We Will Not Lie

February 13, 2013 — 10 Comments

ashFor as long as I can remember, in the days leading up to Ash Wednesday, one of my daughters always tells us every year that she doesn’t want the ashes on her forehead. And whenever we ask her why, the answer is always the same. She says, “I don’t want to die.” And while we’ve always asked her to go up with the rest of the family, and she’s always been compliant, she’s also been known to have wiped them off her forehead almost by the time she’s made it back to her seat. At some point, we realized that she also thought dying always meant literally being crucified, dying on a cross. Now, she still talks about not wanting to die, though she still occasionally reminds us that she might not die on an actual cross, and she often remembers to mention that after she dies Jesus will raise her from the dead. But she still doesn’t particularly like Ash Wednesday. She still doesn’t want to die.

I’m convinced that my daughter actually understands this service far better than most people do. Next to Christmas and Easter, I sometimes wonder if Ash Wednesday is the third most attended service in the Christian Calendar. I couldn’t find statistics to confirm or deny that, though among Protestants it appears that Mother’s Day has the third highest attendance. So maybe I’m wrong. But there’s still a strange sort of enthusiasm surrounding Ash Wednesday that seems all wrong. It’s understandable that Christmas and Easter would be popular celebrations even among unbelievers or nominal Christians. But as a culture, we don’t really know what to do with death. We are a nursing home culture. We are a distraction culture. We are a drug and alcohol culture. We pay to be numbed, to be distracted, to be lied to, to avoid the harsh realities of suffering and death.

But come Ash Wednesday, if you live in a big city you’ll see people on the street with crosses on their foreheads. Joe Biden will no doubt make an appearance on national television with a cross on his forehead. And then, if you drove down Main Street today here in Moscow, you saw a woman on the corner of Sixth Street with a big white sign that read “Ashes To Go.” Which pretty much sums it up for me. We want death like we want most things: fast, easy, painless, and could I get fries with that? She might as well have been smearing a Nike swoosh on people’s foreheads. Continue Reading…

In Bible - Acts, Bible - Isaiah, Church Calendar, Culture, Grace, Lent, Sermon Outlines, TRC, Wisdom, Worship
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Putting on the Armor of Light: Resources for Lent

February 13, 2013 — 6 Comments

sunriseFor those wondering about what we teach or think about the season of Lent at Trinity. Here’s what we print in the front of our bulletins during this season:

“Lent is the season of the Church calendar that spans the 40 days leading up to Easter. Lent is from the old English word which means “lengthening” and refers to Springtime, when the days are getting longer and lighter. Another name for this season is “Quadragesima” which simply means “fortieth,” counting backwards from Easter to the fortieth day before Resurrection Sunday.

In the history of the Church, no other season has perhaps been so abused or misunderstood as Lent. Historically, Lent began as a discipleship class for new believers. It became customary to have baptisms at Easter, and so new believers would be enrolled in these classes prior to Easter to teach them the basics of the faith, frequently working through the Apostles’ Creed, the most basic Christian confession. Eventually, many leaders in the Church saw the need for all Christians to be annually reminded of the basics of the Christian faith and reminded of the basic Christian disciplines.

Over time, many practices like superstitious fasting and various forms of abstinence became substituted for real Christian disciplines and by the time of the Reformation, Lent had become something of a symbol of the oppression of the Roman church, and therefore many of the great Reformers cheerfully taught their congregations to disregard the Roman church’s rules and regulations for Lent. Standing squarely in the Reformation tradition, we want to remember and embrace their wisdom and courage in freeing the people of God from man made traditions and rules. In Christ, we are free, and no Christian man or woman should be bound by man-made customs or traditions regarding eating or fasting, food or drink, days or seasons. No one should feel any tinge of guilt for doing absolutely nothing different during Lent. Continue Reading…

In Church Calendar, Evangelism, Family, History - Reformation, Lent, TRC, Worship
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Jesus is Enough Wisdom: Col. 2:1-7

February 11, 2013 — Leave a comment

Introduction

Paul writes the Colossians to assure them that Jesus is enough grace, power, glory, and today we consider the fact that Jesus is enough wisdom. Because Jesus is the very image of the invisible God (1:15), He is the perfect, complete Word of the Father to us. Jesus is our understanding, our wisdom.

Summary of the Text: Paul wants the Colossians and the Laodiceans (the closest neighboring church) to know that he is laboring mightily for the gospel (1:29-2:1). Paul’s “conflict” or “struggle” is his carrying out of the mission of God through preaching Jesus, warning all men, teaching all men with wisdom, as well as his suffering (1:24-25, 28-29, cf. Phil. 1:30, 1 Tim. 6:12, Heb. 12:1). Paul understands that his race/struggle is perhaps even more valuable to those who have never met him (2:1). If they have heard of Paul, if they know about his ministry of proclaiming Jesus, Paul wants them to know he isn’t living it up, relaxing in luxury. He’s out in the fray. He’s leading the charge. He’s at the head of the infantry, and this is so that their hearts may be comforted (2:2). Paul explains that he hopes this knowledge will drive them to love one another even more, and that it will drive them to draw on the “riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God” (2:2). As they understand more fully who Jesus is, it will equip them more fully to be involved in what Jesus does. Paul just finished saying that he is rejoicing in his suffering because it is another way that Jesus is being proclaimed, the mystery hid from ages and from generations is now manifest in the gospel (1:26). This is the riches of God’s glory even among the gentiles: Christ in them (1:27).

But it’s not just what’s in them. It’s what’s in Christ: “In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (2:3). And Paul is underlining this point because he knows that there are other words on offer. There are other men with different messages, with “enticing words” (2:4). But Paul wants to encourage them, though he is absent from them, and he rejoices in their military formation and courage in Christ (2:5). So the central exhortation is for them to walk the way they were born. Continue the same way they started (2:6). It was the message of the death and resurrection of Jesus that turned them from enemies into friends, and Paul urges them to hold fast to that word, grow up into that word. It wasn’t a particular experience. It wasn’t a feeling. It isn’t an elitist club. It was the message of truth that Jesus is Lord of All and has begun to bring peace to all things through the blood of His cross (1:20). And the telltale sign that this grace has taken root and is flourishing is overflowing thankfulness (2:7). Continue Reading…

In Bible - 1 Kings, Bible - Colossians, Bible - Exodus, Jesus is Enough, Sermon Outlines, TRC, Wisdom
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Jesus is Enough Glory: Col. 1:21-29

February 4, 2013 — Leave a comment

Introduction
Paul has assured the Colossians that Jesus is enough grace, Jesus is enough power, and this week we consider the fact that Jesus is enough glory.

Summary of the Text:
Paul turns to address the Colossians directly following his exaltation of Jesus (1:15-20). He reminds them that they have experienced the power of Jesus in their lives because they were previously “aliens” and “enemies” (1:21). This most easily refers to the fact that some of the Colossians were previously gentile pagans (cf. Eph. 2:12), but it might also refer to some of them previously being Jews who had rejected Jesus (like Paul himself) (cf. Rom. 11:28, Phil. 3:18). The power of God has reconciled both kinds of aliens and enemies through the cross of Jesus, and this is a central piece of the glory of the gospel (cf. 1:27). The result of this reconciliation is that the Colossians are “holy,” “without blemish,” and “blameless” (1:22).

We noted last week that at least part of the imagery in this section is borrowed from the Exodus when God “sanctified” the firstborn of Israel in the Passover, claiming Israel as holy people (Num. 8:17-18). Israel was sanctified and called to be God’s priestly people through the Passover where blood was shed to protect Israel while God’s judgment fell on Egypt. Jesus is the new Passover lamb. He is the “firstborn” (1:15,18) who was struck by the angel of death so that His blood may cover our houses and free us from every pharaoh, every Egypt, to serve His Father as “firstborn sons.” Can you guess what that might mean for us? Continue Reading…

In Bible - Colossians, Grace, Jesus is Enough, Sermon Outlines, TRC
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She Shall Not Be Moved: Francis Atwood R.I.P.

February 1, 2013 — Leave a comment

Fran & FelicityPsalm 46: God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth be removed, And though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, Though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, The holy place of the tabernacles of the most High. God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved: God shall help her, and that right early. The heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved: He uttered his voice, the earth melted. The Lord of hosts is with us; The God of Jacob is our refuge. Come, behold the works of the Lord, What desolations he hath made in the earth. He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; He breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; He burneth the chariot in the fire. Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth. The Lord of hosts is with us; The God of Jacob is our refuge.

I read this Psalm to Fran as she lay dying in Good Samaritan this last Sunday afternoon. The last time I actually spoke with her was at Gritman a few days before that, and she was pretty worried and she asked me to pray for her. I read some scripture to her then, and I did pray for her. But following that conversation, as I continued to think about her and pray for her, this Psalm kept coming to mind which is why I read it to her this last Sunday as she slept.

“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” The Psalm describes an enormous storm, a tsunami, a hurricane, with rock slides, earthquakes, the whole world coming apart, shaking violently, nothing holding together.

And in the face of that calamity, that upheaval, the psalmist sings: “There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High. God is in the midst of her, and she shall not be moved.” God is in the midst of her, and she shall not be moved. How is that possible? How is it possible not to be moved in the middle of a storm? How is it possible not to be moved in the middle of an earthquake? How is possible not to be moved when a hurricane bears down on your life? Continue Reading…

In Bible - Mark, Bible - Psalms, Evangelism, Funeral Meditation, Sermon Outlines, TRC
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Jesus is Enough Power: Col. 1:9-20

January 29, 2013 — Leave a comment

Introduction
Paul is writing the Colossians, a new church in Asia Minor, to encourage them in their new faith in Jesus. He writes to assure them that for all their needs, Jesus is enough.

Summary of the Text:
Following his initial doxology (1:3-8), Paul continues to explain what else he has been praying for (1:9). He has specifically been praying that the Colossians would a) know God’s will (1:9) b) walk worthy of the Lord (1:10) c) increase in knowledge of God (1:10) d) be strong enough to be patient and joyful (1:11) and e) be a really thankful people (1:12). This thankfulness is rooted in the fact that they have received the ability to receive the inheritance of saints (1:12), been delivered from the power of darkness (1:13), transferred into the Kingdom of the Beloved Son (1:13), and have been redeemed and forgiven (1:14). At this point, Paul breaks out into high poetry, perhaps quoting a well known hymn about Jesus (or writing one on the spot), acclaiming Him as the image of God, the firstborn, the creator, the sustainer, the fullness of God, and the reconciler of all things (1:15-20). This poem is carefully constructed in basically two stanzas. The first stanza describes the preexistence and preeminence of the Son in all things since the beginning (1:15-17). The second stanza describes the preeminence and power of the Son through the Church since the re-beginning of all things at the resurrection (1:18-20). There are a number of key terms and titles that Paul gives to Jesus, but the adjectives go a long way to making Paul’s point: all things, all things, all things, all fullness, and all things.

The Firstborn & Beginning
The word “firstborn” is a loaded word going deep into Israelite history. Israel was God’s firstborn (Ex. 4:22), and this was not merely a relational fact but rather a statement of purpose for the future. Israel was to become God’s chosen means of communicating and enacting God’s presence and mission in the world. Firstborn sons received a double portion of inheritance from their fathers because they were the beginning of their strength (e.g. Dt. 21:7, Gen. 25). When God delivered Israel from Egypt, He sanctified them to Himself as His firstborn (Ex. 13:1ff), and the Levites became the specific representatives of this holy calling, keeping the tabernacle and receiving the inheritance of tithes and offerings (Num. 3:12-13ff, 8:17-18, 18:21-26). In other words, Israel was given the authority and means by which they were to present and proclaim the truth of God: the words of God and the sacrifices of God. That was their job. It was what they were for. When applied to Jesus, Paul is insisting not only that Jesus represents what Israel was always meant to be, but that He is the original representative of the truth of God, the perfect Icon/Image of the invisible God (1:15). That’s what He’s for. This authority and power to order and rule the world rests not least upon the fact that He made it all (1:16-17). Paul insists that this authority that Jesus has by right, He has begun to establish in fact through His resurrection from the dead (1:18, cf. Heb. 2:8). But given what we have seen, the fact that Jesus is the “firstborn” from the dead indicates that Jesus is the “head” of this new creation, the new beginning. Paul is piling up words and piling up images: Jesus is the head, rosh (in Hebrew), which is related to the word for beginning (resheet), and just to make it clear, the arxe – the beginning, the pinnacle, the source (e.g. Jn. 1:1). Jesus is the New Adam, and we are Adams and Eves in Him. The world (all of existence) that Jesus made and has ruled on behalf of the Father by right, He is in the process of reconciling to the Father through the blood of His cross – proving His power for all to see (1:20). The cross is our Tree of Life, our source of God’s glorious power. Continue Reading…

In Bible - Colossians, bible - John, Grace, Jesus is Enough, Sermon Outlines, Theology - Christology, TRC
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Jesus is Enough

January 25, 2013 — Leave a comment

One of the key themes in Paul’s letters to the fledgling churches of the first century is the insistence that Jesus is enough. In Jesus, they have been granted all that is needed. Everything that the Old Covenant foreshadowed is found in Jesus. Everything that the pagan nations ached for and groped toward, has now been revealed in Jesus. All goodness, all pleasure, all wisdom, all blessing is found in Jesus because Jesus is God’s Eternal Son. Jesus is the Executor of God’s estate. He runs the whole show. He has access to everything, and therefore in Him, we have access to everything.

One of the greatest threats to the early church’s grasp of this came specifically from the Jews, the nearest relatives of the Christian Church. The book of Acts clearly shows that the Jews were the center of the persecution of the first Christians (witness Saul/Paul), and in every city Paul proclaims the gospel to the Jews first and then when they have had enough, Paul turns to the Gentiles and this tends to enrage the Jews and before long they have stirred up mobs and riots and chased the apostles out of town. Surely other pagans had their own axes to grind, but the pressure is coming in its most virolent forms from the synagogues.

This pressure included direct political/physical threat and force (beatings, imprisonment, trials), but it also included multiple layers of social force and threat below this: threat of excommunication from the synagogues, being cut off from friends, family, and inheritance, as well as enduring the frowns, the disappointment, the implicit and explicit signs of betrayal, disappointment, let down. And these pressures and tensions aren’t usually just theological or abstract. God made the world such that battles are usually pitched in particular places, on particular dirt. There is usually much more going on than what can be seen in a particular flash of conflict, but the location and occasion for the conflict are relavent. Continue Reading…

In Bible - Colossians, Bible - Galatians, Creation, Culture, Education, ethics, Food, Grace, Jesus is Enough, Pastoral Theology, Politics, Wisdom
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Death or Death?

January 24, 2013 — 1 Comment

In various venues, in various talks over the last few years, I’ve found myself pointing out that God’s Plan A is death and resurrection. God’s Plan A is for Jesus to die and rise again. And Jesus told us clearly that following Him means sure death. To follow Jesus is to plan to die. Death is not a possibility. Death is the aim. We aim to die. We aim to run headlong for the glory of God and lay our lives down in love for the One who saved us.

This is not suicide because we do not take our lives in a rush of selfish bitterness. We don’t light ourselves on fire and hope for sympathy. We don’t slit our wrists and hope people will somehow hear our silent cries for help, for attention.

No, we have met the God of the Universe, the God who made this place, the God who runs this world. And He was born of a virgin, and willingly laid His life down for us. He died so that we might die in Him, and He rose from the dead so that we might live in Him. So the plan then is to die. And there is no Plan B. Plan B is only eternal sorrow and isolation.

And the gospel proclaims this grace, the gift of being taken up into the mission of God, the gift of offering up our lives as sacrifices of praise, in the life of the Perfect Son, the perfect sacrifice.

This is the center of the gospel which means that this touches so many different facets of life. But let me just point to two here.  Continue Reading…

In Culture, Evangelism, Family, Food, Grace, Justice & Mercy
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Jesus is Enough Grace: Col. 1:1-8

January 23, 2013 — Leave a comment

The letter to the Colossians is written to encourage new Christians in their faith. Paul writes specifically to assure the Colossians that the Jesus they met when they first heard and believed the gospel is everything they need for salvation. Jesus is enough.

Summary of the Text:
Paul writes as an official emissary of King Jesus, which is to say he exercises this office “by the will of God” (1:1). Paul was called directly by Jesus from heaven to preach the gospel to all men, including gentiles (Acts 9:1-20ff). Paul is addressing the Colossian Christians with his assistant Timothy, his “brother,” and he addresses those in Colosse as “saints” and “faithful brothers” in Christ (1:2). Even though the Colossians have only been Christians a short time, they are already “holy” and “faithful” in Christ. They even have the same status as Timothy (“brother”) because they are “in Christ.” Even though Paul has never met them, and they live in a little country town in Asia Minor, they are important family members. Paul greets them with “grace” and “peace” which his trademark apostolic greeting (e.g. Eph. 1:2, Phil. 1:2), combining an adaption of the usual Greek greeting with the usual Hebrew greeting (1:2), probably meant to emphasize the unity of Jew and Gentile in Jesus. Paul starts with thanksgiving (as usual), but Paul is also already teaching (1:3). Grace always produces gratitude. Paul hasn’t met the Christians in Colosse directly, but he has heard that they have trusted in Jesus and how they already love all the other believers (1:4). This kind of love isn’t based on common interests or similar personalities but on the hope stored up in heaven for them, which was declared to them: the gospel (1:5). The center of this hope is Jesus who is now in heaven reigning over all things. And this same gospel has been proclaimed in all the world and has produced the same kind of fruit as is now showing up in Colosse (1:6). This grace of God has this same kind of effect everywhere when people hear and believe just as Epaphras, their pastor, one of Paul’s fellow servants, has already told the Colossians (1:7). And it is Epaphras who has relayed to Paul and Timothy and the other brothers that the Colossians have begun to love one another in the same way, as only the Spirit can do (1:8). Continue Reading…

In Bible - Colossians, Grace, Jesus is Enough, Sermon Outlines, TRC
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A Pro-Life Meal

January 21, 2013 — Leave a comment

Today around this country, many Christians are remembering the Roe vs. Wade decision from 40 years ago which left some of the weakest, most vulnerable members of our society undefended, unprotected. And millions of lives have been taken as a result. We stand with our brothers and sisters protesting this monstrosity, this barbarian holocaust. And we plead with Jesus to hear their cries, to forgive us, and to turn us from this great evil.

At the same time, I want to call us this morning to be more consistently pro-life. We are pro-life, but we have to recognize that there is more to being pro-life than merely protecting the life of the unborn. It certainly includes that, but there is more than that. And I want us to consider two areas in particular. First, we want to continue to grow up into a community that shelters and protects women, particularly those coming from abusive relationships, in crisis pregnancies, those most tempted, most vulnerable to considering abortion. And we also want to offer forgiveness and cleansing and healing through Jesus to all women who have had abortions. And there are many. There are some in our churches, and there are many in our community. Continue Reading…

In Eucharistic Meditations, Exhortations, Family, Food, Grace, Justice & Mercy, Theology - Sacraments, TRC
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