When Elisha sent a messenger to Naaman, the leper, in II Kings 5, he said: “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored, and you shall be clean.” Naaman could not humble himself to see that this was God’s way of bringing healing from his leprosy; uncleanness. At times we would prefer to take our own path to peace and restoration, but God has called us to live and to worship in a certain way. To use Calvin’s language, we have put on Christian glasses, so that we may see all things rightly. God’s way is the only way to achieve bliss and to understand life as we should; any other way—however normal it might seem—and however more prestigious and respected it might seem is ultimately a path to despair. God has called us to worship him. He says do this and live. Let us not doubt, but enter into his courts with praise.
Exhortation: Liturgy as Language
Liturgy is a language. The more we master that language the more common it is for us. Our families begin to speak that language at home and in other places. But like any language, liturgy demands practice. I have often told visiting families who are new to any type of liturgy to come back once more, and work with us again as we offer praise to the Triune God. Our evangelical culture is quite lazy when it comes to practicing liturgy. We do not have that option, because as a church we want to learn more of God’s psalms, we are constantly going through cycles of church seasons, and all these things require us to be in tune with the language of the church.
One of the most especially valuable refrain in the Church’s historic liturgy “that increases our sense of the community and its mutual ministry is the pastor’s blessing, “The Lord be with you,” and the congregational response, “And also with you.” This is extremely powerful language.
Marva Dawn’s book: Reaching Out without Dumbing Down, offers an interesting story about a friend’s visit to a shopping mall. Dawn writes:
While her friend waited at a concession shop, an older woman in line in front of her dropped a coin purse, and the money rolled all over the mall corridor. Seeing that the woman was unable to bend down and retrieve the coins, the friend gathered them and brought them to the flustered lady. She looked at the young woman with intense gratitude and from her lips burst the phrase, “The Lord be with you.” When her helper responded, “And also with you,” they both broke into grins and hugged each other—a worshipful moment of community, made possible in a shopping mall by mutual knowledge of liturgy.”[1]
Liturgy unites, and the more we know this language the more fruitful it becomes in corporate worship, and in our communities.
Prayer: O God of grace and truth, teach us your will and cause us to love it for you have made us for yourself and our souls are restless until they find their rest in You. Amen.
[1] Marva Dawn, Reaching out without Dumbing Down, 253.
Exhortation: God as Chief Listener
Dale Topp in his book Music in the Christian Community argues that God is the chief listener in worship music. Our music is to God. God delights and responds to our music. In I Samuel 16, when Saul was terrorized by a harmful spirit the only way to end his agony was by playing music. God acts when God’s people make music. In II Chronicles 20, Jehoshaphat appointed people to sing to the Lord from Psalm 136: “Give thanks to the Lord for his steadfast love endures forever.” What was the result? The Bible says: “And when they began to sing and praise, the Lord set an ambush against the men of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah, so that they were routed.” This is a principle we need to keep in mind this morning: that God listens to what we sing. What we sing matters. Why? Because God is waiting to act on our behalf.
Prayer: Act, O God. For we are a weak people apart from your powerful right hand. Teach our hearts and mouths to sing with joy and to declare your praises. Amen.
Exhortation: Sanctity of Life Sunday
This morning we have baby bottles available for you to take home. For many American Churches this is Sanctity of Life Sunday. One tangible way of fighting for the un- born is to help financially those who are gifted in counseling young mothers considering abortion, and who are capable in providing care for those young mothers who at times are clueless as to what to do.
The session of Providence hopes that you will be able to add your change to that bottle, and by doing so also teaching others the value of all life. God is the God of life. He values life. He cares about life. He is the Preserver of life. This God sees the complexity of life, and He declares it to be valuable, precious, and worthy. A life in the womb is a living soul; a person.
I was pleased to hear that Pensacola no longer has a functioning abortion clinic. This is a great victory for this city. We hope with many others that Florida and every other state in this country will recognize the biblical truth that the Creator has established an unalterable law. And this law dictates that the unborn is fearfully and wonderfully made.
The Bible says that judgment begins in the house of God, so let us not be guilty of failing to defend life at all times, and in all places. It is interesting that churches that have abandoned the orthodox gospel began not by an outright denial of the creeds, but an outright denial of when life begins. May God be gracious to His Church and may she never falter in her prophetic message.
Let us pray:
O heavenly Father, strengthen us against the mounting forces of anti-life; enlighten those who walk in this deadly way that they may see the enormity of their sin and return to the generous observance of the divine law. We pray, too, for mothers, that they may prize the great privilege of motherhood; and that they may bring up their children in the holy love and fear of God, thus saving their own immortal souls and furthering the honor and glory of their Maker. Through Christ, our Lord. Amen.
Exhortation: Christ: Gift to the World
This is the first Sunday of Epiphany! Hope, growth, joy, and fulfillment are at the heart of this season. For some of us who did not grow up in liturgical traditions it will take a while to get used to all the different colors and significance of each event and season. The good news is that our children who grow up in this environment will have a better sense of time than most of us will. It is one of the great joys of a pastor to see little ones worshiping in this congregation. To see them singing, to see their wonder at the lighting of the Advent Candles, to see them confess the Lord’s Prayer with great fervor, to see them raise their hands, to see them receive God’s benediction. Surely every time we worship, Screwtape advises his demon-student to run away from that little congregation in Pensacola.
Worship, is after all, for children. And if we are to participate we must be just like them. That is what Jesus said: “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” Epiphany invites us to enter with a pure heart and to worship with the fervor and transparency of a little child. Epiphany is the God-man revealing himself to the nations; Epiphany is God’s challenge to tyranny for in that little baby boy are the hopes of the entire world.
This morning: smile, sing, and celebrate man’s gifts to Christ, for Christ has become a gift to the world.
Prayer: O God
Who by a star
guided the wise men to the worship of your Son
we pray you to lead to yourself
the wise and great of every land
that unto you every knee may bow,
and every thought be brought into captivity
Through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Exhortation: The Feast of the Holy Innocents
We are in the final week of Christmas. We have sung Christmas Carols at home, nursing homes, at Church, and many of us will be whistling these carols for the next few weeks.
This past Sunday we got a glimpse not from the gospels, but from Hebrews of the power of the Son of God. He is the final revelation of God. Christmas is a call to learn and adore the Christ more and more.
The incarnation is the miracle of divinity becoming flesh without losing his divinity; He is fully God and fully man. It is the miracle of birth. Birth, which is despised in our culture, is actually God’s gift to men to replenish the earth with his likeness.
On December 28th, the Church celebrated the Feast of the Innocents. George Grant summarized the Feast of the Innocents with these words:
It has always been the focus of the Christian’s commitment to protect and preserve the sanctity of human life—thus serving as a prophetic warning against the practitioners of abandonment and infanticide in the age of antiquity, and abortion and euthanasia in these modern times. Generally set aside as a day of prayer, it culminates with a declaration of the covenant community’s unflinching commitment to the innocents who are unable to protect themselves.[1]
It is the day when the children of Judea were slaughtered by Herod the Great following the birth of Christ. Historically, we are reminded of the Romans who left their unwanted infants in ancient Rome abandoned outside the city walls to die from exposure to the elements or from the attacks of wild foraging beasts, and the Primitive Canaanites who threw their children onto great flaming pyres as a sacrifice to their god Molech.[2] History has not been kind to children. No wonder Jesus’ statement in the gospels is such a reversal of the ancient, wicked practices when he said:
“Let the children come to me, and don’t try to stop them! People who are like these children belong to God’s kingdom.”
The Incarnation is the reversal of barbaric practices; practices, which still continue to this day, but which will one day be abolished from earth by the power of the gospel.
So, on this day, we remember that our Lord escaped as an infant death only to be put to death three decades later. We remember that our Lord Jesus came for such as these; He came that little ones might have life and life more abundantly. As George Grant ably summarizes:
The Gospel therefore came into the world as a stern rebuke. God, who is the giver of life (Acts 17:25), the fountain of life (Psalm 36:9), and the defender of life (Psalm 27:1), not only sent us the message of life (Acts 5:20) and the words of life (John 6:68), He sent us the light of life as well (John 8:12). He sent us His only begotten Son—the life of the world (John 6:51)–to break the bonds of sin and death (1 Corinthians 15:54-56). For God so loved the world, that He sent His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life (John 3:16).
Let us Pray:
Most merciful and tender Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, on this day we are reminded of the sacredness of life. We are reminded that life is precious because You have declared it precious. We pray for the reversal of Roe v Wade. We pray that abortion clinics in this country, beginning here in Florida, be put out of business because of the prayers and protest of your people. Restore our society to a vision of life. Remind our culture that no one has the authority to terminate the life of the unborn. Do not forget your promises, O God. But be speedy to help us and to reverse the ugliness and misery of a culture of death.
We are especially grateful for the love you have given us for children in this congregation. May this love increase each day. We pray especially for the Anderson family as they seek the adoption of two little ones. Grant their cause success and cause us to care, love and protect our little ones and treasure their lives in our community, for this we pray through Christ, the giver of life. Amen.
Exhortation: Prepare Him Room
Merry Christmas! The calendar is moving. Our final candle is lit. Christ has come! But he did not come the way it was expected by men; He came the way the Father ordained. And this is what we will see as we walk through the birth and life of Jesus: that he does not conform to the expectations of men; He does not act as we expect of a coming King. Everything Jesus does is remarkably paradoxical.
But this is the story of Christmas. Christmas is blessed not because it is common, but because its uniqueness provoked this historical tsunami that the world will never get over. Heaven comes to earth in the Eternal Son of God.
While modern culture entangles itself in debates over whether to allow manger scenes in certain public places, the Church says that Jesus is the king of all public places, because He rules the world with truth and grace and makes the nations know the wonders of His love. Let us prepare then to enter worship and make him room in our hearts and voices on this holy day.
Prayer: Grant our hearts Your Joy, most gracious and blessed Jesus Christ. Amen.
Exhortation: According to thy Word
In Luke 1, Mary discovers that she will bear the Son of God. Though the message was striking, Mary’s response is likewise striking:
38And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.
Mary was the blessed one; and this noble and most privileged blessing to bear the Son of God stems from her unfailing reliance on the Word of God. The angel speaks for God, and Mary listens and obeys.
This is the Advent message: the coming of Christ is to cause us to desire the Word of God to shape us. May our response always be that of Mary: “let it be to me according to your word.”
Prayer: Transform us, O Christ. May our lives conform to your very word, through Your Holy and Righteous Name, Amen.
Exhortation: Far as the Curse is Found
InIsaiah 61the prophet ends with these powerful words:
For as the earth brings forth its sprouts,
and as a garden causes what is sown in it to sprout up,
so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise
to sprout up before all the nations.
Isaiah uses the garden as an image for how the righteousness of God will permeate the entire world. As we go about this season of Advent we are preparing ourselves for a time when the deserts will become colored by flowers, when the deaf will hear, the dumb will sing, when blessings will make its away far as the curse is found, when to live only 80 years old will be a curse, when children will psalm as a way of life; ultimately, when Eden’s garden will become only a tiny picture of the greater and glorified garden that God is creating for us. Do you believe in the prophecy of Isaiah? This is our hope. Isaiah says that all nations will get a glimpse of the righteousness and praise of our God. Let heaven and nature sing in wonder at the Incarnation. Let us join this praise this morning.
Exhortation: Examining our Lives
Today marks the first Sunday of Advent. It is the beginning of a rich season of anticipation and preparation.
For centuries Christians have used the month prior to the celebration of Christ’s incarnation to ready their hearts and their homes for the great festival.
Advent is a time to consider our lives in light of our calling. We will be busy with many things in the weeks ahead, but let us not be too busy to consider the magnificent descent of God for us in human flesh. Let’s place ourselves in the story of our forefathers and walk with them as they sung and hoped for their redeemer.
This is the beginning of a new year; a time to re-consider our walk and ask: “Have persevered in Christ-likeness?” If Christ did become man for us have we become man and woman as he expects of us? This is a season of examination; and it will not take long to realize that we have failed to live as we should.
In this season, we will sing great hymns of expectations; great hymns pertaining to Christ’s coming for us. This will cause us to anticipate even more the season ahead. The best way to prepare for the coming of the Lord is to make straight His pathway in our hearts. Let us do so even now as we pray:
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, ever faithful to your promises and ever close to your Church: the earth rejoices in hope of the Savior’s coming and looks forward with longing to his return at the end of time. Prepare our hearts and remove the sadness that hinders us from feeling the joy and hope which his presence will bestow, for he is Lord for ever and ever. Amen.