Category: Exhortation

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.