2009 November | Christ's Promising Word

Archive for November, 2009

20091129 – Coming Soon

Sunday, November 29th, 2009

Advent 1
November 29, 2009
Coming Soon
Luke 21:25-28

Name in Lights

theatercomingsoonsmall I went to New York once. It is the city that never sleeps. And one of its most beautiful sights at night are all the neon signs that light the city up.

And many of them have the same theme: “Now Coming,” “Appearing Soon.” They announce some coming attraction. Some person or show that is soon to appear.

And, who knows, maybe one day one of our own kids will be there with their name in lights. “Rachel Cunningham now appearing.” Or, “Brian Sprague coming soon.” Wouldn’t that be something?

And should that day ever come, I’m going to buy a ticket and get on an airplane. I want to be there in a front row seat.

Frightening Cosmic Signs

There are signs of another kind that Jesus has on his mind this First Sunday of the Advent season. These are “cosmic” signs, not man-made ones. And Jesus warns they will be frightening.

“There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars,” he says, “and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the seas and the waves. People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heaven will be shaken.”

meteorsmall And hasn’t that always been the case? People afraid of the foreboding “cosmic” signs they see.

Certainly we are not afraid of solar and lunar ellipses like ancient people were. In fact, they are kind of fun to see now and then.

Nor, are we afraid of falling stars or roaring seas or earthquakes. We see them as part of natural phenomena and not as any kind of “message from God.” We are too scientific and sophisticated for that.

But we are afraid of the signs we see in the economy. And the mounting national debt. And of tinkering with the health care system. And the abuses to our environment.

A Day of Reckoning

I wish I had a dollar for every time someone around the Thanksgiving table this past week said, “I am scared of what is coming down the pike.” “I am afraid of the debt we are passing on to our children.” “Things are crazy now. And someday there will be a day of reckoning.”

Indeed, there will be one—a Day of Reckoning. Jesus himself agrees. And yet, the reckoning that Jesus has in mind is not just an economic one or a political one or a social one. It is a theological one.

God will come…. God will come with power and great glory. God will visibly come for all to see. And what kind of account will we give then? How will we justify what we have done with all the gifts God has given us? Gifts of life, intellect, time and money.

No wonder “people will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world.” For who, in the world, can ever stand up to God?

To God, don’t all of our shenanigans just look like one more scam and Ponzi scheme? And there is a price to be paid by those who scam God.

Stand up and Raise Your Heads

And yet, Jesus says to his disciples, “Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”

We have every reason to “fear” the coming of God. To ignore it and deny it, like we do a lot of other things we fear.

We simply put it out of our mind and pass it down the line into the future, pretending it’s not going to come. Because there is a real power, a real nightmare, a real judgment in the coming of the Lord.

And yet, we have every reason to “welcome” the coming of God. To pray for it. Long for it. Hope for it. Live for it.

The God Who Comes Once Already Came

nativitystorythe_1 For the God who is still coming is the very same God who once already came.

And we already know how he came then. He came as the little baby born in Bethlehem. The Christ child. Who did not come to damn and condemn us, but who rather came to forgive and save us.

There is a price to be paid for our shenanigans. And the people of Jesus’ day thought they saw it when the Romans invaded and tore their temple down (It was their 9/11).

But that was not it. That was not the “ultimate” price. And life went on… much like it will for us when we get past the next impending crisis.

Price Paid by Jesus on the Cross

The price was paid by Christ on the cross. There it was that God dealt with all our sins and scams and Ponzi schemes. There it was that God showed and revealed the true and ultimate nature of his heart, which is not to condemn us but to save us. To pardon and forgive.

Indeed, there is a price to be paid for scamming God. But, not by us. It is paid for us by Christ. And that changes the way we look at everything, including the way we look at the coming Day of the Lord.

We Testify and Comfort

We do not fret and worry over the future. We do not panic at the scary signs we see. We do not faint with fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world.

Rather, we do two things. First, we stand and raise our heads and testify. We preach the gospel and testify to the hope and faith that is in us. We say that Jesus is with us now and will come again for all to see.

And secondly, we comfort those who are terrified in times like these, knowing that God is near.

The terrifying signs of our time are simply “neon signs” that say, “Coming Soon! Now Appearing!” Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the first born of the dead, the ruler of the kings on earth. That one unique Son of God who is also the Son of Man. The Son of Us. One of us.

And we have no need to fear. For he is our redemption drawing near. He is ours. And we are his.

And you are already sufficiently prepared if you put your trust in him.

For the ticket to this show is “faith.” And it guarantees you a front row seat when God’s kingdom finally comes. Soon, we hope. So soon.

Maranatha! Come, Lord Jesus. Come.

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20091122 – Jesus A to Z

Sunday, November 22nd, 2009

Christ the King
November 22, 2009
Jesus A to Z
Revelation 1:4b-8

Jesus sums up Life from A to Z

countblessings Jesus Christ is king! He sums it up. All of life. All of God-given life from A to Z.

Take any letter of the alphabet and it is not hard at all to think of dozens and dozens of his names and attributes: Almighty, Blessed, Christ, Divine, Eternal. The Faithful Witness. The Firstborn of the Dead. The Ruler of the Kings on earth.

When our daughter was a little girl, there was a game we played with her in the car. She loved it. She absolutely loved it.

We would take all the different letters of the alphabet one-by-one. And we would think of all the words beginning with that letter that one way or another related to Jesus. She learned some very interesting words that way. Try it as you travel this thanksgiving weekend. It will make the trip go faster.

A Blessing Comes Down…

A clever pastor [the sainted Arden Mead of Creative Communication, Saint Louis, MO] once did that with a poem. He told the entire story of Jesus with twenty-six words, each one starting with the next letter of the alphabet. An acrostic, we call it. It goes like this:

“A blessing comes down, eternal from God. Here is Jesus, kingly love mangered now. Of peace, quiet rest, sing—the ultimate victorious Word, eXciting your zeal.” Isn’t that great?

And maybe it would be fun sometime to preach 26 sermons in a row, each one taking a different letter of the alphabet and thinking of all the different words that go with Jesus for each letter.

Grace & Peace

But on this Christ the King Sunday let us focus on just two, like the prophet John does—the letter “G” and the letter “P.”

“Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings on earth.”

Grace and peace—these are the two gifts, the two ultimate gifts, that we receive from Jesus Christ. And let’s not take these two gifts for granted, even in the church. Especially in the church.

It is not just a few wild “tribes” who have something to fear when Jesus comes again as king. Say, the angry Jews leaders who brought up charges. Or the Romans soldiers who actually, physically nailed him to a cross.

Ugh! Christ’s Report Card on the Churches

reportcard For if you read on in the book of Revelation you will see that Jesus has a bone to pick with the churches, too. To each of the seven churches Jesus write a report card. And there are two “B’s,” a couple of “D’s,” and the rest are “F’s.”

“I have this against you,” Jesus writes, “that you have abandoned the love you had at first…that you follow accommodating teachings…that you have a name of being alive, but that your works are dead…that you are neither cold nor hot, but lukewarm. I am about to spit you out of my mouth.”

And couldn’t much of the same be said of any church including ours? Don’t we all fall short of what Jesus would have us be? If Jesus were to do a mid-term report card on us, wouldn’t we get the same bad letters?

But Jesus Loves us and Freed us

But then, there comes my favorite “B.” The “but.” But Jesus “loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood, and made us to be a kingdom, priests serving his God and Father.”

And suddenly something “nifty” happens in these open words from the book of Revelation. Especially if you like and marvel at triune things, like I do.

The three titles for Jesus (the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings on earth) correspond to the three most critical events of his life: his death upon the cross, his resurrection from the dead, and his ascension into heaven.

On the cross Jesus became “the faithful witness,” the faithful martyr (as it says in Greek) and Jesus testified to the faithful love of God. That God will never go, even when we get an “F” and fail him. For what ultimately counts is not our fidelity to God, but God’s fidelity to us. And we can take that to the bank on the day of Christ’s return.

And through his resurrection Jesus became “the firstborn of the dead.” The first, mind you. The first of many, many more. Including you and me and all the faithful ones we love.

And by his ascension, Jesus became “the ruler of the kings on earth,” who does not “lord it over us,” like Pilate would. That’s what Jesus means when he says to Pilate that his kingdom is not of this world. His kingship is not only of another place, it is of another kind. Jesus does not “lord it over us,” but rather he “lifts us up,” he raises us, so that we might be a kingdom of priests serving his God and Father. It’s “God’s work. Our hands.”

Exciting Your Zeal

And what is there left for us to do, but to thank and praise him. “To him…to him who loves us and freed us and made us a kingdom of priests serving his God and Father…to him (to Jesus Christ) be the glory and dominion, forever and ever. Amen.” Amen.

This is the song of praise, this is the worship, that we bring him each and every day, especially every Sunday. Every Lord’s day. Because he is worthy. He is worth it. Boy, is Jesus worth it.

And we spell it out with every word we say—from A to Z. “A blessing comes down, eternal from God. Here is Jesus, kingly love mangered now. Of peace, quiet rest, sing—the ultimate, victorious Word, eXciting your zeal!”

A God Who Comes in Christ the King

There you have it. In twenty-six letters and twenty-six words the entire story of God’s love for you in Christ from A to Z. For the God of Jesus Christ is not simply a God who “is.” A God who was and is. A God of Being.

The God and Father we know in Jesus is a God who “acts.” A God who “does” things—like save us. A God who “comes.” And the way he comes to us is in Christ. Christ the king!

“To him…to him be the glory and dominion, forever and ever. Amen.”

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20091115 – Once and For All

Sunday, November 15th, 2009

Time after Pentecost (Lectionary 33)
November 15, 2009
Once and for All
Heb 10:11-14, 19-25

No Time to Sit

Why are you sitting?

Why are you sitting? I know that I motioned you to sit down and you did. Thank you for being so cooperative. But, why? Why are you sitting?

Back in the days of Jesus you would have never thought of sitting in the temple. There were no chairs, no seats, no pews anywhere.

Not only was it a matter of respect (God was the king. And no one dared to sit in the presence of the king, or OFF WITH YOUR HEAD!). But there was work to be done. Especially by the priests. The priests were workers. They had no time to sit.

There was wood to carry every day. And fires to light. And animals to bleed, butcher, and burn. And incense to ignite to cover up the smells. And all of this had to be done EVERY day because never was that work done, final and complete.

“Every priest stands day after day at his service,” we just heard the book of Hebrews say. He stands. He stands in his service. “Offering again and again the same sacrifice that can never take any sins away.”

Chickens with their Heads Cut Off

And doesn’t that sound just like us? Doing frenetic tasks that are never finished. Running like chickens with our heads cut off. Maybe we don’t offer up animal sacrifices anymore. But we do make sacrifices of our time and our money, especially for the kids.

I once sat across from a local cop at a church dinner. And I was pumping him for information to use against my daughter. I asked him about driving habits and who it was that he pulled over the most often. I wanted him to say young giggly teenage girls driving green Honda Accords. That’s what I wanted him to say.

But, no. Instead he said “soccer moms in minivans.” They are the worst and fastest speeders. They are always rushing from one place to another. Their work is never done.

The Trademark of our Culture

And isn’t that the trademark of us culture? People on the go…with things to do…because they want to be the perfect mom or dad and make the “right sacrifices” for their sons and daughters.

And if people are not here on Sunday morning sitting in these pews (especially some of our younger families) it isn’t because they are at home being lazy. But rather they are off to another event trying to do what they think is best for their kids. And wouldn’t it feel great to just sit down sometime and rest. Wouldn’t that be heaven?

Jesus Sat

Jesus sat down and rested. When Jesus our great high priest sacrificed himself upon the altar of the cross, he made a single sacrifice—just one!—for all time. A perfect “one.”

And then he sat down at the right hand of God. Jesus sat. Not just to show his power and authority, although it shows that, too. But also to show that his work is done. It is complete. And perfect. And finished. “It is finished.” Didn’t Jesus say that from the cross.

Although Jesus died on earth, he lives. He lives above. His blood has dealt with the sins of all humanity—including yours. His blood has become a bath that purifies people. All people. Including you.

The “Work” of Our Salvation is Finished

And so, there is the full and final and complete forgiveness of all our sins. A total and complete write-off of all our debt. The demolition of all the walls and barriers that stand between us and our God.

“Where there is forgiveness of sin,” the book of Hebrews tells us, “there is no longer [any need for] any offering of sin.” For in Jesus Christ God says, “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.”

We Can Relax

And therefore, we can relax. We can walk into this holy sanctuary on a Sunday morning and take a load off of our minds and backs. We can walk in here with the assurance that we don’t need to run around like chickens with our heads cut off to be right with God. The “work” of our salvation is already done. It is complete. It is finished.

In Jesus, God loves us with a perfect love. And there is nothing we can ever do to make God love us more. And there is nothing we can ever do to make God love us less. For in Jesus we have this bold and brazen confidence that our hearts have been made pure and our consciences washed clean.

Instead, We Provoke One Another to Love

We can relax

Instead of running around like chickens with our heads cut off, we do something that is very, very different, the book of Hebrews says. We “provoke one another to love and to good deeds.” That’s how the book of Hebrews puts it. We “provoke one another to love and to good deeds.” We encourage one another “not to neglect the habit of meeting together”—of gathering every Sunday—“as is the habit of some.”

And do you notice that? Do you notice that there are not some people here today, who are habitually gone? And if you called them up on the phone, I am sure they would give you some “good” excuse.

And still we persist in prodding one another to love and do good deeds. We don’t give up. We keep on bugging people to say that gathering together for weekly worship is important. It is absolutely essential for the good health—the good spiritual health–of you and your kids.

Poke the Person Next to You

I want you to take your finger out for just a moment and point it up to God. God is #1. Do you believe that? Of course you do. That’s why you are here today.

And now I want you to take that same finger and poke the person next to you. Don’t be shy. Give them a good Christian poke.

And as you do say: “Come to worship every Sunday.” “Get to Sunday School every week.” “Do not neglect to meet together as some do.” “Do deeds of love and good works.” “Be generous in your giving.” “Get involved.” “Be a part of some mission and some ministry.” “It’s God’s work. Our hands.”

This is what Christians do. And it’s a lot more fun than running like a chicken with its head cut off?

Posted in 7 - Pentecost | No Comments »

20091101 – Saint-ified

Sunday, November 1st, 2009

All Saints Day
November 1, 2009
Saint-ified
Hebrews 9:11-14

A Dirty Job

A dirty job

My first real job was as a janitor at a company that sold and serviced heavy road equipment. And it was my job to work in the shop and clean up after the mechanics.

These guys would be covered from head to toe with grease, dust, dirt, grime, oil from working outside on road equipment all day long. It got on everything they touched. And they would track it all in, especially into the locker room.

And at the end of the day, I was the one who had to go into that locker room and clean it up. And I ended up as dirty as they were.

GOJO Magic

But thank God there was this magic stuff called “GOJO.” A creamy, gentle, waterless hand cleaner that I could crank out of a dispenser.

Thank God for GOJO

And no matter how dirty and grimy my hands got, that GOJO—that incredible GOJO—would instantly and easily clean them. That stuff worked like magic.

And here, I come to Ohio and I discover that GOJO is based right here in Akron in our own back yard. It was invented for those working in the tire industry. And you all know another product that they make—it is the Purell hand sanitizer that is so popular today. Small world, isn’t it?

Ashes of the Red Heifer

The priests back in the days of Jesus had a body sanitizer. It would cleanse anyone who had contact with a dead body.

Say you attended a funeral this year. Or you visited a grave to honor the dead. Or you were in the house or touched the clothes of someone who had died. Contact with death would render you unfit to approach God. You were “unclean,” they called it.

Red heifer without blemish

But the priests had a formula to make you clean again. They would burn a red heifer, a young red cow that had no blemish (for things sacrificed to God could have no blemishes). They would burn it with cedar wood (for durability) and hyssop branches (for its cleaning power) and with a scarlet, blood-red cloth (who knows why).

And then they would take the ashes and mix it with water. And whenever a person came into contact with death, those persons would be sprinkled with this stuff—this ancient GOJO—to take the defilement away.

It cleansed them. It sanctified them. Saint-ified them. It renewed and restored them as “saints.” Part of that holy people who are set aside for God’s service. Which is how the word “saint” was first used—for all of Israel, for all of God’s holy people. They all were saints, people set aside for God’s service.

How Much More the Blood of Jesus

Jesus Carrying Cross by El Greco

Now consider this—the “awesome thought” proposed to us on this All Saints’ Day by the Book of Hebrews: If the sprinkling with those ashes purified the people, “how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to worship the living God!”

Jesus is “so much more” than a red heifer. He is the God, the Son of the living God. And, not only did he have no blemishes on the outside, he had no blemishes on the inside—in his soul and in his heart and spirit.

And his self-sacrifice, not only opens up the door to any earthly place of worship (like a temple, for example), but it takes us to the highest & holiest of all places, the very throne of God itself. And it does not last for only a few moments (until the next time that we contact death), but it last forever. For all eternity.

Breaking Through the Limitations

The ritual with the red heifer had its limitations. It only cleaned the outside. It did not clean the soul, the heart, the mind, the spirit. And it only dealt “temporarily” with the problem of death. It did not deal with it permanently, eternally.

And it was limited in time and space. It only worked for those of the right pedigree who got to those priests in that one temple.

But outside the city gate, Jesus offers up a sacrifice of a whole another kind. Not animal sacrifice, but himself. His human and divine self. And not one that ever has to be repeated. But one that is good once-and-for all. For everyone. Everywhere. Of any time and place. Including this time and this place.

And it does not deal just with our contact with someone else’s death. It deals with our death. And not just our death at the end of our days, but our death now. Our living death.

Especially our “dead works” that make us “dead ducks” before the searching eye of the Living God. It deals with that “guilt conscience” that can bug us as we are plagued and haunted by a life that we know has not been so squeaky clean and saintly as God would have us be.

The Death of Jesus is our Cleanser

And so, the death of Christ becomes our cleanser. His death and resurrection is mixed with water and splashed on us in Holy Baptism to clean us from the top of our head to the tip of our toes. His MOJO—Christ’s MOJO—becomes God’s GOJO that can take stain of sin away no matter how grimy our lives become.

And it sanctifies us. Saint-ifies us. It makes us part of that holy people who are set aside for God’s service. “The priesthood of all believers,” Martin Luther called it. The saints. The holy ones of God. The baptized. God’s new Israel. The church.

Living Testimonials

The faith departed that we remember today all knew that. They all did. Donald James Rakosik, Joseph Sandor, Mary Borden, Daryll Meng, Faye Tiech, Warren Ries, CharlieAnn Curtis.

They all were “saints” who did saintly things for Jesus. Oh, yes, they were “sinners” too, who had their faults and failings. They were characters. All of them were characters.

And it makes me smile to think of each and every one of them. They were so full of character. They were people who got their hands dirty with the joys and demands of daily live.

But they were characters who put their trust in Christ. And who put their hands out to receive his gifts of grace. And they pulled on the dispenser of his forgiveness.

And they said, “Touch me. Heal me. Hold me. Wash me head to toe with the cleansing waters of your baptism. Fill me with your Word and Spirit. Use me in your service.” Their lives are “living testimonials” to the cleansing and purifying power that Jesus brings.

And take it from someone who has spent a lifetime as a custodian of one kind or another, always cleaning up after other people—I have yet to see a stain that Jesus can’t remove.

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