Not Even Death

March 31, 2013 — Leave a comment

When we say Christ is Risen! He is risen indeed! We are not merely making a declaration about what happened to one man 2000 years ago. We of course mean that too, but we also mean much more than that. We mean much for than that because what happened means much more than that.

When Jesus burst out of the tomb the first Easter morning, He did so as a promise. One of the first great promises God gave us was after the flood. He put a rainbow in the sky and promised to never destroy the world like that again. On the first Easter, Jesus emerged as God’s living promise that God will put all things right. Continue Reading…

In Church Calendar, Exhortations
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Jesus is Not a Victim: Good Friday 2013

March 29, 2013 — Leave a comment

“Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment I received of my Father.” (Jn. 10:17-18)

It’s hard for us to imagine choosing suffering.

Who chooses to hurt? Who signs up for pain? Cancer, miscarriage, barrenness, the humiliation of job loss, strained and broken relationships, rebellious children, betrayal, misunderstandings that just don’t seem to go away, disappointment, death of our parents, a spouse, a child, not to mention the painful consequences and shame of any number of our own mistakes and failures.

Even the sturdiest of Christians often find themselves saying something like this: I wouldn’t have chosen this path, but I can see God’s grace in it. I wouldn’t have told the story this way, but I can see how the glory of God has shone through. How many of you have said something like that?

But Jesus is saying something different than that. Jesus is not saying that a series of unfortunate events will befall Him but God His Father will work them out for good. Jesus is not saying that. We know that God does in fact work all things out for good. God is working all things out for good. But Jesus is not passive in that work. Jesus is not merely being acted upon. Jesus doesn’t just have things happening to Him. Jesus is not a victim of circumstances. Jesus is not a victim of bad luck. Jesus is not even the victim of the plotting of evil men.

Jesus says that no one can take His life from Him. Jesus is not a victim. Jesus is the Good Shepherd. Jesus did not come to feed the sheep and somehow He got caught in the middle of a wolf attack. Jesus is the Good Shepherd, and the Good Shepherd gives His life for the sheep. That’s not a possibility, not a potential hazard, that’s the plan. That’s what the Good Shepherd does. That’s what the Good Shepherd is for. That’s how you know He’s the Good Shepherd because He gives His life for the sheep. Continue Reading…

In Bible - Galatians, bible - John, Bible - Romans, Church Calendar, Lent, Sermon Outlines
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Broken for the Broken

March 25, 2013 — Leave a comment

This table is for sinners. This meal is not for good people. This bread is not for people who have their act together. This wine is not for people who have never made enormous mistakes. No, this bread is broken because Jesus was broken for the broken. This wine is His blood because Jesus bled for the guilty. We do not gather here at this table as the top of the class, as the winners, the success stories, the clean, the innocent, the popular, the good looking. No, we are here as the failures, the losers, the guilty, the outcasts, the rejected, the ugly.

There are any number of ways we could get the idea of a new building wrong. As we prepare for this new stage in our story as TRC, we should be thinking and praying about the ways we will be tempted. One danger is the temptation that we will think we have arrived, that we are now a respectable church, full of good, squeaky clean people. Yes, we are a forgiven people. Yes, by the grace of God, we are healed and healing people. Yes, we have been given many blessings. But if we understand who we are in the light of God’s grace, we have to constantly remember where we have come from and how far we have to go. Continue Reading…

In Bible - Isaiah, Eucharistic Meditations, Evangelism, Justice & Mercy, Lent
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The Kind of Lovely that Stays

March 25, 2013 — Leave a comment

Jesus came as the Second Adam, and this means the renewal of the human race. Last week, the exhortation was particularly aimed at men. This week the exhortation is for the women.

Ladies, the Bible teaches that your glory, your strength is found particularly in your beauty and your powers of nurturing life. This glory and power is found in those women who fear the Lord, who place their trust in the God who runs the universe, and who consequently obey His word regardless of their circumstances.

But fear is often the great crippler of women. After the first sin entered the world, God told Eve that her temptation would be to rule her husband. Peter tells wives to win over disobedient husbands without a word, to use their gentle and quiet spirits, their beauty inside and out. But women often see dangers coming, see the way things might go wrong, see how their husband or father or friends are missing something, and they wrongly think that they should talk about it. Continue Reading…

In Bible - 1 Peter, Bible - Proverbs, Exhortations, Family, TRC
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A Party in Here

March 22, 2013 — Leave a comment

oceanIs God good?

That’s not just a question about intentions or absence of evil. I mean is God good? And if it’s God we’re talking about, He doesn’t get His attributes from the thrift store. He didn’t pick His goodness up at a garage sale. His attributes are not two sizes too small or something He has to grow into. God’s attributes are God-like, divine, perfect, ultimate. In other words the goodness of God is not a hat He puts on occasionally. God’s goodness is infinite, eternal, unchangeable, unsurpassed. To say that God is good is necessarily to claim that God is the Highest Good, the Greatest Good.

So, is God good? Is He explosively good? Overflowingly good? Everlastingly good? Uncontrollably good?

The answer to this question is the difference between light and darkness, the difference between joy and despair, the difference between true repentance and forgiveness on the one hand, and wallowing around in guilt and regrets and fear on the other.

Romans 1 says that the difference between light and darkness is the difference between thankfulness and ingratitude. Because God’s attributes — His glory, His goodness, His love, His mercy are all clearly seen in the world. You can’t miss them. The world is fully loaded with His goodness. But some people insist on not seeing, insist on not worshiping the God who makes it Christmas every day. These people refuse to give Him thanks, and Romans says that when they do this, their hearts are darkened. But it doesn’t stop there. When their hearts are dark, they begin to profess themselves to be very wise. They write books, publish articles, and have quite a lot to say about things, but they are actually fools. And you can tell because they start worshipping inanimate objects and animals and pretty much anything in creation other than the Awesome God who made it all. And God gives them over to their folly, and pretty soon men in suits are explaining in calm voices how sex with animals is probably a natural urge. Continue Reading…

In Bible - Romans, Creation, Grace, Misc, Wisdom, Worship
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The Exodus of Jesus

March 19, 2013 — Leave a comment

Our sermon text is about a new Exodus that God promises through Isaiah, an Exodus out of exile into freedom, into glory. In the gospels, the turning point in Jesus’ ministry, when He turns His face toward Jerusalem, is the transfiguration, when Moses and Elijah appear with Jesus, and He shines with the glory of His coming victory. And Luke’s gospel says explicitly that what they talked about was the Exodus that He was about to perform in Jerusalem (Lk. 9:31). In other words, the great Exodus that Isaiah foretold began when the exiles returned under Cyrus, but that only prefigured the Great Exodus of Jesus. And like the first Exodus, Jesus began with a meal, shared with His disciples, and He told them to keep celebrating it until He comes again in glory. Isaiah commands a number of things for keeping the Passover Feast which we should keep in mind: Wake up, get dressed, be on the look out, rejoice, get ready to leave, and the sign of their departure will be God’s servant, a new Moses, who will be greatly exalted, but He will be surprising because His appearance will be marred. Week after week, we come to this same table, to celebrate this same Exodus, and so the commands are still for us: Continue Reading…

In Bible - Exodus, Bible - Isaiah, Bible - Luke, Eucharistic Meditations, Theology - Sacraments
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Jesus Was Not a Victim

March 19, 2013 — Leave a comment

Rich Bledsoe writes:

The book of Hebrews speaks of the “deceitfulness of sin.” Once sin is unmasked one way, it transmutes itself like a virus into a slightly different form that is immune to the old antidotes. We live in the very odd day when the Christian Gospels have done a great deal of work to unmask what was invisible to the ancient world in regard to the victim. But now in many cases the garb of victimhood can be donned in order to victimize others, in order to persecute. The persecuted have in many cases become the persecutors, and it is necessary to understand that victimhood is not an automatic ticket to righteousness or moral superiority. Several recent theological perspectives have granted to victims a special status and even an “epistemological advantage”, meaning that only victims really see the world as it is. In all of this thicket, it is essential to highlight the fact that Jesus was not in the final analysis a victim, and He did not pioneer the way to make victimization profitable, but he opened the way to overcome and create a new social order that is truly based on righteousness.

Read the whole article here.

In Culture, ethics, Justice & Mercy, Lent, Manalive, Pastoral Theology, Theology, Wisdom
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Tiny Empires

March 18, 2013 — 1 Comment

Jesus came as the Second Adam, the beginning of a new human race. And this means the restoration of men and women to their respective glories. This week I want to address men in particular, and Lord willing, next week I will address the women.

Men, you were created to be strong. You were created to work hard. You were created to sweat and bleed and die. You were created to study, consider, explore, evaluate, and then to focus your energy and strength to provide, protect, create, and lead your people. That’s all heroic sounding, and every boy dreams of growing up to be a hero like that. But life is messy, and men are sinners, foolish, selfish, arrogant, cowardly, and sometimes they’re just wrong and they make mistakes, sometimes real big ones.

And this is precisely where many men sin. They try to carve out safe space where they can be mini-heroes, or at least heroes in their own head, in their imaginations. They refuse to take risks because they are afraid of failure. They carve out tiny empires in their homes, in the garage, in the study, at work, and then they bluster and strut and take offense when they don’t feel like they’re getting the respect they deserve. They buy expensive toys that make them feel strong, but often this is no better than a little boy tying a cape around his neck and running through the hallways with his arms out. Continue Reading…

In Exhortations, Family, Manalive, TRC
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The Public Gospel

March 18, 2013 — Leave a comment

dcOne of the hallmarks of Peter Leithart’s work has been the public nature of the Christian faith. To say that Jesus is King is to make a highly charged political claim. Worship is a political act. The sacraments are public, objective realities that proclaim cosmic truth to power regardless of and often despite the intentions of the people involved in them. Baptism means that all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Jesus. The Supper proclaims the victorious and vicarious death of Jesus to the world until He comes. And this is all because the Word of God is living and powerful and thunders from heaven and demands obedience, allegiance, loyalty. God’s truth trumps all pretenders.

The last couple of weeks Pastor Leithart has continued his series through the book of Isaiah, and he has reminded us particularly that the prophet Isaiah was not foretelling a future for Israel that could exist only in their hearts. The prophet’s burden is not something that might remain safely within the confines of the minds of certain exiled Jews. Isaiah was not trying to calm everyone down, giving them a religious pacifier to suck on while the uncircumcised rejoice over the destruction of Jerusalem. No, if anything, Isaiah is trying to get the people worked up, excited, rambunctious. Yes, he promises peace and comfort, but this is the peace and comfort of victory, the peace and comfort of deliverance from their enemies, the peace and comfort of coming home. In other words, the salvation Isaiah foretold can’t leave Israel in exile, can’t leave Jerusalem in ruins, and therefore cannot be a merely private experience. God’s justice is public. God’s righteousness is always for everyone to see. It stops the mouths of kings, and it does so because they read about it in the morning paper.

What follows is my own ruminations on this fact: Over the last two hundred years (at least) the Church has been in retreat in America. We have sown the wind and now we are reaping the whirlwind politically, culturally, economically, etc. If you do the math that means that probably right around the founding of America, the retreat was already beginning. Some of the faithful old guard could see it coming and put up the best fight they knew how, but plenty were already hedging their bets, compromising, and still others were already in apostasy and full blown naturalism was on the rise. And the net result over time has been for many professing Christians to hunker down in the bunkers of a private, personal, and overly spiritualized version of the faith Jesus bled and died for. This happened in some quarters under the guise of highly emotional experiences of revival and spiritual renewal which did not (for the most part) translate into much momentum publicly. Others hunkered down with fat books and systematic theologies, and while they may have said many true things, all the pointy edges were sandpapered with the proper scholarly apparatus, footnotes, and Greek word studies. Nobody but their closest friends and relatives read them (and mostly to be polite). Continue Reading…

In Against Christianity, Bible - Isaiah, Culture, Federal Vision, Manalive, TRC
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Everlasting Joy

March 11, 2013 — Leave a comment

“Therefore the redeemed of the Lord shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head: they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning shall flee away.” (Is. 51:11)

One of my earliest memories in church as a child is singing a song based almost word for word on this verse. John Frame, one of the greatest theologians of our time, was our Music Minister at my family’s church in California, and I specifically remember him stopping us in the middle of singing this song one time, in order to teach us to properly clap on beat to the song. I thought about trying to teach it to you this morning, but maybe another time.

Every week, we celebrate our return from the exile of sin and death. Every week we come with singing unto Zion with an everlasting joy upon our heads. This world is still full of sorrow and mourning, but we gather here because Jesus has come back from the dead. Jesus has taken away our sins. And now even sickness and failure and shame and death cannot and will not have the last word. And because Jesus drank the cup of God’s wrath and gave His body broken on a tree, we have this bread that will never fail and this cup of everlasting joy. And as we share it together, we lift it up to God and remind Him of His promises to us in Jesus to put all things right, and we remind one another that sorrow and mourning will not have the last word. They shall flee away. So come and rejoice.

In Bible - Isaiah, Eucharistic Meditations, Justice & Mercy, Theology - Sacraments, TRC
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