For Sunday

Reading of the Law of God

Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. Ephesians 4. 32

Confession of Sin

Our Father, at times we find ourselves abrupt instead of kind, preoccupied and indifferent instead of tenderhearted, and even holding a grudge instead of being quick to forgive. In this we sin against You as well as against others. Please, be gracious and forgive us. We thank You for showing us our sin. We thank You for being so willing to forgive. We thank You for Jesus who makes all this real for us. Amen.

Declaration of Pardon

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person--though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die-- but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5.6-8 

May almighty God have mercy on us, forgive us our sins, and bring us to everlasting life, through Jesus Christ our Lord. 

The Book of Common Prayer 

Scripture to Meditate on

Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, 
who seek him with their whole heart,

who also do no wrong, 
but walk in his ways! Psalm 119:2,3

The psalmist still wants to talk about being blessed. Here, he lists some requirements for someone to be blessed. One thing to note from this is that being blessed is not automatic. And once you consider the requirements you'll see that being blessed is also not easily gained.

There are four verbs here that describe those who will be blessed: keep, seek, do, walk.

Keep is just another way to refer to obedience. To be blessed, one needs to obey what God has commanded in His testimonies, that is, the Scriptures.

Seek has to do with the goal of that obedience. The goal is not to be arrive at the finish line acclaimed as a good (obedient) person. The goal is God. It's all about knowing, enjoying, serving, worshiping Him. Obedience is simply a means to that goal.

Do, here, is actually about what one does not do: what is wrong. This, of course, follows from the previous two verbs, keep and seek.

Walk. This is a metaphor used by the Scriptures to refer to a way of life. (Why this metaphor is used I'll leave to you to ponder.) The point that the psalmist is making is not complicated. The person who will be blessed is the person who lives in a certain way, God's way, the way that God has revealed. This isn't about how one acts in this or that situation. It's about how one is to act in every aspect of life.

So, requirements if you want to be blessed: keep, seek, do, walk.

Here's the question to work on now. How can people like us, people who still sin, people who don't keep, don't seek, do wrong and fail to walk in His ways, be blessed?

Here are a couple of thoughts to start you on your way to answer this question.

First, it's possible to for people like us to be blessed. Otherwise, why is this verse (and others like it) in the Bible? Second, you need to see all of this in terms of the Gospel.

God Is For You

Understanding theology is quite important. And that’s true because it’s just another way of saying, ‘Understanding reality is quite important’. Theology is simply an explanation of reality. Consider these theological topics: the Bible as revelation from God, faithful Christian living or the nature of sin. Understanding these theological topics is simply understanding reality.

I think that I can say that there is one theological doctrine that has a priority above all the others: the Bible’s teaching about God. I say that because the key to understanding reality is understanding God.

So, asking and answering this question makes sense.

A Prayer

Lord Jesus,

By Your Spirit, You have called us to be Your disciples. You have called us to follow You. We find this to be the greatest blessing imaginable. And our appreciation of Your call grows as we come to understand the alternative to following You. To do that is to follow death. We are grateful that we are Yours and You are ours because of the Gospel.

Lord, when we began this walk with You our understanding of what You require was small, quite small. But now that we've been following You for a while, now that we have been taught by the Spirit using the Scriptures, we understand better what it means to be Your disciples. We have heard You describe Your discipleship. You have said things like, 'whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me', and 'if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me' and 'whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.'

Lord, we want to follow You. We really do. You are the only way to life. We are convinced of that. And yet, what You call for seems beyond us. And, to be honest, there are times when we would rather follow the ways of the world and not submit to Your lordship over us. We know that doing this is terrible. We are not proud of the fact. But it is the truth.

So, we come to You, knowing that You are a gracious Lord. We come confessing our sin, confessing our too often lackluster discipleship. We do repent of this evil, for that’s what it is, evil, and we have no excuse. We ask for Your forgiveness, that, according to Your promises, our sin would be blotted out and forgotten.

But we know that that is not enough. We really do want to follow You in the ways that You have described, in ways that You certainly deserve, but there is so much still within our hearts that gets in the way. So, we also ask that, by Your Spirit, You would make us into the kind of disciples that we ought to be, the kind of disciples that we want to be. Help us to reject the alluring and deadly ways of the world so that we would follow You wholeheartedly.

We ask for these things, Lord, because we want to live for You. We want to make You look as good as You are. We want the world to see what You can do with sinful, broken people like us, making us whole and fully human once again. It is a comfort to us to know that this is exactly what You want to do with us. That gives us hope.

We look forward to how You will continue to change us. We know that this will take time. And we know that this will require some real effort on our part. But we are convinced that the goal is worth it. You are worth it. So, we thank You, Lord Jesus, for being the kind of Lord that You are. Eternity will not provide enough time to praise Your Name. Amen.

For Sunday

Reading of the Law of God

Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. Ephesians 4. 29

Confession of Sin

Our Father, we admit that we have failed with our words. By our words we tear down instead of encourage. By our words we express annoyance instead of patience. By our words we show that we consider our desires more important than the needs of others. We ask that You would forgive these sins of our mouths. Make us more aware of what we say to each other. Change our hearts so that our words would give grace to those around us. We ask these things for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Declaration of Pardon

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 5.1

Almighty God, who in Jesus Christ has given us a kingdom that cannot be destroyed, forgive us our sins, open our eyes to God's truth, strengthen us to do God's will and give us the joy of his kingdom, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The Book of Common Prayer

Scripture to Meditate on

​Blessed are those whose way is blameless, 

who walk in the law of the Lord!  Psalms 119.1

Recently, I was challenged to work my way through the very long Psalm 119, a verse at a time, so that I could spend a little time meditating on what each one was saying. For the next brief while I'll be writing a few of my thoughts on what I come up with.

The verse starts out quite pointedly. 'Blessed…' What's a good way to get at what this 'blessed' is about? How's this?

The grocery store that I frequent wants me to take a survey about their store. Every receipt tells me that if I do this, I just might get a gift card for $2000 to spend at the store. I've seen this offer on my receipts for quite some time, but I've never done the survey. And the reason is clear. As far as I am concerned, gaining the mere possibility of being chosen for a gift card isn't worth the time and effort that the survey requires. It just isn't worth it.

Thus, a question. Is gaining God's blessing worth the time and effort? Gaining His blessing will take both. To be blessed, one will need to 'walk in the law of the Lord'. Now, please note what is called for. It's not that a person is to obey here and there and at key junctures of life. No, what is required is a way of life. And this way of life is all about obedience to God's Law. That will not be easy. It will take time and effort. And that explains my question. Is gaining God's blessing worth the effort? I think that you will agree that it all depends on what the blessings are. So, what are they?

Glorified

I love words. They are my friends. That makes me a logophile. And that’s one reason why it bothers me when words aren’t used carefully. I have a particular love for the words that express the Gospel. These are such important words. And they are important because they can help us live well in a very broken and evil world. But they cannot help us if we do not understand them. This explains my use of the phrase ‘church words’. These are beautiful Gospel words that we use with some frequency but, all too often, we don’t actually know very well what they are about. And when that is the case, these beautiful words are of no help to us. And that is just no good. I would not be a faithful pastor if I didn’t try to deal with that. I want you all to understand these ‘church words’ that we use. I want you to thoroughly understand what they are about so that you can see their beauty. And seeing that beauty, I am sure that you will stand amazed at the God who has given us what those words reveal. Out of that will come the ability to live well. So, today, we’re going to take a look at another church word.

 Listen to what Paul wrote.

For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. Romans 8.29-30

Paul is explaining here God’s process in rescuing us from our sin, a process that begins in eternity past and ends in the age to come. I’m going to focus on the last word that I read, the goal of this whole process: glorified. We will be glorified.

A Prayer

Father,

 You are a great God. And You call the nations to come and worship You as the great God that You are. Sadly, there are other gods. They are not great like You are, but they also call the nations to worship them. They entice with promises, promises that they actually can keep, promises like ‘I will give you all the kingdoms of the world and their glory if you will fall down and worship me.’ There are many who are fooled.

But the day will come when all of these gods will be exposed as the fakes that they are. On that day every creature - every human, every angel, every demon - will stand before You to give an account of their lives. That is when all will have a holy fear of You, the one true God who sits in majesty over all of creation, and who determines each one’s fate.

Father, we don’t want to wait till then to understand and express well that holy fear, that deep awareness that You are the great God, the God before whom we will stand. We want to give You the fear that is Yours. You are, after all, a great God.

And yet, Father, we know that You are also a great Father. You are a great Father who loves us. And because of that love You have deemed it right to bless us with the status of children, Your children. What You said to Jesus is true of each one of us. ‘You are my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.’ Father, You could have simply rescued us from sin and be done with it. But You did more. You adopted us as sons. You really do love us.

Father, it’s important that we get both of these right: holy fear before You, the majestic God, and the assurance of Your fatherly love for us, Your children. We need to understand them both and live them both. And if truth be known, we have a hard time with both.

So, we cry out to You, our Abba, Father. Teach us to fear You as the glorious God that You are. And teach us to be amazed and assured when it comes to the love You have for us, Your children.

We ask for these things, Father, because we love You. We want live in such a way that would bring You honor. Teach us how to live both of these so that we will love You to the extent that we yearn to. You are worthy. Through Christ our Lord, Amen.

Scripture to Meditate on

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. 1 John 3:1

What I'd like to draw your attention to is the first word, 'see'. The thing to note about this word is that it is in the imperative. That makes it a command, something to be obeyed. So, what is it that John wants you to do? What are you to see? He wants you to pause and notice something. He wants you to stop and see. He wants you to consider the love of the Father. And he is specific. He wants you to consider that the Father has loved you in a particular way. He has granted you the status of being one of His children.

So, what do you think? Is that something worth pausing to notice, worth stopping and seeing? Maybe it would be a good exercise to consider what would be different about life if you weren't one of the children of God. Would that make a difference?

For Sunday

Reading of the Law of God

Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger. Ephesians 4.26

Confession of Sin

Our Father, we know that anger is a gift from You for us to use in our battle with sin. But we must confess that we use it poorly. Our anger so easily becomes sinful. We know that we are wrong in this. We can be so very sinful in our anger. So, we ask that You would forgive us this sin. We also ask that You would teach us how to be angry in the way that Jesus was angry so that we might fight His battles faithfully. Amen.

Declaration of Pardon

To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in [Jesus] receives forgiveness of sins through his name. Acts 10:43

The almighty and merciful Lord grant you pardon and forgiveness of all your sins, time for amendment of life, and the grace and strength of the Holy Spirit.

The Book of Common Prayer

The Spirit Groans

We’re back to Romans 8 and back to learning about the ministry of the Holy Spirit among us. We’re going to work our way through a few more sentences of what Paul is teaching on His ministry, but we’ll do that just a bit at a time.

Let’s start with this.

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. Romans 8:26

It’s important to spend a little time on this notion of weakness. And I want to do that because we have all been taught not to be weak. One persistent message of the world in which we live is that we don’t have to be weak. If we try hard enough, we can accomplish anything. And if we are honest with ourselves, even when it comes to being a disciple of Jesus we believe that we will be able to do a good job of it if we try hard enough. But the fact of the matter is that, try as we may, we really can’t do a good job of it. We really are weak.

This is something that Paul, himself, had to learn and did learn.

A Prayer

Father,

It is so good to know that You have created a religion of grace. It's not complicated. All we need do is trust You, trust Your promises. And that's true whether we're talking about Your promise of eternal salvation or Your promise to carry our anxieties as we face an extra busy day. You are a God of such glorious grace. All we need to do to enjoy this grace is trust You.

And yet, we have such a hard time with this. To simply trust You to do what needs doing seems too easy at times. There has to be more to it than that. There has to be some effort on our part, something that we need to do, some work to be done so that we can show ourselves worthy - or something like that.

Then, there are times when we know what You offer, that all that is needed is trust, but we just don't. We don't want to give up control. That feels too scary. And so, we continue to believe that we can depend upon ourselves to deal with life.

Father, in our saner moments we know that all of this is foolish. But what's worse, it's evil. How can it not be evil to say to You, 'I don't trust You'? And that is what we are saying when we hold on to our anxieties, when we hold on to our demand to present ourselves as worthy, when we to hold on to the myth that we can do life on our own.

So, first of all, Father, we humbly repent of our insulting sin. We have no excuse. It's just wrong. We ask that You would forgive us because of Jesus. But we know that forgiveness isn't enough. So, we also ask, Father, that You would change us by Your Spirit. Change us so that we would do better at trusting You.

Father, we need Your help so that we would do better at believing in Your religion of grace. Doing better at this would certainly be good for us. It would be living according to reality. But more than that, it would be good for You. We would be able to live in a way that makes You look good, to live in a way that would make Your grace for sinners shine. So, please make us believe in Your grace. We know that this is not asking too much because You are the God of grace who has made astounding promises to us. Through Christ, our Lord, Amen.

Scripture to Meditate on

And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.” Revelation 21:6-8

This bit of Scripture describes those who will inhabit the coming new heavens and new earth - and those who won't. It makes sense for God to talk about those who will conquer. That makes sense especially in this book of the Bible. Everything here is about dealing with another obstacle, another enemy. Success is to be defined as the conquest of such things. So, that's no surprise.

But what is a bit surprising is that other descriptor: the thirsty. Of all the adjectives to use to describe His successful saints why did God choose this one? And yet, it communicates something worth noting. Those who will enjoy the coming heritage, those who will conquer and overcome all that stands in their way, are those who thirst for something that they do not have enough of: life. If anything is true of this age it is this: everything has been touched by death. Everything. Those who conquer know this and feel it. They want to be rid of this death. And that is why they work hard to conquer. They want to enjoy life in its fulness. That's what motivates them. It is this thirst that will make them keep at it until they succeed.

But what if this is lacking? What motivates then? What will keep a person at it, dealing with obstacles and enemies, both human and demonic, if not this thirst? Whatever it is, it won't do the job. Having this thirst is necessary. And that's why God chose this adjective.

Your homework: Who is God talking to when He warns about being 'cowardly'?

For Sunday

Reading of the Law of God

I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love. Ephesians 4. 1-2

Confession of Sin

Our Father, we admit that, all too often, we do not walk worthy of the Gospel. All too often, we are proud and not humble, harsh and not gentle. We so easily become impatient, refusing to bear with the weaknesses and sins of others. We sin in these ways even as we expect others not to treat us similarly. We have no excuse and admit that we deserve Your justice. But we believe the Gospel of Jesus. And so, we would ask for forgiveness. We would also ask for change. Make us more like Jesus, through whom we pray. Amen.

Declaration of Pardon

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” John 11.25

May the God of love bring us back to himself, forgive us our sins, and assure us of his eternal love in Jesus Christ our Lord.

 The Book of Common Prayer 

Sent

It was my intention to return to Paul’s letter to the church at Rome for today’s sermon. However, the Spirit made it clear to me that there was something else that He wanted me to talk to you about. The last time I preached to you was on Pentecost Sunday, the day we remember the coming of the Spirit. I told you that on that day the nature of the Church was changed. On that day, the Church was given a new goal. The Church became a missionary Church. Today, I hope to explain a little more of what the Holy Spirit expects of you as His missionary Church.

The bit of Scripture that I’m going to use is a section of what has been called Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer. It’s in John 17. Listen.

But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. ​I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. ​They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. ​Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. ​As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth. John 17:13-19

A Prayer

Lord,

You are our God. You are the one who is so very close to us. And yet, there is so much mystery that surrounds You. We had a beginning, a starting point, but You have none. We can take a little bit of this and some of that to cook up some very interesting tools, computers that fit in our pockets, space stations that orbit our planet, medicines that defeat diseases. But You can create new things completely out of nothing. We are very dependant on things like food and air. But You need nothing outside Yourself. And then, You are three Person and yet, at the same time, one God.

We know enough to say these things about You, but we really don't understand what they mean. We find You to be very mysterious so that there is a part of us that says, 'Who are You, really?'

And yet, You are our God. You have done some amazing things so that we can call You, 'Father'. You have come in Jesus to rescue us. And by the Holy Spirit You live within each of us. You are very near to us. Immanuel.

Lord God, there is so much that is not even a little clear about You, but You have made some things clear enough. So, in the midst of that tension, we worship You and we enjoy You. While You are a very mysterious God, You are our God. And that is very good.

We do have a request, Lord - actually two requests. First, we ask that You would develop in us a greater sense of Your mystery. We need to feel the difference. You are God, and we are not. You regularly do things that we cannot even imagine doing. We need to feel deep in our bones the enormity of the gap between You as God and us as mere creatures. We need to feel awe. This will help us to worship You better.

We also ask that You would develop in us a greater sense of Your nearness to us. You are our loving Father, our faithful Savior, our comforting Spirit. You are close to us in ways that no mere human could ever be. It is as we grow in our sense of this nearness that we can experience great comfort. This will help us to worship You better.

We are grateful that the development of these things is not limited to our brief lives now. We will have an eternity to see more clearly Your mysteriousness and Your nearness. And that will mean an eternity of ever deeper worship. We look forward to that.

But as long as we exist in the here and now, we are eager to know You better as the amazing God that You are so that we will live in a way that will make You look as good as You actually are. Amen.

Scripture to Meditate on

Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life. Revelation 2:10

Here are some words and phrases from this Scripture that call for some meditation.

Do not fear

Suffering

Testing

Tribulation

Faithful to death

Crown of life

I'm not going to comment on all of them - just two. I'll leave the rest for you to consider.

'Do not fear'

What does this mean? It doesn't mean that if you feel a tightening in your gut as they are taking you away to prison that you've sinned. That's simply a physical response to what is going on. The real issue is what you do in response to that feeling in your gut. It's fine to say, 'Yep, I'm not going to like this', as long as you also say, 'but I know that I won't be facing this alone. Immanuel'. And being able to say that sort of thing isn't something that you can do on your own. It's an ability to trust your God that you work at in situations that aren't as terrible. It's an ability that you pray for. And the time you start to pray for that is now. 

'Faithful unto death'

I appreciate Jesus' honesty. It just might be that some of the Christians He is addressing in this letter will die as a result of the coming persecution. But that's part of what it means to be a Christian. His expectations of Christians today are no different. He still calls for faithfulness, continuing to live as a loyal follower, whatever the cost, even death. We need to prepare ourselves and especially our children for this possibility.

This is where it would be good to meditate on 'crown of life'.

For Sunday

Reading of the Law of God

And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith. Galatians 6. 9-10

Confession of Sin

Our Father, we hear Your call to persevere in doing good. And yet, we have to admit that we, at times, give in to the weariness and stop. We give up when it gets too hard. This is disobedience. This is sin. We ask that You would forgive us this sin. We ask that You would give us the ability to continue to do what is good to others, even when it gets hard. We ask that You would remind us that there will be a time of reaping, if we do not give up. We ask this through our faithful Savior, Jesus. Amen.

Declaration of Pardon

Jesus said: For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. John 6:40

May God our Father forgive us our sins, and bring us to the fellowship of his table with his saints for ever.

The Book of Common Prayer