[Verse-by-Verse Comments, continued]
14But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say.
(1) This demonstrates the power of the Holy Spirit. Just seven-plus weeks before, Peter denied even knowing Jesus. Now, in spite of the implicit danger of being associated with Jesus, Who was executed, Peter stands up to give witness to his faith in Christ.
15Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o”clock in the morning.
(1) Peter evidences having done the very first thing any witness for Christ must do. He listened. His words come in response to the questions and accusations of the crowd in Jerusalem.
(2) Peter is arguing that it's way too early for all these people to be drunk; the taverns aren't even open yet!
16No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel: 17‘In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. 18Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy. 19And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist. 20The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day.
(1) Another thing a witness for Christ must do is connect God's story with my story and your story. By knowing the Bible, Peter knows God's story.
(2) Peter is saying that there is a different explanation for this strange phenomenon. Simply, God's Holy Spirit has come to Jesus' believers, empowering them to witness for Christ.
(3) To prophesy, in Biblical terms, is to share God's truth.
21Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’
(1) In its way, this passage, lifted from the Old Testament prophet Joel, is "the Gospel in a nutshell." Gospel is the Old English translation of the New Testament Greek term, evangel, meaning good news. Christians have good news to share: God is for the human race. All who seek help and forgiveness from the God we meet in Jesus Christ will be saved from sin and death and have fellowship with God forever.
Thursday, May 24, 2007
'The New Monastics'
An intriguing interview by Krista Tippett with Shane Claiborne. I don't necessarily agree with everything Claiborne says, but he does present important things for us to consider.
Please Pray...
for the parents of blogger John Schroeder. They were involved in an automobile accident.
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Second Pass at This Weekend's Bible Lesson: Acts 2:1-21
Verse-by-Verse Comments:
1When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.
(1) Were these first Christians afraid? Probably. Were they praying? No doubt. But they were also doing what the risen Jesus told them to do just before He ascended to heaven: waiting for the promised Holy Spirit. Faith often involves patient waiting.
2And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.
(1) In Old Testament Hebrew, there is a word (ruach) which can be translated as wind, breath, or spirit. A similar word exists in New Testament Greek, pneuma. It's God's ruach that bears down upon the watery chaos in Genesis 1 and brings life into being. God also breathes ruach into Adam to give the first man life. Here, the very life-giving breath of God breathes His Church, the fellowship of believers committed to Christ's mission for it, into being.
(2) Luke, the writer of Acts, is at pains to point out that this wasn't some gentle little breeze. The Holy Spirit came into the place where the first Jesus-Followers were gathered "like the rush of a violent wind." The Spirit filled the entire house...there was no escaping God for the believers who were there!
3Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. 4All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
(1) This is different from the gift of tongues which the New Testament talks about elsewhere. As Paul makes clear in 1 Corinthians 14, that's a worship language which God gives to some Christians as a means of building up the church internally. The Holy Spirit is given to every believer in Christ. It's the Spirit Who makes it possible for once-fearful followers of Christ like Peter to share the good news of new life for all with faith in Jesus with boldness and humility.
(2) See yesterday's pass, in which I talk about how, in some respects, this event is a reversal of what happened in the Old Testament city of Babel.
5Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem.
(1) They were in Jerusalem, the center of worship for God's ancient people, as explained here.
6And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each.
(1) The crowds didn't hear a strange language, as would have been the case if the first Christians were speaking "in tongues." They heard intelligible accounts of God's mighty acts in their own native languages, the ones they spoke in their dispersed homelands.
7Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? 9Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 11Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.”
(1) How is it possible, the crowd wonders, for these Galileans to speak in their languages? This really is the miracle of Pentecost: God empowers the first Christians to share the Good News in accessible ways!
12All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” 13But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”
(1) People always try to explain away the miraculous intervention of God in human life, including Jesus' resurrection. Even religious folks do that. In Old Testament times, a devout woman begged God for a child. Overcome with emotion, the priest thought she was drunk. But she wasn't drunk and God gave her a child destined to be one of the great figures in Israel's history, Samuel.
[More tomorrow, I hope.]
1When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.
(1) Were these first Christians afraid? Probably. Were they praying? No doubt. But they were also doing what the risen Jesus told them to do just before He ascended to heaven: waiting for the promised Holy Spirit. Faith often involves patient waiting.
2And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.
(1) In Old Testament Hebrew, there is a word (ruach) which can be translated as wind, breath, or spirit. A similar word exists in New Testament Greek, pneuma. It's God's ruach that bears down upon the watery chaos in Genesis 1 and brings life into being. God also breathes ruach into Adam to give the first man life. Here, the very life-giving breath of God breathes His Church, the fellowship of believers committed to Christ's mission for it, into being.
(2) Luke, the writer of Acts, is at pains to point out that this wasn't some gentle little breeze. The Holy Spirit came into the place where the first Jesus-Followers were gathered "like the rush of a violent wind." The Spirit filled the entire house...there was no escaping God for the believers who were there!
3Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. 4All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
(1) This is different from the gift of tongues which the New Testament talks about elsewhere. As Paul makes clear in 1 Corinthians 14, that's a worship language which God gives to some Christians as a means of building up the church internally. The Holy Spirit is given to every believer in Christ. It's the Spirit Who makes it possible for once-fearful followers of Christ like Peter to share the good news of new life for all with faith in Jesus with boldness and humility.
(2) See yesterday's pass, in which I talk about how, in some respects, this event is a reversal of what happened in the Old Testament city of Babel.
5Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem.
(1) They were in Jerusalem, the center of worship for God's ancient people, as explained here.
6And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each.
(1) The crowds didn't hear a strange language, as would have been the case if the first Christians were speaking "in tongues." They heard intelligible accounts of God's mighty acts in their own native languages, the ones they spoke in their dispersed homelands.
7Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? 9Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 11Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.”
(1) How is it possible, the crowd wonders, for these Galileans to speak in their languages? This really is the miracle of Pentecost: God empowers the first Christians to share the Good News in accessible ways!
12All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” 13But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”
(1) People always try to explain away the miraculous intervention of God in human life, including Jesus' resurrection. Even religious folks do that. In Old Testament times, a devout woman begged God for a child. Overcome with emotion, the priest thought she was drunk. But she wasn't drunk and God gave her a child destined to be one of the great figures in Israel's history, Samuel.
[More tomorrow, I hope.]
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
First Pass at This Weekend's Bible Lesson: Acts 2:1-21
[Most weeks, I present as many updates on my reflections and study of the Biblical texts on which our weekend worship celebrations will be built as I can. The purpose is to help the people of the congregation I serve as pastor, Friendship Lutheran Church of Amelia, Ohio, get ready for worship. Most weeks, I hope, it's helpful to others as well, since our Bible lesson is usually one from the weekly lectionary, variations of which are used in most of the churches of the world. But, beginning Sunday, June 3, and continuing into October, I'll be doing a series of topical messages. Watch for those.]
The Bible Lesson: Acts 2:1-21
1When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. 4All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
5Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. 6And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. 7Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? 9Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 11Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.” 12All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” 13But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”
14But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. 15Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o”clock in the morning. 16No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel: 17‘In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. 18Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy. 19And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist. 20The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day. 21Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’
General Comments:
1. Pentecost already was a festival on calendar of pious Jews. It was a harvest festival, falling fifty days after the Sabbath of Passover week. For more, see here. On the Christian calendar, Pentecost is one of the three great festivals of the Church Year, along with Christmas and Easter. The first Christian Pentecost happened fifty days after the first Easter and ten days after the risen Jesus ascended to heaven.
2. The they mentioned in verse 1 are presumably the group of 120 Christ-Followers mentioned in 1:15.
3. The events of Pentecost fulfill the promise Jesus made in 1:8, that He would send the Holy Spirit, Who would make it possible for them to boldly witness for God in spite of their fears. The gift of the Spirit would also fulfill Old Testament prophecy, Peter points out. We'll discuss that more in the verse-by-verse comments.
4. The events of Pentecost, in a way, reverse the conclusion of the Old Testament story of the Tower of Babel. There, filled with arrogance, the people of a city called Babel, decided to build a tower which, they thought, would make them as great as God. To save from themselves, God confused them by causing them to speak different languages. Their inability to communicate made working together impossible and soon, worked stopped and the people moved in every direction, establishing their own countries and customs. (For more, see here.)
Through the events of the first Christian Pentecost, the Holy Spirit made it possible for followers of Jesus Christ to communicate in ways that were understandable to the varied representatives of the Jewish disaspora gathered in Jerusalem for the festival. Instead of using their communication skills to glorify themselves, the first believers went around, "speaking about God’s deeds of power.”
5. The first Christian Pentecost introduces what might be called "the era of the Holy Spirit." The Spirit is the third Person of the Trinity and has always been present from eternity. But in the era in which we live now, it's the Holy Spirit who makes faith possible and who gave birth to the community through which God speaks to the world today, the Church. (For more see here and here.)
More tomorrow, I hope.
The Bible Lesson: Acts 2:1-21
1When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. 4All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
5Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. 6And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. 7Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? 9Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 11Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.” 12All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” 13But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”
14But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. 15Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o”clock in the morning. 16No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel: 17‘In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. 18Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy. 19And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist. 20The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day. 21Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’
General Comments:
1. Pentecost already was a festival on calendar of pious Jews. It was a harvest festival, falling fifty days after the Sabbath of Passover week. For more, see here. On the Christian calendar, Pentecost is one of the three great festivals of the Church Year, along with Christmas and Easter. The first Christian Pentecost happened fifty days after the first Easter and ten days after the risen Jesus ascended to heaven.
2. The they mentioned in verse 1 are presumably the group of 120 Christ-Followers mentioned in 1:15.
3. The events of Pentecost fulfill the promise Jesus made in 1:8, that He would send the Holy Spirit, Who would make it possible for them to boldly witness for God in spite of their fears. The gift of the Spirit would also fulfill Old Testament prophecy, Peter points out. We'll discuss that more in the verse-by-verse comments.
4. The events of Pentecost, in a way, reverse the conclusion of the Old Testament story of the Tower of Babel. There, filled with arrogance, the people of a city called Babel, decided to build a tower which, they thought, would make them as great as God. To save from themselves, God confused them by causing them to speak different languages. Their inability to communicate made working together impossible and soon, worked stopped and the people moved in every direction, establishing their own countries and customs. (For more, see here.)
Through the events of the first Christian Pentecost, the Holy Spirit made it possible for followers of Jesus Christ to communicate in ways that were understandable to the varied representatives of the Jewish disaspora gathered in Jerusalem for the festival. Instead of using their communication skills to glorify themselves, the first believers went around, "speaking about God’s deeds of power.”
5. The first Christian Pentecost introduces what might be called "the era of the Holy Spirit." The Spirit is the third Person of the Trinity and has always been present from eternity. But in the era in which we live now, it's the Holy Spirit who makes faith possible and who gave birth to the community through which God speaks to the world today, the Church. (For more see here and here.)
More tomorrow, I hope.
Monday, May 21, 2007
When Asking Becomes Easier...for Some People Anyway
From James Traub's profile of Al Gore, which appeared in yesterday's New York Times:
It's possible that this same complex of desires once hampered Gore's willingness to go to potential backers and ask for money for his campaign. When I myself ran for the Ohio House of Representatives, it felt terribly self-centered to ask people I know and care about to donate money to my campaign. And I know at least one successful politician who has told me privately about how horrified he is by the amount of money required to get elected. "If that money could be given to charity, Mark," he told me once, "it could do a lot of good."
For me to ask for money, material aid, or volunteer help for the church I pastor, for the local Boys and Girls Club on whose board I serve, for CASA for Clermont Kids!, an agency that advocates for foster children, for the Clermont County Board of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities, or for our area Habitat for Humanity isn't difficult for me at all. It doesn't feel selfish to ask for help for any of these organizations.
And though, as a Christian, I believe that God wants people to ask Him for help and to live in caring relationships with others in which it's possible for us to ask for help from others, I still find it tough to ask people to help me personally.
Maybe Al Gore, the one-time seminary student whose speeches can resemble sermons at revival meetings, deals with a similar complex of emotions and motives. Gore believes that global warming is destroying the planet and that he can influence people to do something about it. If that belief is authentic, it may be a whole lot easier for Al Gore to ask people to make out a check to an environmental group than to the Al Gore campaign.
Of course, we all act out of a complex of motives. Al Gore wouldn't be the first pol to attempt to use a cause to vault himself into contention for the presidency. In 1966, Richard Nixon campaigned, selflessly it seemed, for Republican congresional candidates across the country. When his once-moribund party scored big wins that November, the once-moribund career of Richard Nixon was revived. He went on to win the White House in 1968.
Given people's general disgust with politics, it may be the height of shrewdness for Al Gore to immerse himself in an environmental issue, to be a passionate leader for a cause that is increasingly becoming important to millions of Americans. This has been done before, too. When millionaire mining engineer Herbert Hoover laid aside the acquisition of wealth that had occupied him for something like forty years, he took on the feeding and re-clothing of Europe following World War 1, spearheading a major charitable effort that won him credit both for his philanthropy and his leadership acumen. (This is ironic in light of his largely deer-in-the-headlights reaction to the Great Depression during his White House tenure.) Lauded for his efforts in Europe, Hoover became Secretary of Commerce and, some said, "Under Secretary of Everything Else" during the Harding and Coolidge years. Hoover's involvement with a cause bigger than himself led him to the presidency.
Al Gore may really be thinking about presidential politics as he seeks support in his global warming campaign. Or it may be that he's found a cause he believes in even more than he believes in Al Gore.
One of his longtime political supporters watched in amazement as Gore badgered Kevin Wall, the rock promoter, into working with the Alliance for Climate Protection. Here was a man who as a presidential candidate could barely ask anyone for a dollar, much less browbeat them. “It was a total behavioral change,” says this old ally. “It was just shocking.”Maybe not. I personally have never been comfortable with asking for things for myself. Part of my reticence is no doubt neurotic, a nagging feeling that what I may want is selfish. Another piece of my hesitation about asking for help is also pride, a damning unwillingness to admit that I need others. But a good part of it is that in a spiritually and psychologically healthy way, I really don't want to be selfish.
It's possible that this same complex of desires once hampered Gore's willingness to go to potential backers and ask for money for his campaign. When I myself ran for the Ohio House of Representatives, it felt terribly self-centered to ask people I know and care about to donate money to my campaign. And I know at least one successful politician who has told me privately about how horrified he is by the amount of money required to get elected. "If that money could be given to charity, Mark," he told me once, "it could do a lot of good."
For me to ask for money, material aid, or volunteer help for the church I pastor, for the local Boys and Girls Club on whose board I serve, for CASA for Clermont Kids!, an agency that advocates for foster children, for the Clermont County Board of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities, or for our area Habitat for Humanity isn't difficult for me at all. It doesn't feel selfish to ask for help for any of these organizations.
And though, as a Christian, I believe that God wants people to ask Him for help and to live in caring relationships with others in which it's possible for us to ask for help from others, I still find it tough to ask people to help me personally.
Maybe Al Gore, the one-time seminary student whose speeches can resemble sermons at revival meetings, deals with a similar complex of emotions and motives. Gore believes that global warming is destroying the planet and that he can influence people to do something about it. If that belief is authentic, it may be a whole lot easier for Al Gore to ask people to make out a check to an environmental group than to the Al Gore campaign.
Of course, we all act out of a complex of motives. Al Gore wouldn't be the first pol to attempt to use a cause to vault himself into contention for the presidency. In 1966, Richard Nixon campaigned, selflessly it seemed, for Republican congresional candidates across the country. When his once-moribund party scored big wins that November, the once-moribund career of Richard Nixon was revived. He went on to win the White House in 1968.
Given people's general disgust with politics, it may be the height of shrewdness for Al Gore to immerse himself in an environmental issue, to be a passionate leader for a cause that is increasingly becoming important to millions of Americans. This has been done before, too. When millionaire mining engineer Herbert Hoover laid aside the acquisition of wealth that had occupied him for something like forty years, he took on the feeding and re-clothing of Europe following World War 1, spearheading a major charitable effort that won him credit both for his philanthropy and his leadership acumen. (This is ironic in light of his largely deer-in-the-headlights reaction to the Great Depression during his White House tenure.) Lauded for his efforts in Europe, Hoover became Secretary of Commerce and, some said, "Under Secretary of Everything Else" during the Harding and Coolidge years. Hoover's involvement with a cause bigger than himself led him to the presidency.
Al Gore may really be thinking about presidential politics as he seeks support in his global warming campaign. Or it may be that he's found a cause he believes in even more than he believes in Al Gore.
Sunday, May 20, 2007
Famous Last Words
[This message was shared during worship with the people of Friendship Lutheran Church and their guests on May 20, 2007. Megan and Shane are two young people who were confirmed during today's worship celebration.]
Revelation 22:12-21
Last words, whether in a will or from the dying or in other contexts are important to us. One woman’s last words from her deathbed were both scolding and funny. She turned to her husband and said, “I told you I was sick!”
And many of you have heard me tell the true story of the retired pastor, seemingly no longer able to hear or speak as he slipped toward death. The nurse at the nursing home where he lay knew his favorite song. So, she began to sing it to him: “Jesus loves me, This I know, For the Bible tells me so.” I heard that very nurse tell what happened next. That pastor popped up from his bed to say, “And don’t you ever forget it either.” He then fell back on the bed and died. Great last words!
Often the last words of a book explain everything that has come before it and give us understanding for the future. The words of our Bible lesson for today are the very last words in the Bible. And they both explain a lot and give us hope for our future!
Pastor John Jewell has identified three great truths in these words and since the Eleventh Commandment for all preachers is, “Thou shalt steal good ideas...as long as you give credit where credit is due,” I want to put my own spin on these three truths.
Truth Number One: God is in charge. Megan and Shane, as you begin your life as adult followers of Jesus Christ today, this may be the most important thing for you to realize. No matter what happens in the world. No matter what happens in your lives. No matter how crazy things may sometimes get. God is in charge.
As He does at other places in Revelation, Jesus includes in the last words of this book of the Bible His claim: “I am the Alpha and the Omega.” Using the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet in which the New Testament is written, Jesus says, “I’m the One Who got everything started. And when I draw the curtain on the life of this world and bring in the new heaven, the new earth, and the new city of God, I’ll still be in charge.”
Sherri Conley and her family learned for sure that God is in charge back in 1999, when a tornado ripped through their Oklahoma community. “We said a prayer that God would watch over us,” she told The Daily Oklahoman newspaper. That’s what Sherri and her family did as they huddled in their hallway linen closet for protection. After the storm had passed, they discovered that the closet was the only thing left of their entire house.
Of course, God being in charge doesn’t always mean that everything will go the way we want it to. Praying people are sometimes swept away by tornados, tsunamis, and the tragedies of life. The pastor who presided at my uncle’s funeral on Thursday said that my uncle wanted to confess his sins and his faith in Jesus Christ when the pastor visited him. That didn’t take my uncle’s pancreatic cancer away. But it did mean that when he died, the God Who is in charge was waiting for him. If you will persevere in your life with Christ, Shane and Megan, you can live each day with the assurance that Christ is waiting for you, too!
The second truth in the last words of the Bible is this: Christ has a gift for all who want it. The gift is life with God, now and forever.
Early in our passage, Jesus says, “My reward is with me, to repay according to everyone’s work.” And what is our work? It’s to listen to Jesus’ call to turn away or repent for our sins and to believe in only Him. That’s what Jesus means when He says, “Blessed are those who wash their robes [blessed are those, in other words, bleached clean by Christ’s blood, shed on the cross] so that they ...may enter the city [the new Jerusalem] by the gates.”
And describing the new life He gives as “living water” that can refresh us and renew us for all eternity, Jesus says, “Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift.”
Megan and Shane today have affirmed that they want to live in the covenant God made with them when they were baptized. They want Him to be their God and they want to take the gift of new life offered to everyone through Jesus Christ! In our lesson today, Jesus is saying that all they have to do--all any of us has to do--is take it. Take God’s gifts. Let Him love you. That’s it!
The third truth in the Bible’s last words is this: It won't be long. It won’t be long until this life or the life of this world come to an end. But what does that mean exactly?
In an old joke, a man has a conversation with God. “Tell me, Lord,” he says, “is it true that in your eyes a million years is like a second and million dollars is like a penny?” “Yes,” the Lord answers. “That’s true.” “In that case, Lord, could you give me a penny?” The Lord says, “Just a second.”
When I was a child my birthdays only came around once a year. Now they come every single year! Just as the picture of time varies between children and adults, so does God’s picture of time differ from all of our understandings. When Jesus says, as He does to us today, “See, I am coming soon...” and “Surely I am coming soon,” we have to remember that, as Peter tells us in the New Testament, “with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day.”
There will be times in your life, Megan and Shane, when you’ll pray and pray and pray and wonder what God is doing. What is the holdup? God always answers prayers sincerely brought to Him in Jesus’ Name. But His answers aren’t always, “Yes.” Sometimes Gode says, “No.” And sometimes He tells us, “Maybe” or “Wait.” In my own life, I’ve had things for which I’ve prayed literally for decades and then, seen God answer them with a Yes that’s been stunning and totally unexpected! When God seems to put off His answers to our prayers, it’s because He’s waiting for the right time to do the right thing in the right way for us. Often, He makes us wait because it’s only when we do wait that we realize that the good things that come our way are really from Him, the God in charge Who loves to hand us His free gifts, and not because of anything we’ve done.
I hear some Christians say that they wonder why Jesus is waiting so long to come back into this world and usher in the new world in which all who believe in Him will live. They think that this old world is in worse shape than it ever has been before. Surely, Jesus needs to return before things get any more terrible, they think.
I have two responses to that. First of all, there are some ways in which this world is worse than it has been before. But in many other ways, it’s much better. When I was growing up, there were no seatbelts or airbags in cars and trucks. There was lead in paint and asbestos in public schools. There were no Amber Alerts. Racism and ethnic stereotyping, surely horrible sins, were widely accepted. And girls were made to feel that they shouldn’t aspire to use their God-given talents in the professions. I think that, at least in our little corner of the world, things are better in these and many other ways. When Adam and Eve, our first parents, plunged the human race into the cesspool of sin, the fall was complete. There are no new sins. But some sins go in and out of style. Don’t let the sins that people specialize in today make you think that the world is worse off today than it was when Jesus walked the earth.
But, here’s the real reason I think that Jesus is waiting to return: He’s giving those of us in the Church time to do our mission.
And our mission is simple...
I ask all members of Friendship to make it a personal goal to ask at least one spiritually-disconnected person to come to a Friendship activity each month for the rest of the year.
We all have our parts to play in Christ’s mission for His church and we all can be excited that at least five new households are about to go through the new members’ class, Friendship 101.
Jesus says that in His eyes, it won’t be long before He returns. However long that is in our eyes, our job is to invite as many people into eternity with us as we can.
I hope that you’ll make that your mission, Shane and Megan. I hope that we all will.
The Bible’s last words for us are simple and important:
[THANKS TO: John Schroeder of Blogotional for linking to this sermon. Whatever good is in my sermons is from God. It's nonetheless reassuring to know that someone like John finds something of God in this message. Thank you, John.]
Revelation 22:12-21
Last words, whether in a will or from the dying or in other contexts are important to us. One woman’s last words from her deathbed were both scolding and funny. She turned to her husband and said, “I told you I was sick!”
And many of you have heard me tell the true story of the retired pastor, seemingly no longer able to hear or speak as he slipped toward death. The nurse at the nursing home where he lay knew his favorite song. So, she began to sing it to him: “Jesus loves me, This I know, For the Bible tells me so.” I heard that very nurse tell what happened next. That pastor popped up from his bed to say, “And don’t you ever forget it either.” He then fell back on the bed and died. Great last words!
Often the last words of a book explain everything that has come before it and give us understanding for the future. The words of our Bible lesson for today are the very last words in the Bible. And they both explain a lot and give us hope for our future!
Pastor John Jewell has identified three great truths in these words and since the Eleventh Commandment for all preachers is, “Thou shalt steal good ideas...as long as you give credit where credit is due,” I want to put my own spin on these three truths.
Truth Number One: God is in charge. Megan and Shane, as you begin your life as adult followers of Jesus Christ today, this may be the most important thing for you to realize. No matter what happens in the world. No matter what happens in your lives. No matter how crazy things may sometimes get. God is in charge.
As He does at other places in Revelation, Jesus includes in the last words of this book of the Bible His claim: “I am the Alpha and the Omega.” Using the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet in which the New Testament is written, Jesus says, “I’m the One Who got everything started. And when I draw the curtain on the life of this world and bring in the new heaven, the new earth, and the new city of God, I’ll still be in charge.”
Sherri Conley and her family learned for sure that God is in charge back in 1999, when a tornado ripped through their Oklahoma community. “We said a prayer that God would watch over us,” she told The Daily Oklahoman newspaper. That’s what Sherri and her family did as they huddled in their hallway linen closet for protection. After the storm had passed, they discovered that the closet was the only thing left of their entire house.
Of course, God being in charge doesn’t always mean that everything will go the way we want it to. Praying people are sometimes swept away by tornados, tsunamis, and the tragedies of life. The pastor who presided at my uncle’s funeral on Thursday said that my uncle wanted to confess his sins and his faith in Jesus Christ when the pastor visited him. That didn’t take my uncle’s pancreatic cancer away. But it did mean that when he died, the God Who is in charge was waiting for him. If you will persevere in your life with Christ, Shane and Megan, you can live each day with the assurance that Christ is waiting for you, too!
The second truth in the last words of the Bible is this: Christ has a gift for all who want it. The gift is life with God, now and forever.
Early in our passage, Jesus says, “My reward is with me, to repay according to everyone’s work.” And what is our work? It’s to listen to Jesus’ call to turn away or repent for our sins and to believe in only Him. That’s what Jesus means when He says, “Blessed are those who wash their robes [blessed are those, in other words, bleached clean by Christ’s blood, shed on the cross] so that they ...may enter the city [the new Jerusalem] by the gates.”
And describing the new life He gives as “living water” that can refresh us and renew us for all eternity, Jesus says, “Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift.”
Megan and Shane today have affirmed that they want to live in the covenant God made with them when they were baptized. They want Him to be their God and they want to take the gift of new life offered to everyone through Jesus Christ! In our lesson today, Jesus is saying that all they have to do--all any of us has to do--is take it. Take God’s gifts. Let Him love you. That’s it!
The third truth in the Bible’s last words is this: It won't be long. It won’t be long until this life or the life of this world come to an end. But what does that mean exactly?
In an old joke, a man has a conversation with God. “Tell me, Lord,” he says, “is it true that in your eyes a million years is like a second and million dollars is like a penny?” “Yes,” the Lord answers. “That’s true.” “In that case, Lord, could you give me a penny?” The Lord says, “Just a second.”
When I was a child my birthdays only came around once a year. Now they come every single year! Just as the picture of time varies between children and adults, so does God’s picture of time differ from all of our understandings. When Jesus says, as He does to us today, “See, I am coming soon...” and “Surely I am coming soon,” we have to remember that, as Peter tells us in the New Testament, “with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day.”
There will be times in your life, Megan and Shane, when you’ll pray and pray and pray and wonder what God is doing. What is the holdup? God always answers prayers sincerely brought to Him in Jesus’ Name. But His answers aren’t always, “Yes.” Sometimes Gode says, “No.” And sometimes He tells us, “Maybe” or “Wait.” In my own life, I’ve had things for which I’ve prayed literally for decades and then, seen God answer them with a Yes that’s been stunning and totally unexpected! When God seems to put off His answers to our prayers, it’s because He’s waiting for the right time to do the right thing in the right way for us. Often, He makes us wait because it’s only when we do wait that we realize that the good things that come our way are really from Him, the God in charge Who loves to hand us His free gifts, and not because of anything we’ve done.
I hear some Christians say that they wonder why Jesus is waiting so long to come back into this world and usher in the new world in which all who believe in Him will live. They think that this old world is in worse shape than it ever has been before. Surely, Jesus needs to return before things get any more terrible, they think.
I have two responses to that. First of all, there are some ways in which this world is worse than it has been before. But in many other ways, it’s much better. When I was growing up, there were no seatbelts or airbags in cars and trucks. There was lead in paint and asbestos in public schools. There were no Amber Alerts. Racism and ethnic stereotyping, surely horrible sins, were widely accepted. And girls were made to feel that they shouldn’t aspire to use their God-given talents in the professions. I think that, at least in our little corner of the world, things are better in these and many other ways. When Adam and Eve, our first parents, plunged the human race into the cesspool of sin, the fall was complete. There are no new sins. But some sins go in and out of style. Don’t let the sins that people specialize in today make you think that the world is worse off today than it was when Jesus walked the earth.
But, here’s the real reason I think that Jesus is waiting to return: He’s giving those of us in the Church time to do our mission.
And our mission is simple...
- We’re to make disciples.
- We’re to tell others about Jesus Christ.
- We’re to invite them to come and see our Savior Jesus active in our church.
- We’re to invite them to worship with us and to follow Jesus with us.
I ask all members of Friendship to make it a personal goal to ask at least one spiritually-disconnected person to come to a Friendship activity each month for the rest of the year.
We all have our parts to play in Christ’s mission for His church and we all can be excited that at least five new households are about to go through the new members’ class, Friendship 101.
Jesus says that in His eyes, it won’t be long before He returns. However long that is in our eyes, our job is to invite as many people into eternity with us as we can.
I hope that you’ll make that your mission, Shane and Megan. I hope that we all will.
The Bible’s last words for us are simple and important:
- God is in charge.
- Christ has a gift of life for all who want it.
- And He will return.
[THANKS TO: John Schroeder of Blogotional for linking to this sermon. Whatever good is in my sermons is from God. It's nonetheless reassuring to know that someone like John finds something of God in this message. Thank you, John.]
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Thoughts on Immigration
As the Senate prepares to consider its compromise legislation on immigration, it seems like a good time to once more link to a series I did last year:
How Christians Might Think About the Immigration Issue: Part 1
How Christians Might Think About the Immigration Issue: Part 2
How Christians Might Think About the Immigration Issue: Part 3
A Few Final Thoughts: How Christians Might Think About the Immigration Issue: Part 4
Friday, May 18, 2007
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Reflections on Two Wonderful Lives
I attended the funeral of my Uncle Bob (not his real name) today. He was the husband of my father's youngest sister, Sue (not her real name). Bob wasn't yet seventy when pancreatic cancer took him. Bob and Sue were high school sweethearts, both a decade-and-a-half older than me.
When they were married, I was there and I vividly remember Bob emerging from a doorway on the side of the church sanctuary to wait for his bride to process down the aisle. The reception was at my grandparents' home. There, I shook Bob's hand numerous times, thinking myself very grown-up for giving him my congratulations. I guess I thought that the more I did it, the more grown-up I was.
My aunt and uncle settled into the small home they purchased just one month before their wedding. After the births of my cousins, they made a modest addition to the place, doubling its size. Later, there would be a garage. But, they've stayed in the same place for nearly fifty years.
In fact, they've lived their whole lives in a small Ohio town. Bob worked for only two employers his entire working life. His passions were few: his wife, his kids, his grandkids, golf, fishing, and mushrooming. He had no enemies and, as the attendance at today's funeral demonstrated, he had lots of friends of all races and creeds.
Some may consider his stability boring. But as I considered it and the impact his life has had on others' lives, another word came to mind: inspiring!
Both he and my aunt have always been unfailingly kind to others, but never in ways that called attention to themselves. Bob's eulogist today commented that whenever snow covered the sidewalks on my uncle's lengthy street, Bob pulled out his snowblowers and proceeded to dig out every one of his neighbors' homes.
And today, after the funeral, when family and friends gathered at the small and wonderfully overcrowded house, Aunt Sue did as she's always done...seen to it that everyone had coffee and food. She made sure that they felt welcomed and she thanked everyone for coming. Just like her mother, my grandmother, who was the chief cook in my grandfather's restaurants, my aunt has a servant's heart.
To tell you the truth, the whole experience chastened me a bit. As a preacher, I talk an awful lot about things like neighborliness, love, and servanthood. But I know few of my neighbors in this development, where I've lived for seventeen years. And I spend entirely too much of my time being concerned about other people's impressions of me, rather than concerning myself with what I might do for others. Worse than that maybe, I've always been concerned with what's over the next horizon, instead of living in the now moments and the here places of my life.
My aunt and uncle have never made that mistake and I'm sure that they've been happy for it. And even today, though I know that the grief will at times be almost unbearable for her, I feel sure that my aunt will be happy once more...living and loving and serving among the same people she's lived with, loved, and served all these years.
I'm too tired and lazy to look it up right now, but I remember that in an interview appearing in Leadership magazine some years ago, Eugene Peterson said that his goal as a pastor had never been to jump from one church to another. Instead, he wanted, he said, to stay in one place and keep loving it and loving its people and learning to love it all more and more.
As I drove across Ohio today, passing two of its largest cities, numerous small towns, farms just sprouting with the new crops of spring, and the state's varied topography, I asked myself if I could ever imagine or ever wanting to live anywhere else? Or, would I want to go to some other community? No was the answer I had to both questions.
As long as God wants me to be here, this is the state where I want to live and the community in which I live is the place I want to stay and keep loving it and loving its people and learning to love it all more and more. This lifestyle of staying in one place worked for my uncle and my aunt. Maybe if I learn to be half the servants they've been all these years, I can be a more useful person. And maybe if I let His love show in my life, I'll let my neighbors see just how much God loves them.
When they were married, I was there and I vividly remember Bob emerging from a doorway on the side of the church sanctuary to wait for his bride to process down the aisle. The reception was at my grandparents' home. There, I shook Bob's hand numerous times, thinking myself very grown-up for giving him my congratulations. I guess I thought that the more I did it, the more grown-up I was.
My aunt and uncle settled into the small home they purchased just one month before their wedding. After the births of my cousins, they made a modest addition to the place, doubling its size. Later, there would be a garage. But, they've stayed in the same place for nearly fifty years.
In fact, they've lived their whole lives in a small Ohio town. Bob worked for only two employers his entire working life. His passions were few: his wife, his kids, his grandkids, golf, fishing, and mushrooming. He had no enemies and, as the attendance at today's funeral demonstrated, he had lots of friends of all races and creeds.
Some may consider his stability boring. But as I considered it and the impact his life has had on others' lives, another word came to mind: inspiring!
Both he and my aunt have always been unfailingly kind to others, but never in ways that called attention to themselves. Bob's eulogist today commented that whenever snow covered the sidewalks on my uncle's lengthy street, Bob pulled out his snowblowers and proceeded to dig out every one of his neighbors' homes.
And today, after the funeral, when family and friends gathered at the small and wonderfully overcrowded house, Aunt Sue did as she's always done...seen to it that everyone had coffee and food. She made sure that they felt welcomed and she thanked everyone for coming. Just like her mother, my grandmother, who was the chief cook in my grandfather's restaurants, my aunt has a servant's heart.
To tell you the truth, the whole experience chastened me a bit. As a preacher, I talk an awful lot about things like neighborliness, love, and servanthood. But I know few of my neighbors in this development, where I've lived for seventeen years. And I spend entirely too much of my time being concerned about other people's impressions of me, rather than concerning myself with what I might do for others. Worse than that maybe, I've always been concerned with what's over the next horizon, instead of living in the now moments and the here places of my life.
My aunt and uncle have never made that mistake and I'm sure that they've been happy for it. And even today, though I know that the grief will at times be almost unbearable for her, I feel sure that my aunt will be happy once more...living and loving and serving among the same people she's lived with, loved, and served all these years.
I'm too tired and lazy to look it up right now, but I remember that in an interview appearing in Leadership magazine some years ago, Eugene Peterson said that his goal as a pastor had never been to jump from one church to another. Instead, he wanted, he said, to stay in one place and keep loving it and loving its people and learning to love it all more and more.
As I drove across Ohio today, passing two of its largest cities, numerous small towns, farms just sprouting with the new crops of spring, and the state's varied topography, I asked myself if I could ever imagine or ever wanting to live anywhere else? Or, would I want to go to some other community? No was the answer I had to both questions.
As long as God wants me to be here, this is the state where I want to live and the community in which I live is the place I want to stay and keep loving it and loving its people and learning to love it all more and more. This lifestyle of staying in one place worked for my uncle and my aunt. Maybe if I learn to be half the servants they've been all these years, I can be a more useful person. And maybe if I let His love show in my life, I'll let my neighbors see just how much God loves them.
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Why Has ABC's Evening Newscast with Charlie Gibson Vaulted to Number One?
In The New York Times' profile of Gibson, we read:
But older viewers of these newscasts quite naturally gravitate to older anchors. That's why after the often shrill and irresponsible Dan Rather left the CBS Evening News, older viewers were attracted to his interim replacement, Bob Schieffer, a solid presence they'd known for years.
When Katie Couric, deliberately chosen by CBS execs for her appeal to a younger demographic, took over the news at the "Tiffany Network," evening news traditionalists, not wed to Brian Williams in spite of GE/NBC's typically careful succession planning, cast about for a different anchor to watch.
When Gibson talks about "stability" as an explanation for his evening newscast's ascendancy then, I think he's right. But not for the reason he cites. The stability of the production's staff is probably irrelevant to the upward sweep of ABC's evening news ratings. Instead, it's the stability that older viewers feel when seeing the face of a newscaster they've known for decades.
Me, I'm in a completely different demographic, I guess. After years of watching half of The NewsHour on PBS and switching over to Tom Brokaw, I've taken to watching the PBS offering for its full sixty minutes.
[THANKS TO: Joe Gandelman of The Moderate Voice and Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit for linking to this post.]
Asked if he knew why ABC was up and NBC was down, Mr. Gibson said: “I don’t have any answer.”To me, the answer to why Gibson's newscast has shot up to number one since January is far simpler than the anchor's answer suggests. It's this: Evening newscasts are, in some ways, dinosaurs, favored by the over-60 crowd. Those in other age categories aren't tied to these traditional news venues. They're going to the Internet, cable news channels, and even late night talk shows for their news and information. In the era of the twenty-four-hour news cycle and long commutes to the suburbs, younger people just aren't as acculturated to the evening newscasts as most were in the era of Cronkite and Huntley and Brinkley.
Pressed to offer some theories, he ticked off several possible reasons. The most important, he said, was “stability.” Specifically he was referring to how he had sought to calm the program’s employees after a turbulent year. Mr. Jennings’s death was followed by the departures of his designated successors (Bob Woodruff and Elizabeth Vargas) last year after Mr. Woodruff suffered injuries in Iraq, and Ms. Vargas then decided to step down because of her pregnancy.
He also suggested that the program had “caught some breaks” in recent months, including Brian Ross’s early reporting on the Congressional page scandal that would claim the career of Representative Mark Foley, a Florida Republican. ABC News also received an extra half-hour in prime time on the night of the midterm elections in November. And finally there was the return of Mr. Woodruff, who reported not only on his recovery but on the treatment of wounded veterans.
But older viewers of these newscasts quite naturally gravitate to older anchors. That's why after the often shrill and irresponsible Dan Rather left the CBS Evening News, older viewers were attracted to his interim replacement, Bob Schieffer, a solid presence they'd known for years.
When Katie Couric, deliberately chosen by CBS execs for her appeal to a younger demographic, took over the news at the "Tiffany Network," evening news traditionalists, not wed to Brian Williams in spite of GE/NBC's typically careful succession planning, cast about for a different anchor to watch.
When Gibson talks about "stability" as an explanation for his evening newscast's ascendancy then, I think he's right. But not for the reason he cites. The stability of the production's staff is probably irrelevant to the upward sweep of ABC's evening news ratings. Instead, it's the stability that older viewers feel when seeing the face of a newscaster they've known for decades.
Me, I'm in a completely different demographic, I guess. After years of watching half of The NewsHour on PBS and switching over to Tom Brokaw, I've taken to watching the PBS offering for its full sixty minutes.
[THANKS TO: Joe Gandelman of The Moderate Voice and Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit for linking to this post.]
Watch Out for ZoomInfo's Inaccuracies!
ZoomInfo apparently collects information about people from the Web to create profiles of them. A blog I read linked to a profile about someone the blogger had just heard about.
For the nuts of it, I typed in my name to see what this profile said about me. Sheesh, is it off...way off!
It accurately lists me as pastor of Friendship Lutheran Church and as a blogger.
But it also says that I'm president of something called Megasports, "a fantasy sports online service," and of the National Association of Firearms Retailers.
NO NO NO NO NO. NOT ME!
So, I decided to contact the ZoomInfo folks to let them know their information is wrong. I mean, I don't mind them collecting public information about me. But this stuff has nothing to do with me.
The ZoomInfo site said it would be easy to change my information. I just had to click on a "This is me" button. But as you progress through the hoops needed to tell the folks at ZoomInfo that their info is whacked, they tell you what Internet Service Provider suffixes they'll accept in order to confirm things with you via email. My ISP wasn't listed...and it's AOL!
They do have an alternative: Give them your credit card number. Are you kidding me? I'm going to give my personal information to some incompetent company that can't get my public information right...and believe them when they say that they won't charge my account? I. DON'T. THINK. SO!
So, now I'm trying to straighten out ZoomInfo's inaccurate portrayal of yours truly by other methods. I've sent an email their way. I'll let you know how things turn out.
You might want to check what they've done to your personal reputation...and see if you can't straighten them out, too.
Let me know what happens. This company deserves to be watched very carefully.
[UPDATE: I just checked. (I've been out of town for my uncle's funeral today. ZoomInfo responded to my email of last night and eliminated the factual errors on my profile. I'm glad of that.]
For the nuts of it, I typed in my name to see what this profile said about me. Sheesh, is it off...way off!
It accurately lists me as pastor of Friendship Lutheran Church and as a blogger.
But it also says that I'm president of something called Megasports, "a fantasy sports online service," and of the National Association of Firearms Retailers.
NO NO NO NO NO. NOT ME!
So, I decided to contact the ZoomInfo folks to let them know their information is wrong. I mean, I don't mind them collecting public information about me. But this stuff has nothing to do with me.
The ZoomInfo site said it would be easy to change my information. I just had to click on a "This is me" button. But as you progress through the hoops needed to tell the folks at ZoomInfo that their info is whacked, they tell you what Internet Service Provider suffixes they'll accept in order to confirm things with you via email. My ISP wasn't listed...and it's AOL!
They do have an alternative: Give them your credit card number. Are you kidding me? I'm going to give my personal information to some incompetent company that can't get my public information right...and believe them when they say that they won't charge my account? I. DON'T. THINK. SO!
So, now I'm trying to straighten out ZoomInfo's inaccurate portrayal of yours truly by other methods. I've sent an email their way. I'll let you know how things turn out.
You might want to check what they've done to your personal reputation...and see if you can't straighten them out, too.
Let me know what happens. This company deserves to be watched very carefully.
[UPDATE: I just checked. (I've been out of town for my uncle's funeral today. ZoomInfo responded to my email of last night and eliminated the factual errors on my profile. I'm glad of that.]
Thanks to...
Reporters without Borders for republishing and linking to my analysis of the Blair years. I enjoyed seeing the translation of the piece in French also posted on their site.
If you go over to the RSF Blog, also look at the reactions to Blair's tenure from a Pakistani living in England, a French blogger, a Yale professor of Literature, a French-speaking Swiss who lives in London, and a Chinese journalist.
The posts linked to by the RSF Blog have varied opinions, but none are particularly enthusiastic about Blair's legacy.
[THANKS TO: Brian of Columbuser.com for his kind words of congratulations for the Reporters without Borders link. If you haven't yet explored Brian's blog, do yourself a huge favor and do so. He does a fantastic job there!]
If you go over to the RSF Blog, also look at the reactions to Blair's tenure from a Pakistani living in England, a French blogger, a Yale professor of Literature, a French-speaking Swiss who lives in London, and a Chinese journalist.
The posts linked to by the RSF Blog have varied opinions, but none are particularly enthusiastic about Blair's legacy.
[THANKS TO: Brian of Columbuser.com for his kind words of congratulations for the Reporters without Borders link. If you haven't yet explored Brian's blog, do yourself a huge favor and do so. He does a fantastic job there!]
Third Pass at This Weekend's Bible Lesson: Revelation 22:12-21
[Verse-by-Verse Comments, continued]
15Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and fornicators and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.
(1) These are people outside the new Jerusalem. They are there by choice. (See here.) They're people who choose not to repent and choose not to rely on the righteousness of Christ and instead, stand naked in their sins before God.
(2) Dogs was a term used of anyone who was ritually impure. But, more to the point here I think, is that it was used by Judeans of foreigners who stood outside the covenant God made with His people through Abraham.
Jesus playfully uses a related term--the word He uses is actually more aptly translated as puppy--when a foreign woman He has every intention of helping makes a request of Him:
Some Christians who read their horoscopes or play with Ouija boards defend themselves by saying, "It's harmless fun." Not according to God. Even if you think that you're being playful and even if you don't believe in such things as dark powers (though it should be pointed out that Jesus believed that they existed), such playing inherently splinters your allegiance to God. A seed is planted in your brain to rely on what the Tarot cards tell you, rather than on God alone. Your allegiance is fractured. Psalm 146:5 says:
Thank God that through Jesus Christ, all of our sins, including the sin of idol worship, can be forgiven and because of God's forgiving grace, we need not stay outside the new Jerusalem!
(4) Those who love to practice falsehood must be those who have fallen so deeply into sin that they feel no twinge of remorse over lying. It's become so natural to them that they don't even think about it.
16“It is I, Jesus, who sent my angel to you with this testimony for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.”
(1) The churches to whom Jesus gives His testimony are identified in Revelation 2 and 3.
(2) Jesus' identification of Himself as both the root and the descendant of David echoes, in some respects the description of Him as "the Alpha and the Omega." In a famous passage in John's Gospel, Jesus uses bad grammar to make an important point about Who He is, "“Very truly, I tell you, before Abraham was, I am" (John 8:58).
I Am, of course, is a rough translation of the Hebrew word for God's Name, Yahweh, meaning I AM WHO I AM, or I WILL BE WHO I WILL BE. The name denotes God as the "ground of all being."
Here, Jesus says that He--God the Son--designated David to be Israel's second and greatest king. He also says that it was God's will that the King of all kings, the Messiah, should be born into a family that descended from David.
(3) Numbers 24:17 said that "a star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel." Jacob, of course, was the third of the Old Testament "patriarchs," fathers of the Jewish family of faith. Jesus is the bright morning star, the King Who comes to bring a new day to all who turn from sin and trust in Him.
17The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” And let everyone who hears say, “Come.” And let everyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift.
(1) The Spirit is the Holy Spirit, third person of the triune God. (For a basic explanation of the Trinity, one God in three persons, see here.)
The Holy Spirit has always been the third person of what theologians call "the Godhead." Genesis 1 tells us that God's Spirit moved over chaos and brought life into being.
But today, we live in what might be called "the era of the Holy Spirit." After Jesus' death, resurrection, and ascension, He sent the Holy Spirit to His prayerful first followers. That happened on a day called Pentecost. It's marked as the birthday of the Church, the day when God empowered Jesus' followers to fulfill Christ's mission for all who follow Him.
(2) The bride is Christ's Church. This is an extension of imagery used in the Old Testament, imagery in which God portrays Israel as His bride and Himself as the nation's husband. There are several places in the New Testament Gospels where Jesus applies this imagery to Himself as husband and the Church--which is sometimes called "the new Israel"--His bride.
Remember that in ancient Jewish custom, the bride didn't know for certain when the groom would show up for the beginning of the festivities. The bride and her party had to be ready at any time. This is what lay behind Jesus' parable of the wise and foolish bridesmaids.
For some, the return of Christ with the new Jerusalem is a fearful prospect. But for the Christian, whose faith is made possible by the Holy Spirit with whom the Church agrees here, it's a wonderful thing!
(3) For an understanding of the water of life, go here.
(4) Notice that the water of life is a gift. New life in Christ can't be earned. It's a gift from God through Jesus Christ!
18I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to that person the plagues described in this book; 19if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away that person’s share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.
(1) One of the complaints that Jesus has against the seven churches addressed at the beginning of Revelation is how they mess with the pure Gospel. The Nicolaitans, Gnostics, and the Jezebel operating in one of the churches are all adding layers of legalism or hedonism to the Gospel.
Some say that it doesn't matter what you do; you can't lose your relationship with Christ; so, sin away.
Others say that believers need to have secret knowledge or they must manifest certain gifts or do added good works in order to be accepted by Christ.
Martin Luther pointed out that we are to rely on faith alone in Christ alone based on God's Word alone. Any time people try to make the Gospel out as "faith and....," or "Christ and...," or "God's Word and...," they're perpetrating a lie.
John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life."
It doesn't say, "everyone who believes in him and eats a particular diet." It doesn't say, "everyone who believes in him and tithes to the church." It doesn't say, "everyone who believes in him and votes Republican." It doesn't say, "everyone who believes in him and speaks in tongues." It doesn't say, "everyone who believes in him and knows some 'secret knowledge.'"
John is saying, "Don't add or subtract a single thing to what Jesus has revealed here." Christians could save themselves a lot of unnecessary grief if they would ignore what agenda-driven preachers say about this and other books of the Bible and remember instead to rely on faith alone in Christ alone as revealed in the Bible alone.
20The one who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!
(1) Jesus promises again that He is coming soon. John responds with Amen, meaning YES! Then, he writes a three-word prayer, which in Aramaic, the language Jesus spoke, would be rendered Maranatha, "Come, O Lord."
As Brian Findlayson says of this passage:
Our burning desire should be for the return of Christ and thus, our union with him.
21The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints. Amen.
(1) For a discussion of what a saint is, see here and here.
15Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and fornicators and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.
(1) These are people outside the new Jerusalem. They are there by choice. (See here.) They're people who choose not to repent and choose not to rely on the righteousness of Christ and instead, stand naked in their sins before God.
(2) Dogs was a term used of anyone who was ritually impure. But, more to the point here I think, is that it was used by Judeans of foreigners who stood outside the covenant God made with His people through Abraham.
Jesus playfully uses a related term--the word He uses is actually more aptly translated as puppy--when a foreign woman He has every intention of helping makes a request of Him:
Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.” But he did not answer her at all. And his disciples came and urged him, saying, “Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us.” He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.” He answered, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” Then Jesus answered her, “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed instantly. (Matthew 15:22-28)(3) God has always regarded sorcery--and that would include things like Tarot cards, Ouija boards, crystals, and daily horoscopes--as "abominations." "You shall not practice augury or witchcraft," Leviticus 19:26 says. [On augury, see here and here.]
Some Christians who read their horoscopes or play with Ouija boards defend themselves by saying, "It's harmless fun." Not according to God. Even if you think that you're being playful and even if you don't believe in such things as dark powers (though it should be pointed out that Jesus believed that they existed), such playing inherently splinters your allegiance to God. A seed is planted in your brain to rely on what the Tarot cards tell you, rather than on God alone. Your allegiance is fractured. Psalm 146:5 says:
Happy are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord their God...Our "god" is whatever is of highest importance in our lives. Whenever we allow some "oracle" to tell us about our future, rather than relying totally on the God we know in Christ, we engage in idolatry. We violate the first commandment.
Thank God that through Jesus Christ, all of our sins, including the sin of idol worship, can be forgiven and because of God's forgiving grace, we need not stay outside the new Jerusalem!
(4) Those who love to practice falsehood must be those who have fallen so deeply into sin that they feel no twinge of remorse over lying. It's become so natural to them that they don't even think about it.
16“It is I, Jesus, who sent my angel to you with this testimony for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.”
(1) The churches to whom Jesus gives His testimony are identified in Revelation 2 and 3.
(2) Jesus' identification of Himself as both the root and the descendant of David echoes, in some respects the description of Him as "the Alpha and the Omega." In a famous passage in John's Gospel, Jesus uses bad grammar to make an important point about Who He is, "“Very truly, I tell you, before Abraham was, I am" (John 8:58).
I Am, of course, is a rough translation of the Hebrew word for God's Name, Yahweh, meaning I AM WHO I AM, or I WILL BE WHO I WILL BE. The name denotes God as the "ground of all being."
Here, Jesus says that He--God the Son--designated David to be Israel's second and greatest king. He also says that it was God's will that the King of all kings, the Messiah, should be born into a family that descended from David.
(3) Numbers 24:17 said that "a star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel." Jacob, of course, was the third of the Old Testament "patriarchs," fathers of the Jewish family of faith. Jesus is the bright morning star, the King Who comes to bring a new day to all who turn from sin and trust in Him.
17The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” And let everyone who hears say, “Come.” And let everyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift.
(1) The Spirit is the Holy Spirit, third person of the triune God. (For a basic explanation of the Trinity, one God in three persons, see here.)
The Holy Spirit has always been the third person of what theologians call "the Godhead." Genesis 1 tells us that God's Spirit moved over chaos and brought life into being.
But today, we live in what might be called "the era of the Holy Spirit." After Jesus' death, resurrection, and ascension, He sent the Holy Spirit to His prayerful first followers. That happened on a day called Pentecost. It's marked as the birthday of the Church, the day when God empowered Jesus' followers to fulfill Christ's mission for all who follow Him.
(2) The bride is Christ's Church. This is an extension of imagery used in the Old Testament, imagery in which God portrays Israel as His bride and Himself as the nation's husband. There are several places in the New Testament Gospels where Jesus applies this imagery to Himself as husband and the Church--which is sometimes called "the new Israel"--His bride.
Remember that in ancient Jewish custom, the bride didn't know for certain when the groom would show up for the beginning of the festivities. The bride and her party had to be ready at any time. This is what lay behind Jesus' parable of the wise and foolish bridesmaids.
For some, the return of Christ with the new Jerusalem is a fearful prospect. But for the Christian, whose faith is made possible by the Holy Spirit with whom the Church agrees here, it's a wonderful thing!
(3) For an understanding of the water of life, go here.
(4) Notice that the water of life is a gift. New life in Christ can't be earned. It's a gift from God through Jesus Christ!
18I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to that person the plagues described in this book; 19if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away that person’s share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.
(1) One of the complaints that Jesus has against the seven churches addressed at the beginning of Revelation is how they mess with the pure Gospel. The Nicolaitans, Gnostics, and the Jezebel operating in one of the churches are all adding layers of legalism or hedonism to the Gospel.
Some say that it doesn't matter what you do; you can't lose your relationship with Christ; so, sin away.
Others say that believers need to have secret knowledge or they must manifest certain gifts or do added good works in order to be accepted by Christ.
Martin Luther pointed out that we are to rely on faith alone in Christ alone based on God's Word alone. Any time people try to make the Gospel out as "faith and....," or "Christ and...," or "God's Word and...," they're perpetrating a lie.
John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life."
It doesn't say, "everyone who believes in him and eats a particular diet." It doesn't say, "everyone who believes in him and tithes to the church." It doesn't say, "everyone who believes in him and votes Republican." It doesn't say, "everyone who believes in him and speaks in tongues." It doesn't say, "everyone who believes in him and knows some 'secret knowledge.'"
John is saying, "Don't add or subtract a single thing to what Jesus has revealed here." Christians could save themselves a lot of unnecessary grief if they would ignore what agenda-driven preachers say about this and other books of the Bible and remember instead to rely on faith alone in Christ alone as revealed in the Bible alone.
20The one who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!
(1) Jesus promises again that He is coming soon. John responds with Amen, meaning YES! Then, he writes a three-word prayer, which in Aramaic, the language Jesus spoke, would be rendered Maranatha, "Come, O Lord."
As Brian Findlayson says of this passage:
Our burning desire should be for the return of Christ and thus, our union with him.
21The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints. Amen.
(1) For a discussion of what a saint is, see here and here.
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Second Pass at This Weekend's Bible Lesson: Revelation 22:12-21
[Here is the first pass at this weekend's lesson, including an explanation of what this is about.]
Verse-by-Verse Comments
12“See, I am coming soon; my reward is with me, to repay according to everyone’s work.
(1) The person being quoted is Jesus. You have to be careful not to misread this passage. Jesus isn't saying that we need to work to gain a place with Him in eternity. Paul writes in the New Testament book of Ephesians:
In verse 14, John speaks of "those who wash their robes," that is, those who have been cleansed by the blood of Christ, the sacrificial Lamb, on the cross.
The "work" of a Christian is to turn from sin and follow Christ. Bryan Findlayson puts it this way:
(2) Jesus begins this section by saying that He is planning on returning to the earth soon. These words are for us, no less than for John's original readers and hearers. Peter writes:
(1) John uses the very term--the Alpha and the Omega--to describe Jesus in the prologue of this book. It refers to the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet and claims that Jesus is the first, the last, and everything. (For more, see here.)
14Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they will have the right to the tree of life and may enter the city by the gates.
(1) Revelation 7 talks about those who "have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." These are all who repent of their sins and believe in Jesus Christ, the saints. They've been made clean by Christ's death on their behalf.
(2) This is the tree of life mentioned in Genesis and in last week's Bible lesson.
[More verse-by-verse comments, I hope.]
Verse-by-Verse Comments
12“See, I am coming soon; my reward is with me, to repay according to everyone’s work.
(1) The person being quoted is Jesus. You have to be careful not to misread this passage. Jesus isn't saying that we need to work to gain a place with Him in eternity. Paul writes in the New Testament book of Ephesians:
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— not the result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life. (Ephesians 2:8-10)Eternal life with Christ can't be earned. It belongs to those who repent (that is, turn away from sin as a way of life) and entrust their lives to Christ, the giver of eternal life. When we allow Christ into our life, we embrace a new way of living, a way of service that "God prepared beforehand to be our way of life."
In verse 14, John speaks of "those who wash their robes," that is, those who have been cleansed by the blood of Christ, the sacrificial Lamb, on the cross.
The "work" of a Christian is to turn from sin and follow Christ. Bryan Findlayson puts it this way:
The essential command that must be obeyed is the call to faith in Christ.(See here.)
(2) Jesus begins this section by saying that He is planning on returning to the earth soon. These words are for us, no less than for John's original readers and hearers. Peter writes:
...do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day. (2 Peter 3:8)13I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”
(1) John uses the very term--the Alpha and the Omega--to describe Jesus in the prologue of this book. It refers to the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet and claims that Jesus is the first, the last, and everything. (For more, see here.)
14Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they will have the right to the tree of life and may enter the city by the gates.
(1) Revelation 7 talks about those who "have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." These are all who repent of their sins and believe in Jesus Christ, the saints. They've been made clean by Christ's death on their behalf.
(2) This is the tree of life mentioned in Genesis and in last week's Bible lesson.
[More verse-by-verse comments, I hope.]
Jane Fonda Talks About Jesus with 'Rolling Stone'
You can listen to an extended audio clip of Fonda's comments at Rolling Stone magazine's web site here.The Week reports on some of Fonda's comments about Jesus:
I am utterly fascinated by this man. I feel what he preached was revolutionary, and it's totally what we need now. The most revolutionary statement anyone could make is, "Love thy neighbor as thyself." Whew, man, if we could live what he taught, everything would change. But it ain't what goes by the name of Christianity right now.Some Christians might quibble with what they will see as the "incompleteness" of Fonda's witness for Christ. But I tell the people of our congregation, "You can only share what you personally know of Christ." To assert as truth what you haven't experienced as truth is dishonest and phony. To be a witness for Christ is to tell how His story has intersected with my story and to help others, after careful listening and heartfelt dialogue, to see how all of that intersects with their stories.
Imagine the courage it takes for someone from Fonda's milieu to say, as she does in the clip at the Rolling Stone site, "I'm a Christian and I'm still figuring out what that means." That's honest and compelling...far more so than the "witness" of rule-makers and bigots who parade as spokespeople for Christ and give Christian faith a bad reputation!
Monday, May 14, 2007
Hamilton Blogging
PBS' The American Experience aired a fantastic documentary on Alexander Hamilton this evening. If you have the chance to watch it, do so.Here is a link to some of the Alexander Hamilton blogging that has appeared here through the years.
First Pass at This Weekend's Bible Lesson: Revelation 22:12-21
[Most weeks, I present as many updates on my reflections and study of the Biblical texts on which our weekend worship celebrations will be built as I can. The purpose is to help the people of the congregation I serve as pastor, Friendship Lutheran Church of Amelia, Ohio, get ready for worship. Hopefully, it's helpful to others as well, since our Bible lesson is usually one from the weekly lectionary, variations of which are used in most of the churches of the world.]
This Week's Bible Lesson: Revelation 22:12-21
12“See, I am coming soon; my reward is with me, to repay according to everyone’s work. 13I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” 14Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they will have the right to the tree of life and may enter the city by the gates. 15Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and fornicators and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood. 16“It is I, Jesus, who sent my angel to you with this testimony for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.” 17The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” And let everyone who hears say, “Come.” And let everyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift. 18I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to that person the plagues described in this book; 19if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away that person’s share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.
20The one who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus! 21The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints. Amen.
General Comments:
1. John, the only Gospel writer to have a prologue and a brief epilogue in his narrative of Jesus Christ's life, death, and resurrection, appears to have the same literary devices in the book of Revelation. Our lesson is part of what most scholars see as the epilogue of Revelation.
Some say that the epilogue is composed of Revelation 22:6-21, while others leave out the last verse as a separate item, a stereotyped closing greeting in early Christian correspondence.
2. Whatever one includes in epilogue, it's clear that John intends for it, along with the prologue, to form what scholars call an inclusio, framing the major themes of Revelation at the book's beginning and end. (For a brief, helpful discussion of the inclusio as a literary device, see the second section here.)
3. Jeske points to common verbal similarities between the prologue, Revelation 1:1-8, and epilogue:
This Week's Bible Lesson: Revelation 22:12-21
12“See, I am coming soon; my reward is with me, to repay according to everyone’s work. 13I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” 14Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they will have the right to the tree of life and may enter the city by the gates. 15Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and fornicators and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood. 16“It is I, Jesus, who sent my angel to you with this testimony for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.” 17The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” And let everyone who hears say, “Come.” And let everyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift. 18I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to that person the plagues described in this book; 19if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away that person’s share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.
20The one who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus! 21The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints. Amen.
General Comments:
1. John, the only Gospel writer to have a prologue and a brief epilogue in his narrative of Jesus Christ's life, death, and resurrection, appears to have the same literary devices in the book of Revelation. Our lesson is part of what most scholars see as the epilogue of Revelation.
Some say that the epilogue is composed of Revelation 22:6-21, while others leave out the last verse as a separate item, a stereotyped closing greeting in early Christian correspondence.
2. Whatever one includes in epilogue, it's clear that John intends for it, along with the prologue, to form what scholars call an inclusio, framing the major themes of Revelation at the book's beginning and end. (For a brief, helpful discussion of the inclusio as a literary device, see the second section here.)
3. Jeske points to common verbal similarities between the prologue, Revelation 1:1-8, and epilogue:
One can...see that a relationship...between the epilogue and prologue in terms of verbal similarities and subject matter. For instance [in the epilogue], there is a restatement of the theme of reception, that God is the source of the message that John has shared with his audience, mediated to him from Jesus through an angelic messenger (22:6, 16; cf. 1:1). There is also the reference to the entire writing as "the words of prophecy" (22:7, 10, 18-19; cf. 1:3), to be read in the church (22:18; cf. 1:3, 11). Those who keep the words of this prophecy are blessed (22:18; cf. 1:3, 11). Those who keep the words of this prophecy are blessed (22:7; cf. 1:3). There are the Alpha and the Omega theme (22:13; cf. 1:8), beatitudes (22:7, 14; cf. 1:3), a word of grace (22:21; cf. 1:4), and the announcement of Christ's coming soon (22:6-7, 12, 20; cf. 1:1, 7)...4. It isn't surprising, Jeske says, to see certain of the entire book's themes reiterated in the epilogue:
For instance, the warning to John is repeated that he should not confuse the mediating messenger with God, the source of the message...(22:8-9; cf. 19:10). Other repeated themes include: the access of God's people to the tree of life in the new holy city (22:14, 19; cf. 22:2); a list of vices (22:15; cf. 21:8); the testimony to the churches as delivered by the messenger sent by Jesus (22:16; cf. 2:1-3:22).[I hope to have verse-by-verse comments tomorrow.]
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Be There or Be Square!
[Click to enlarge image]
[THANKS TO: Matt Brown of Good Brownie for telling his readers about this event. I love Matt's blog, by the way.]
How God Comes to Us
[This message was shared during worship with the people of Friendship Lutheran Church on May 13, 2007. If you live or are ever visiting in the Cincinnati area, you are always invited to worship with us!]
Revelation 21:10, 22-22:5
A reporter spent time with a young man who was a bit of an anomaly: An honors student in an inner city school. The young man was anomalous because in many ways, his life was a sad inner city cliche. Poverty stricken. African-American. He and his mother abandoned by his father when he was small. Living in ramshackle government housing surrounded by a kids his own age getting involved with drink and drugs and crime. Most of his classmates regarded doing well in school as a waste of time.
Yet this kid continued to do well in school and kept out of trouble in the evenings, even though his mother worked two full time jobs and he, like many of his peers, had way too much time on his hands. The reporter wondered why. So, he trailed this young man for a week. The reporter didn't have an answer until one Wednesday night when he followed the young man to his church. There, in the balcony, this teen, often tempted to depart from the straight and narrow, joined several hundred others in singing praises to God. The reporter watched as this young man threw himself heart and soul into worshiping God. He perceived a change come over the young man. A weight seemed to be lifted from his shoulders. He had abandoned all his fears to take the hand of God.
It isn’t just teens trying to rise above the low expectations, the grave temptations, and the grim prospects of the ghetto who need to know that God...
And maybe for John, as was true for that inner city teen, it was easier to believe that God was with him when he worshiped.
Scholars tell us that whenever the phrase in the spirit is used in this book of Revelation, it signals a time when John was worshiping God. Our lesson starts out with John telling us: “And in the spirit [I was] carried...away to a great, high mountain and [I saw] the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God.”
As John “turned his eyes upon Jesus,” God was able to come to him with a consoling vision. And it was an incredible vision! Consider what John saw:
First: He saw what he calls “the new Jerusalem” come down from heaven. God came to him. To me, this vision is about the past, the present, and the future.
Next: John tells us that the new Jerusalem will be a place in which the blazing light of God will illumine us. There will be no night, no fear. And, he says, the tree of life will fill us with the goodness and power and life of God forever.
John presents us with staggering images of a heavenly future. When life lays us low or death stares us in the face, these images may be difficult to see. But even in the most dire circumstances, many followers of Christ have been sustained and encouraged by the promise of the new Jerusalem we have in Christ. A few examples...
George Friedric Handel was already writing cantatas when he was nine years old. Not long after that, he presented his music to the king of Prussia. But then, things took a turn for the worse. His father died. His music, to use more modern nomenclature, was no longer at the top of the charts. Bankrupt and hopeless, Handel locked himself away for twenty-four hours and in the end, emerged with his oratorio, Messiah, based partly on John’s visions as recorded in the book of Revelation.
I learned a few weeks ago that something like 15% of all adult Americans living today have sung the Messiah at some point in their lives. Obviously countless millions have also heard it. This past Christmastime, my family and I attended something called The Candlelight Processional at Disney World. Actor Mario Lopez narrated. A mass choir, partly composed of high school and college groups from throughout Florida, flanked him. He asked all in the audience who had ever sung the Messiah before to stand and join in. Hundreds rose. Our two adult children, my wife, and I also stood, my wife sandwiched between our "kids." As my wife heard the kids sing Handel's words at the tops of their lungs, tears streamed down her face. Think of that: A work of art composed at what was a low point in Handel’s life has lifted millions of people into an experience of God!
When asked how he was able to compose Messiah, Handel said, “I did see the heavens opened and the great God himself seated on his throne.” Handel worshiped God and God came to him.
One of my favorite Christian heroes of more recent vintage is a man named Frank Laubach. Laubach was a missionary concerned with the grinding poverty in which most of the people of the world still live. He wanted to do something about it, but had no idea what it might be. So, this man of prayer turned his eyes on Jesus, asking for guidance. It was while praying that God gave Laubach a vision. Teach adults to read, God seemed tell him, and they could learn...about agricultural methods, about the importance of clean drinking water and hygiene, about the God Who loved them and could help them pursue love and justice in their everyday lives. Laubach began what became a worldwide literacy movement, one active right here in Clermont County. Laubach worshiped God and God came to him.
In the sports pages of today’s Cincinnati Enquirer, you can read the story of Katie and Josh Hamilton. Josh is the player having a tremendous rookie season for the Cincinnati Reds. Drafted first overall in baseball’s draft back in 2002, Hamilton’s skills drew comparisons to Mickey Mantle, among other greats. But Hamilton’s life went into a self-destructive tailspin when he got involved with drugs. The Reds’ senior management were considered courageous this year when they decided to sign the discarded Hamilton. But Hamilton has been clean and sober for a while now and he speaks openly about how his faith in Christ sustains him in the daily battle to stay away from drugs.
This morning’s article describes a turning point in the renewal of Josh Hamilton. His wife, Katie, disgusted by Josh’s relapse into drug use, went to stay with her home. There, she spoke with her pastor and his wife. After that, the article says, “Katie prayed God might help her and halt the misery of seeing a husband ‘completely throwing his life away.’” That prayer gave her the toughness, the emotional distance, and the commitment to push her husband to recovery and to God. Katie Hamilton worshiped God and God came to her.
Are you detecting a pattern?
I must tell you that in recent months, I’ve been praying a lot more than I had been for a time. This congregation and my extended family have been subjects of intense concern and prayer. I realized that I needed to get my brain off of myself and focus more on God in worship and on others in live. So, I’ve thrown myself in more devoted daily worship and striven to make sure that when you and I worship together on the weekends, I’m not just leading worship, I really am putting God first.
In recent weeks, in many different ways, God has been assuring me that He’s close at hand and doing wonderful things. He’s enlightened me with new visions of Friendship as a congregation fervently committed to sharing Christ with others and growing in our dependence on God, as well as in the numbers who are part of our fellowship. I’ve learned again how utterly dependent God is! When I worship God, I find that God always comes to me!
Do you need assurance that God won’t turn you away, now or in eternity?
Do you have a problem you’re trying to figure out?
Is there some need in your family, our community, or our church you’d like to address, but you’re uncertain how?
Worship, give yourself over to the praise of God. Give God the opportunity to descend to you the way He did in the new Jerusalem to John. You’ll be strengthened in the knowledge that God really is with you. You’ll know that all believers in Christ belong to God forever. And when things seem dark, God will lighten your way.
Besides, one day in the new Jerusalem, we will be constantly worshiping and enjoying God's fellowship. So, we may as well start practicing right now!
Revelation 21:10, 22-22:5
A reporter spent time with a young man who was a bit of an anomaly: An honors student in an inner city school. The young man was anomalous because in many ways, his life was a sad inner city cliche. Poverty stricken. African-American. He and his mother abandoned by his father when he was small. Living in ramshackle government housing surrounded by a kids his own age getting involved with drink and drugs and crime. Most of his classmates regarded doing well in school as a waste of time.
Yet this kid continued to do well in school and kept out of trouble in the evenings, even though his mother worked two full time jobs and he, like many of his peers, had way too much time on his hands. The reporter wondered why. So, he trailed this young man for a week. The reporter didn't have an answer until one Wednesday night when he followed the young man to his church. There, in the balcony, this teen, often tempted to depart from the straight and narrow, joined several hundred others in singing praises to God. The reporter watched as this young man threw himself heart and soul into worshiping God. He perceived a change come over the young man. A weight seemed to be lifted from his shoulders. He had abandoned all his fears to take the hand of God.
It isn’t just teens trying to rise above the low expectations, the grave temptations, and the grim prospects of the ghetto who need to know that God...
- doesn’t want to be separated from us,
- wants to be with us forever, and
- if we want it, God will come to us in every time of need.
And maybe for John, as was true for that inner city teen, it was easier to believe that God was with him when he worshiped.
Scholars tell us that whenever the phrase in the spirit is used in this book of Revelation, it signals a time when John was worshiping God. Our lesson starts out with John telling us: “And in the spirit [I was] carried...away to a great, high mountain and [I saw] the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God.”
As John “turned his eyes upon Jesus,” God was able to come to him with a consoling vision. And it was an incredible vision! Consider what John saw:
First: He saw what he calls “the new Jerusalem” come down from heaven. God came to him. To me, this vision is about the past, the present, and the future.
- Two-thousand years ago, Jesus came to our world where He died and rose for us. But He didn’t leave us orphaned.
- Today, we have the presence of His Holy Spirit and the encouragement of our church with us.
- And in the future, He will come to us bodily, too. We’ll see Him as surely as the first disciples saw Him risen from the dead on the first Easter Sunday.
Next: John tells us that the new Jerusalem will be a place in which the blazing light of God will illumine us. There will be no night, no fear. And, he says, the tree of life will fill us with the goodness and power and life of God forever.
John presents us with staggering images of a heavenly future. When life lays us low or death stares us in the face, these images may be difficult to see. But even in the most dire circumstances, many followers of Christ have been sustained and encouraged by the promise of the new Jerusalem we have in Christ. A few examples...
George Friedric Handel was already writing cantatas when he was nine years old. Not long after that, he presented his music to the king of Prussia. But then, things took a turn for the worse. His father died. His music, to use more modern nomenclature, was no longer at the top of the charts. Bankrupt and hopeless, Handel locked himself away for twenty-four hours and in the end, emerged with his oratorio, Messiah, based partly on John’s visions as recorded in the book of Revelation.
I learned a few weeks ago that something like 15% of all adult Americans living today have sung the Messiah at some point in their lives. Obviously countless millions have also heard it. This past Christmastime, my family and I attended something called The Candlelight Processional at Disney World. Actor Mario Lopez narrated. A mass choir, partly composed of high school and college groups from throughout Florida, flanked him. He asked all in the audience who had ever sung the Messiah before to stand and join in. Hundreds rose. Our two adult children, my wife, and I also stood, my wife sandwiched between our "kids." As my wife heard the kids sing Handel's words at the tops of their lungs, tears streamed down her face. Think of that: A work of art composed at what was a low point in Handel’s life has lifted millions of people into an experience of God!
When asked how he was able to compose Messiah, Handel said, “I did see the heavens opened and the great God himself seated on his throne.” Handel worshiped God and God came to him.
One of my favorite Christian heroes of more recent vintage is a man named Frank Laubach. Laubach was a missionary concerned with the grinding poverty in which most of the people of the world still live. He wanted to do something about it, but had no idea what it might be. So, this man of prayer turned his eyes on Jesus, asking for guidance. It was while praying that God gave Laubach a vision. Teach adults to read, God seemed tell him, and they could learn...about agricultural methods, about the importance of clean drinking water and hygiene, about the God Who loved them and could help them pursue love and justice in their everyday lives. Laubach began what became a worldwide literacy movement, one active right here in Clermont County. Laubach worshiped God and God came to him.
In the sports pages of today’s Cincinnati Enquirer, you can read the story of Katie and Josh Hamilton. Josh is the player having a tremendous rookie season for the Cincinnati Reds. Drafted first overall in baseball’s draft back in 2002, Hamilton’s skills drew comparisons to Mickey Mantle, among other greats. But Hamilton’s life went into a self-destructive tailspin when he got involved with drugs. The Reds’ senior management were considered courageous this year when they decided to sign the discarded Hamilton. But Hamilton has been clean and sober for a while now and he speaks openly about how his faith in Christ sustains him in the daily battle to stay away from drugs.
This morning’s article describes a turning point in the renewal of Josh Hamilton. His wife, Katie, disgusted by Josh’s relapse into drug use, went to stay with her home. There, she spoke with her pastor and his wife. After that, the article says, “Katie prayed God might help her and halt the misery of seeing a husband ‘completely throwing his life away.’” That prayer gave her the toughness, the emotional distance, and the commitment to push her husband to recovery and to God. Katie Hamilton worshiped God and God came to her.
Are you detecting a pattern?
I must tell you that in recent months, I’ve been praying a lot more than I had been for a time. This congregation and my extended family have been subjects of intense concern and prayer. I realized that I needed to get my brain off of myself and focus more on God in worship and on others in live. So, I’ve thrown myself in more devoted daily worship and striven to make sure that when you and I worship together on the weekends, I’m not just leading worship, I really am putting God first.
In recent weeks, in many different ways, God has been assuring me that He’s close at hand and doing wonderful things. He’s enlightened me with new visions of Friendship as a congregation fervently committed to sharing Christ with others and growing in our dependence on God, as well as in the numbers who are part of our fellowship. I’ve learned again how utterly dependent God is! When I worship God, I find that God always comes to me!
Do you need assurance that God won’t turn you away, now or in eternity?
Do you have a problem you’re trying to figure out?
Is there some need in your family, our community, or our church you’d like to address, but you’re uncertain how?
Worship, give yourself over to the praise of God. Give God the opportunity to descend to you the way He did in the new Jerusalem to John. You’ll be strengthened in the knowledge that God really is with you. You’ll know that all believers in Christ belong to God forever. And when things seem dark, God will lighten your way.
Besides, one day in the new Jerusalem, we will be constantly worshiping and enjoying God's fellowship. So, we may as well start practicing right now!
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