26 December 2011 – St Stephen

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

Today we remember St Stephen, the first Christian martyr.  It seems jarring to read these lessons the first day after Christmas but it brings us back to reality in that Jesus always promised that if we followed Him we would find persecution and difficulty.

In this first lesson we see that once the priest, Jehoida, was dead, the leaders of the people were without restraint in religious matters.  As they came to pay respects to the king on the loss of the priest, they convinced him that they should now pursue other gods to ensure their continued prosperity.  They forgot who they were and whose they were.  We see our own nation doing this same thing, denying its Christian foundation and chasing after other gods.  We are addicted to prosperity and will do whatever is necessary to have it.  In that time, the Lord raised up the son of Jehoioda, Zechariah (different from the prophet), who spoke truth to the people and tried to get them to repent but they chose instead to kill him to silence him.  His final cry is that the Lord would see what was being done and avenge his murder on the murderers.

Stephen is full of faith and the Holy Spirit.  The deacons were necessary in order that the apostles be devoted to prayer and the ministry of the word.  Deacons were to handle the distribution of food to the widows among the Christians.  All that being true, why was Stephen martyred?  He was martyred because he was full of grace and power and was doing great wonders and signs among the people and it aroused opposition.  His job may have been distribution of food but He was called also to greater things.  None of us can be defined simply by what we do for a living and there is no reason the one who serves in the most humble role cannot do great things, we have one Spirit.  Just as we were given Zechariah’s last words, so we also know Stephen’s as he was being stoned, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." Sound vaguely like, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."?

Good Christian men, rejoice, with heart and soul and voice;
Now ye need not fear the grave: Peace! Peace! Jesus Christ was born to save!
Calls you one and calls you all, to gain His everlasting hall.
Christ was born to save! Christ was born to save!

Tune

25 December 2011

Psalm 2, 85; Micah 4:1-5,5:2-4; 1 John 4:7-16; John 3:31-36

What a beautiful vision with which to begin the day!  There will be peace in Jerusalem and the Messiah will rule and reign.  No enemies shall trouble the people of God.  Do we long for that day with all our hearts?  The Lord, for whatever reason, chose Bethlehem as the place from which Messiah would come.  An unlikely place perhaps but also the place where David himself was from.  As we close out this year there has been unrest throughout that region in a never-ending stream this past year and it is difficult to sort out the meaning of all the change there.  We, however, have reason for confidence because of the Lord speaking to men like Micah in days of old concerning these things but we also have confidence because in this day the Lord speaks to people like us through the power of the Holy Spirit that He is sovereign over all things and that His plan is not endangered in any way.  He shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God. And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth.  There is nothing conditional about those words.

“Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”  In my lifetime at least we have focused on a conversion experience, a confession of belief and I understand that is truly important but it isn’t all.  What does it mean to believe?  Here and in many other places, belief and obedience are linked.  If we believe Jesus is the Son of God, uniquely so, of one being with the Father as the Creed says, then doesn’t He have a unique authority over our lives?  We have often reduced Jesus to a cosmic buddy who gets us out of a tough spot.  To believe in Him, who He is, is to accept all the authority that comes with that and our lives tell the tale about what we believe.  Let us rejoice in the fulfillment of the promise of eternal life but let us also commit ourselves to obedience.

As a first step in obedience, how about love one another.  The commands are not onerous but they aren’t natural either and they aren’t always easy to keep.  It isn’t always easy to love one another, it requires us to be forgiving and to always keep in mind that we always need to be forgiven.  God’s nature and His desire include forgiveness of sins, that was the motivation for Jesus coming, to serve as propitiating sacrifice.  He has not only shown us His nature, He has set within us the same Spirit that we might share His nature of lovingkindness.  He not only gave the command He enabled us to keep it.

Good Christian men, rejoice with heart and soul, and voice;

Give ye heed to what we say: News! News! Jesus Christ is born today;

Ox and ass before Him bow; and He is in the manger now.

Christ is born today! Christ is born today!

Good Christian men, rejoice, with heart and soul and voice;

Now ye hear of endless bliss: Joy! Joy! Jesus Christ was born for this!

He has opened the heavenly door, and man is blest forevermore.

Christ was born for this! Christ was born for this!

Tune

24 December 2011

Psalm 45, 46; Baruch 4:36-5:9; Gal. 3:23-4:7; Matt. 1:18-25

The vision Baruch has is incredibly beautiful and it sounds remarkably like the vision John had in Revelation 21 when the nations stream into Jerusalem.  Baruch sees Jews, exiles, those who have been scattered, returning to their true ancestral home and Jerusalem as the center of the universe.  He sees eternal glory for her and for the Jews but as Isaiah saw (Isaiah 49.6), "It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth."  Baruch’s vision was too small, not only the Jews but all the nations on earth and their kings shall bring their glory into Jerusalem.  We are called to believe and in our world today with missions all around the world, we can see a people being prepared to come to the new Jerusalem and share in her glory and her joy.

Joseph was a good man, he wasn’t going to make a big deal of publicly shaming Mary but he was simply going to put her away quietly, as though this never happened.  Even in this he was concerned less about his own honor than Mary’s.  What this tells us is that he didn’t believe Mary.  He was going to put her away because he believed there was another story about how she got pregnant.  It wasn’t until the angel appeared to him that he believed her story.  No one believed in a virgin birth, they weren’t ignorant of basic biology and the story didn’t fit with what they all knew to be reality.  In an incredibly simple way Matthew tells us that Jesus was born.  No fanfare, nothing.  But, as Zechariah told us, don’t despise the day of small things.

Through faith in Jesus we are heirs to the promise to Abraham.  We are Abraham’s children because we are like our father, we have faith.  We believe that the Lord can do abundantly more than we can ask or imagine and that in Jesus He has already done more than anyone could have imagined.  We can’t truly imagine what awaits us or how great a salvation we have received, it is beyond our capacity as humans to imagine the glory that awaits.  The wonderful gift we have been given isn’t limited to salvation, however, it includes the Spirit that cries “Abba, Father.”  We have intimacy of relationship with the Creator of all, we have been invited to immediacy and intimacy of being through the indwelling Spirit, we can abide in Him.  It is a thing of beauty and of wonder and awe.

The God of Abraham praise, who reigns enthroned above;
Ancient of everlasting days, and God of Love;
Jehovah, great I AM! by earth and Heav’n confessed;
I bow and bless the sacred Name forever blessed.

The whole triumphant host give thanks to God on high;
“Hail, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,” they ever cry.
Hail, Abraham’s God, and mine! (I join the heav’nly lays,)
All might and majesty are Thine, and endless praise.

Tune

23 December 2011

Psalm 93, 96; Baruch 4:21-29; Gal. 3:15-22; Luke 1:67-80

The people are encouraged to take courage and cry out to God and that if they do He will hear them and act on their behalf.  They are called to faith, even in the midst of apostasy and difficulty due to their own sins.  On what basis can the writer be certain that the Lord will hear sinners?  In 2 Chronicles 7 after the dedication of the temple, the Lord appeared to Solomon in the night and promised that, “if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”  This was an answer to Solomon’s prayer of dedication of the temple that the Lord would do exactly this, that if, by reason of their sin, find themselves exiles and then repent and turn from sin to God and pray towards the temple, He would hear and forgive, no matter where they were.  Because the Lord has promised we too can know that if we repent and pray He will hear, remember and act.  He has already done so in Jesus.

Yesterday we read that Zechariah blessed the Lord, today we are given the words with which he blessed the Lord and prophesied.  He believes that the Lord has visited and redeemed His people and yet what is the evidence of that visitation and redemption?  He praises the Lord for setting His people free and delivering them from their enemies, set them free to worship, obey and serve Him, but has anything actually happened?  For Zechariah it has, he and Elizabeth have seen a miracle of biology.  They have conceived and brought forth a child according to the promise of God and in this child Zechariah sees the fulfillment of all the promises of God and yet we know that this child will be killed by his enemies and the nation will continue to struggle under the rule of Rome and the Messiah Himself will be crucified.  We don’t know if Zechariah believed all this would be accomplished in John’s life, but we do know that it will indeed be accomplished in the end.  Can we praise as he did, as if the promise is already fulfilled?

There is a promise and there is a law.  How do we reconcile a promise that seems to be conditional upon obedience?  Is it a conditional promise or is there something else that we can’t immediately see?  Is the covenant everlasting or is it conditioned on obedience?  These are all serious questions and the Jews had already decided that the covenant was contingent in some ways and not so in others.  To enjoy fully the covenant promises and blessings of God required them to be obedient to the law but the covenant itself was in place forever without respect to the law, they would always be God’s people whether they enjoyed the blessings or not.  The “forever” portion of the covenant awaited true righteousness, the righteousness of Jesus which secured entry into the covenant for those who, like Abraham, believed, had faith.  The law simply pointed to the need for grace always.  Grace is truly amazing.

Amazing grace! How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found;
Was blind, but now I see.

’Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,

And grace my fears relieved;

How precious did that grace appear

The hour I first believed!

Through many dangers, toils and snares,

I have already come;

’Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far,

And grace will lead me home.

22 December 2011

Psalm 80; 2 Samuel 7:18-29; Gal. 3:1-14; Luke 1:57-66

David is praising God for two things, all that HE has done and all that HE has promised to do.  David, like Abraham, believed God.  That belief led to extravagant praise, he was so certain God would do what He promised that David praised as if it had already happened.  That should be our attitude towards eternal life, living this life in praise and anxious anticipation, as though it has already been fulfilled, recognizing that the allure of this life is passing.  David ascribes greatness to the Lord because he completely believes the word of promise.  The kingdom is the Lord’s kingdom and the people are His people, not David’s.  The Lord has redeemed them and blessed them and David now asks that blessing to be forever, according to the promise.  Do we pray for the church in this same way?

Yet another sign is given concerning John, confirming the word spoken by the angel concerning John’s mission as being that of fulfillment of the promise through Malachi.  It seems nonsense that they would name the child John, there is no familial connection to this name and yet when Zechariah writes on the tablet his tongue is set free and how does he use his newfound freedom?  His mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he spoke, blessing God.  His last words prior to this were words of doubt concerning God’s ability to do something and now that it has been done his response is praise.  We need to see the connection and understand that we are to be like David, lavish and quick in praise when God makes a promise.  The response of the people was, we better pay attention to this child, something’s up.

It is all about grace and it is all about faith.  As David noted, God redeemed His people and the response to that is worship and obedience.  The response to His promise is to believe because He is both able to do whatever He promises and faithful to do as He promises.  Paul here speaks to the Galatian church concerning justification, how were they justified before the Lord.  The only way sinful humanity can be pronounced righteous before the Lord, guilt cleared, is by grace, God’s choice to forgive based on the sacrifice of His Son.  No one can stand before Him and claim to be righteous, it must be a gift.  We live because of faith in the Son’s righteousness based in His resurrection from the dead.  In the resurrection we know that His sacrifice was acceptable to God and not only for Himself but for those who, like Abraham and David, believe. 

Angels, help us to adore him;
ye behold him face to face;
sun and moon, bow down before him,
dwellers all in time and space.
Alleluia, alleluia!
Praise with us the God of grace.

Tune