesus, right from the start in the Sermon on the Mount, tells us we are to have a God's eye view of the world and love it while mourning over it.  We are called to see brokenness in lives, injustice, suffering even if we ourselves aren't suffering.  We are to identify with the hurting and the hopeless while rejoicing with our brothers and sisters in Christ.  We are to be fearless because we long for His kingdom to come and our hope is secure.  We are to pray and work for the kingdom now as well.

Paul says that we are to encourage one another by talk of the end times.  That works for those who see this world for what it is and grieve over it from God's perspective.  He says he doesn’t want the Thessalonians to be uninformed about what will happen when Jesus returns.  We can think it quaint that he speaks of those who have died as "falling asleep" but isn't that closer to reality for Christians than saying they have died?  Death is final and falling asleep refers to a different state altogether.  Jesus said Lazarus had fallen asleep and that is more precisely what happened than death at that time.  In the Orthodox memorial service we find the prayer, "Within Your peace, O Lord, where all Your Saints repose, give rest also to the soul of Your servant, for You alone are Immortal."  Rest is for the sleeping not the dead.  In that idea there is a completely different hope, the hope of awakening to the redeemed world of the kingdom of God where all things are made new.  (Here's a link to the Memorial Service liturgy if you're interested.)

5 December 2014

Psalm 16, 17; Isa. 3:8-15; 1 Thess. 4:1-12; Luke 20:41-21:4

When you read this passage do you grieve for the country?  The complaint the Lord makes here could be said about the United States today.  The country is not a substitute for Israel and it is also not co-extensive with the church, never has been.  We are not God's chosen people as a nation but there was a dream and a vision for a Christian witness that required the freedom available to all sects of Christianity in the colonies in a way it wasn't available in England.  We, the church, are the inheritors of that dream of a city set on a hill.  What have we done with that dream?  The church has done those things that the prophet lists here and we bear the shame of that failure just as Israel did in Isaiah's day.  There is a promise for the righteous, it will be well with them and they shall eat the fruit of their deeds.  They will, however, join the rest of the nation in exile.  We are to trust Him in all things and in all places and we are to pursue His righteousness as well.  The righteousness of God is Jesus Christ and our promise is that if we follow Him we will persevere and all will be well.  Let us keep our eyes on Him and not on the world around us, let us be the ones to whom the world looks.

Just as Isaiah did in the first reading, here Jesus condemns the leaders of the people, particularly the scribes.  They seek the honor of being learned in the Law and the prophets but they fail to understand them and fail to practice them, their learning is nothing more than vanity.  They have missed the truth about the most important thing in their world, that Messiah is not David's son for David referred to Him as Lord.  Elders did not defer to their ancestors in this way, so there was something very basic that had been overlooked about Messiah, that He preceded David in some way.  It only makes sense if Messiah pre-existed and was worshipped by David.  Wouldn't you love to know what the scribes thought about Jesus' statement on that issue?  Ultimately Jesus says the widow who put in so little was greater than all the rest for she trusted fully in God, was willing to sacrifice everything for Him.  How much differently would we operate a church if we saw such sacrifice?  Would we spend money differently as the church if we knew we were receiving someone's last pennies?

Paul reiterates what was decided and communicated in Acts 15, that sexual ethics are important.  Today, we hear it argued that sexual ethics is immaterial and that there is only that little bit in Leviticus so how important was it even then.  The reality is that in the early church the issue of sexual mores was a primary concern, not some afterthought and here, Paul warns the church at Thessalonica that this is a serious matter.  The world around them was unconcerned about such things and it was, therefore, necessary to warn the church on these matters.  Leadership in sexual morality was from the church and was part of what make the church distinct from the rest of society.  Isaiah mentioned it in that first reading as well, "the look on their (referring to Jerusalem and Judah) faces bears witness against them; they proclaim their sin like Sodom; they do not hide it."  Let us not be deceived even by church leaders about sexual ethics and its importance.  We are still called to be different with respect to the proper use of our bodies.