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Archives For July 2012

Jesus Died with You in Mind

July 31, 2012 — Leave a comment

This meal is a covenantal meal. Jesus said specifically: this cup is the new covenant in His blood. A covenant is a real, personal relationship, sealed in blood, with blessings and curses attached to it. Keeping covenant results in blessings while breaking covenant hauls out the curses.

But how do we keep covenant? How do we embrace the blessings and flee the curses of the covenant? The Bible says that we keep covenant by faith. The just live by faith. This is the work that God requires of us: to believe on Him whom He has sent. Jesus has kept covenant perfectly. He obeyed His Father perfectly, He obeyed even in the face of injustice, in the face of shame and pain and suffering, He entrusted Himself to the One who judges justly. And God raised Him from the dead on the third day.

This is what faith does: Faith looks at sin, at brokenness, at hurt, at shame, at pain and then looks to Jesus crucified and risen. Faith sees in Jesus, in His death and resurrection the promise of God to put all things right. Are you a failure? Have you sinned? Have you let others down? Have you been hurt? Have you been stabbed in the back? Are you facing sickness, pain, confusion, death? Jesus died with you in mind, with your circumstances in mind. And God raised Him up with you in mind, with your whole life in view.

This table is for those hungry for glory and beauty, for those who are not satisfied with the status quo, who will not make peace with sin or brokenness or death in any form. So place your trust in Jesus. He is your glory and beauty.

 

In Eucharistic Meditations, Theology - Sacraments, Theology - Soteriology, TRC
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Get Bloody

July 31, 2012 — Leave a comment

In today’s sermon text, God gives the instructions for the priests’ garments. One of the things to notice is that God wants Israel to view the priest as a sort of warrior. His garments are like armor. He wears a breastplate, shoulder guards, and a robe like a coat of mail. To be near to God, to serve God on behalf of others, to guard God’s presence necessarily means warfare, struggle, fighting. Priests busy in the tabernacle would frequently be splattered with blood, the blood of sacrifice.

But lots of Christians spend their time walking or running away from struggle, away from the fight. Many Christians are at least functional pacifists when it comes to their priestly duties. It’s easier not to speak up, easier not to comment on the silly Facebook post, easier not to get off the couch and correct your child, easier not to go to someone who has offended you. But the Christian life is not all about just keeping the peace, making sure everyone is just floating merrily down the lazy river of life.

Paul insists that we have been enlisted in the army of Jesus: put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. At the end of his life, Paul describes his whole ministry as having “fought the good fight.” Continue Reading…

In Bible - Ephesians, Bible - Exodus, Culture, Exhortations, TRC
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Glory & Beauty

July 31, 2012 — Leave a comment

9th Sunday in Trinity: Exodus 27-28: Lessons: Ex. 28:1-30, 1 Pet. 2:1-12, Jn. 17:20-26

Introduction
We continue to work through the book of Exodus this morning and the instructions for building the tabernacle and establishing faithful worship there. Today we look particularly at God’s determination to share His glory and beauty with His people.

The Text:
The instructions for the tabernacle work their way from the inside out. So we began with the Ark (Ex. 25:10-22), worked our way out into the Holy Place (Ex. 25:23-40), and then considered the coverings and curtains of the tent enclosing the Holy Place and Most Holy Place (Ex. 26:1-26). In our text, we move outward to the bronze altar just outside the entrance to the Holy Place (Ex. 27:1-8) and then continue with the construction of the fence enclosing the Courtyard (Ex. 27:9-19). Given the overall movement outward, it seems strange to revert to instructions for the lampstand (Ex. 27:20-21), but what follows are instructions for the garments of the priests (Ex. 28) and their ordination (Ex. 29). The lampstand is tended by the priests (Ex. 28:21), and more importantly, the lampstand symbolizes the priests who are anointed with oil (Ex. 29:7, 21).

There are intricate instructions for the garments of the priests, but we should specifically note several things: First, the garments are for “glory and beauty” (Ex. 28:2, 40), and here we have the first mention of “gifted artisans” who are filled with the “spirit of wisdom” (Ex. 28:3, cf. 28:6, 15). Secondly, notice that the garments match the rest of the tabernacle (Ex. 28:5-6, 8, 15, 23-24, 26-27, 31, compare with 25:12, 26, 26:1, 31, 36). In other words, the priest is an embodied, walking tabernacle. But the symbolism goes the other way too: the tabernacle represents a human: she has sides that are literally “ribs” (Ex. 25:12,14, 26:20, 26, 27, 35, 27:7), and she is covered in “skins” (Ex. 25:5, 26:14, cf. Gen. 3:21, 27:16). Literally, each curtain is referred to as a “woman/wife” (Ex. 26:3, 5, 6, 17). The “tenons” that hold the boards together are “hands” (Ex. 26:17, 19). Continue Reading…

In Bible - 1 Peter, Bible - Exodus, bible - John, Church, Culture, Sermon Outlines, TRC, Worship
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Jared & Janine

July 29, 2012 — Leave a comment

The fact that we’re standing here today like this, with smiles on our faces about to celebrate this particular marriage is a miracle. There’s no good reason for this. There’s nothing really ordinary about any wedding. When you think about all the twists and turns in peoples’ lives, decisions to move, decisions to take particular jobs, decisions to go to a particular event or not. If you think about all the ways in which something could have gone wrong, should have gone wrong, all the ways you shouldn’t have clicked, it shouldn’t have worked out, the impossibility of a wedding looms large. But sometimes the circumstances are even more obviously fantastic, obviously impossible.

And I don’t mean that anyone doubted that you liked each other. I mean the fact that you’re standing here, your parents and siblings are all around you, and you’re in fellowship with one another. You’re standing underneath a huge fountain of God’s grace and blessing that you don’t deserve, that we don’t deserve. God’s goodness is pouring out on you right now, far beyond measure, far beyond reckoning. I hope you can feel that.

But this isn’t a vague, you-won-the-lottery-lucky, the point isn’t to say, oh looky, sometimes things randomly turn out. No, the point is to say that there is a God and He has revealed Himself to us in Jesus. And Jesus is alive. He’s not dead. He’s not a mythological character. He’s not a figment of our imaginations. It’s not a name that we say like some kind of good luck charm or superstitious incantation. Jesus is God; Jesus came and died and rose again for our sins and for the sins of the world. He’s alive now in heaven, and He rules and reigns over all things. And “all things” includes our lives, in every detail. Continue Reading…

In Bible - Ephesians, Family, Grace, Marriage Bed, Wedding Exhortation
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Jesus & the Bikinis

July 26, 2012 — 14 Comments

There’s hardly any way to talk about the way women dress without coming off as the voyeristic pervert, the old cranky prude, or the fire-eating, Bible-thumping legalist, but whatever, there is a verse in the Bible somewhere that says Christian girls shouldn’t dress like harlots. And every once in a while someone should say so.

Now let’s just work through the basic structure of the thing. First, we keep our priorities straight: Jesus didn’t condemn prostitutes for dressing like prostitutes. We assume that there were cultural cues in the first century just like there are today. Just like always, there have been some women kidnapped, enslaved against their wills, and forced into prostitution, but there have also always been some women tempted toward that kind of abuse and oppression. For some, there’s a sick sort of security in being used and abused; ‘my life may be a chaotic mess but at least I know he needs me,’ the battered wife assures herself, the molested daughter tries to convince herself. But Jesus came proclaiming freedom to every slave. And He did this by proclaiming forgiveness and healing. Jesus came to disarm the Accuser and all accusers and send abused women out in peace saying, “Go and sin no more.”

But this does not change the fact that the way a woman tends to dress is tied directly to the state of her heart. An unforgiven, guilty conscience will tend to dress in certain ways to compensate, distract, and lie about that inner state. But the lies remain lies even with nice-Christian-girl smiles. And not only can God see through the lies, wise fathers and mothers and pastors start to see the tell-tale signs, and pretty soon it’s just like putting a sticker on your shirt that says, “Hello, My Name Is ______. And I’m insecure.”

Continue Reading…

In Church, Creation, Culture, Evangelism, Grace, Justice & Mercy, Pastoral Theology, Theology - Pneumatology, Theology - Soteriology, Wisdom
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Girard on the Atonement

July 25, 2012 — 1 Comment

In an interview published in Touchstone, Rene Girard, explains his understanding of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross:

You have advocated what is seen as a “non-sacrificial” reading of the death of Christ that is significantly at odds with the usual understanding of that death as a “hilasterion” that satisfies the wrath and justice of God. Could you describe that view and how your study of the formation and maintenance of human cultures has led you to it?

RG:Oh, this is a question that will require a long answer! It is not quite true that I take what you have called a “non-sacrificial reading of the death of Christ.” We must establish first of all that there are two kinds of sacrifice.

Both forms are shown together (and I am not sure anywhere else) in the story of Solomon’s judgment in the third chapter of 1 Kings. Two prostitutes bring a baby. They are doubles engaging in a rivalry over what is apparently a surviving child. When Solomon offers to split the child, the one woman says “yes,” because she wishes to triumph over her rival. The other woman then says, “No, she may have the child,” because she seeks only its life. On the basis of this love, the king declares that “she is the mother.” Continue Reading…

In Justice & Mercy, Pastoral Theology, Theology - Soteriology
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Why Fight?

July 25, 2012 — 2 Comments

Why enter the fray? Many Christians would rather not argue about anything. Look at all the divisions in the church. Look at all the infighting. Jesus didn’t say that we would be known for our denominations. He said we’d be known for our love for one another. Great witness, modern church, way to go.

And of course there’s some truth to this complaint. Churches dividing over trifles is a bad witness. A church blowing up over the color of the carpet in the foyer is a bad witness, but the problem is that churches don’t blow up over the color of the carpet in the foyer, no matter what anyone says. That may be the reason they gave the newspaper reporter, what went in the minutes, what was posted on facebook, but that’s a lie. Churches divide over trivial matters because there are serious problems raging under the surface. The color of the carpet was just the easiest, and ironically, least embarrassing place to throw down. The faithful will refuse to argue about the color of the carpet. People who love Jesus will refuse to strangle gnats because Jesus said not to. And because their hearts are so gripped by the grace of God, such penny pinching is laughable. But Pharisees are professional gnat stranglers. Pharisees walk around with magnifying glasses and microscopes strapped to their heads and furrowed brows, and it’s no wonder they leave a trail of broken pieces and people in their wake. And when anyone points out the damage they’re doing, it’s going to get grim. Continue Reading…

In Church, Culture, Exhortations, Justice & Mercy, Pastoral Theology, Wisdom
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Liturgy, Glory, and Homosexuality

July 24, 2012 — 10 Comments

So a few days a go I posted a quote from private correspondance by Rich Bledsoe concerning the connection between liturgical worship and homosexuals. His thoughts came in response to some recent posts like this and this.

For what it’s worth, the broader context of his comments actually included the point that the Orthodox Church is finally coming out into the open, coming out of the various cultural ghettos she has tended to hide away in for centuries. And part of coming out into the mainstream of western culture means dealing with all the same sins that all the rest of us have been dealing with already. Part of the “pristine” reputation of EO is bound up in the fact that lots of their churches spoke Russian and Ethiopian and worked (in some measure) to stay separated from mainstream American culture. The point wasn’t to point at EO and laugh, the point was in part to say, “hey, look who decided to show up to the party.” Now you get to fight along side the rest of us Bible believing Christians. So in one sense, you could take the whole comment as a compliment.

But the point I zeroed in on was relative to liturgy, glory, and homosexuality. Now here’s the argument, and I really would like to hear honest feedback. I thought the argument made good sense.

We know from Scripture that the woman is the glory of man. She is his crown. In fact, in the Hebrew this is underlined. The man is called “dirt” because he was taken out of the ground, and then God rips a rib out of his side and “builds” the woman. Literally, God builds a “fire” (Ishshah), and then (and only then) the man is called a “fire” (Ish). In other words, man becomes glorious when he has a woman at his side. He becomes a fire, when the fire-babe becomes his crown. The woman is the glory of the man. We might wonder what it is about a woman that is glorious: Paul points to her hair (1 Cor. 11), Solomon says it’s her wisdom (Proverbs), and elsewhere we gather that she is created to be beautiful physically and make and do beautiful things (like magically making babies inside of her). Continue Reading…

In Against Christianity, Church, Creation, Culture, Family, Federal Vision, Marriage Bed, Why I Won't Convert, Worship
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Why Liturgical Churches Attract Homosexuals

July 17, 2012 — 29 Comments

One of the things that all liturgical churches have to come to grips with is that we have been so de-glorified for so long, that the very glory of the liturgy attracts a faux following, a fake following. To be blunt, a homosexual following. If the woman is the glory of the man, the homosexual is the faux glory of the man. He is false, fake, faux glory. He is a fake woman, so he is fake glory. But, like it or not, homosexuals are going to be attracted to all that glory in Eastern Orthodoxy. “Smells, bells,” and long beautiful gowns with candles, incense, and chanting, is going to attract a lot of faux glory seekers.

It is no mistake that Oscar Wilde was not a Presbyterian or Congregationalist. Smells and bells are where it’s at.

-Rich Bledsoe

In Against Christianity, Culture, Federal Vision, Pastoral Theology, Why I Won't Convert
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Mark & Hannah

July 14, 2012 — Leave a comment

“With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the High God? Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Mic. 6:6-8)

Mark & Hannah, it’s pretty sexy these days to talk about justice. It’s like apple products and skinny jeans and organic produce. And of course there’s nothing particularly wrong with any of those (except the skinny jeans), but ever since Adam and Eve sinned, there’s been a deep current, a gravity in the world, that pulls people toward hypocrisy. We call these people posers, fakers, Pharisees. And it all goes back to Adam and Eve in the garden: naked, ashamed, hiding from God, trying desperately to be cool, to be safe, to just be OK.

People who are guilty need a covering. People who are insecure and fearful look for something safe, someplace shady. In Micah’s day, instead of black rimmed glasses and hipster tattoos and piercings, people went in for big sacrifices. You have to realize that sacrifices usually included a big feast, so it was more like throwing a huge bar-b-que party in the name of Yahweh. They could invite all their friends and be really popular, and hey, there was a Bible verse on the napkins, something hip and trendy like doing justice. And meanwhile the poor around them were getting crushed, theft ran rampant, and the innocent and weak were despised and forgotten and killed. Continue Reading…

In Bible - Micah, Justice & Mercy, Theology - Soteriology, Wedding Exhortation
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