Showing posts with label Epiphany. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Epiphany. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 6, 2015
Sunday, January 12, 2014
Monday, January 6, 2014
Epiphany: Let the full number of the nations now take their place
Opening Sentence
As With Gladness Men of Old
Collect of the Day
Psalter: Psalm 46, 97
Lessons: Isaiah 49:1-7, Revelation 21:22-27, Matthew 12:14-21
The loving providence of God determined that in the last days he would aid the world, set on its course to destruction. He decreed that all nations should be saved in Christ.
A promise had been made to the holy patriarch Abraham in regard to these nations. He was to have a countless progeny, born not from his body but from the seed of faith. His descendants are therefore compared with the array of the stars. The father of all nations was to hope not in an earthly progeny but in a progeny from above.
Let the full number of the nations now take their place in the family of the patriarchs. Let the children of the promise now receive the blessing in the seed of Abraham, the blessing renounced by the children of his flesh. In the persons of the Magi let all people adore the Creator of the universe; let God be known, not in Judaea only, but in the whole world, so that his name may be great in all Israel.
Dear friends, now that we have received instruction in this revelation of God’s grace, let us celebrate with spiritual joy the day of our first harvesting, of the first calling of the Gentiles. Let us give thanks to the merciful God, who has made us worthy, in the words of the Apostle, to share the position of the saints in light, who has rescued us from the power of darkness, and brought us into the kingdom of his beloved Son. As Isaiah prophesied: the people of the Gentiles, who sat in darkness, have seen a great light, and for those who dwelt in the region of the shadow of death a light has dawned. He spoke of them to the Lord: The Gentiles, who do not know you, will invoke you, and the peoples, who knew you not, will take refuge in you.
This is the day that Abraham saw, and rejoiced to see, when he knew that the sons born of his faith would be blessed in his seed, that is, in Christ. Believing that he would be the father of the nations, he looked into the future, giving glory to God, in full awareness that God is able to do what he has promised.
This is the day that David prophesied in the psalms, when he said: All the nations that you have brought into being will come and fall down in adoration in your presence, Lord, and glorify your name. Again, the Lord has made known his salvation; in the sight of the nations he has revealed his justice.
This came to be fulfilled, as we know, from the time when the star beckoned the three wise men out of their distant country and led them to recognise and adore the King of heaven and earth. The obedience of the star calls us to imitate its humble service: to be servants, as best we can, of the grace that invites all men to find Christ.
Dear friends, you must have the same zeal to be of help to one another; then, in the kingdom of God, to which faith and good works are the way, you will shine as children of the light: through our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with God the Father and the Holy Spirit for ever and ever. Amen.
We Three Kings of Orient Are
Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising. Isaiah 60:3
As With Gladness Men of Old
Collect of the Day
O God, by the leading of a star you manifested your only Son to the Peoples of the earth: Lead us, who know you now by faith, to your presence, where we may see your glory face to face; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Psalter: Psalm 46, 97
Lessons: Isaiah 49:1-7, Revelation 21:22-27, Matthew 12:14-21
A promise had been made to the holy patriarch Abraham in regard to these nations. He was to have a countless progeny, born not from his body but from the seed of faith. His descendants are therefore compared with the array of the stars. The father of all nations was to hope not in an earthly progeny but in a progeny from above.
Let the full number of the nations now take their place in the family of the patriarchs. Let the children of the promise now receive the blessing in the seed of Abraham, the blessing renounced by the children of his flesh. In the persons of the Magi let all people adore the Creator of the universe; let God be known, not in Judaea only, but in the whole world, so that his name may be great in all Israel.
Dear friends, now that we have received instruction in this revelation of God’s grace, let us celebrate with spiritual joy the day of our first harvesting, of the first calling of the Gentiles. Let us give thanks to the merciful God, who has made us worthy, in the words of the Apostle, to share the position of the saints in light, who has rescued us from the power of darkness, and brought us into the kingdom of his beloved Son. As Isaiah prophesied: the people of the Gentiles, who sat in darkness, have seen a great light, and for those who dwelt in the region of the shadow of death a light has dawned. He spoke of them to the Lord: The Gentiles, who do not know you, will invoke you, and the peoples, who knew you not, will take refuge in you.
This is the day that Abraham saw, and rejoiced to see, when he knew that the sons born of his faith would be blessed in his seed, that is, in Christ. Believing that he would be the father of the nations, he looked into the future, giving glory to God, in full awareness that God is able to do what he has promised.
This is the day that David prophesied in the psalms, when he said: All the nations that you have brought into being will come and fall down in adoration in your presence, Lord, and glorify your name. Again, the Lord has made known his salvation; in the sight of the nations he has revealed his justice.
This came to be fulfilled, as we know, from the time when the star beckoned the three wise men out of their distant country and led them to recognise and adore the King of heaven and earth. The obedience of the star calls us to imitate its humble service: to be servants, as best we can, of the grace that invites all men to find Christ.
Dear friends, you must have the same zeal to be of help to one another; then, in the kingdom of God, to which faith and good works are the way, you will shine as children of the light: through our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with God the Father and the Holy Spirit for ever and ever. Amen.
Leo the Great
Epiphany Sermon
We Three Kings of Orient Are
Sunday, January 6, 2013
Monday, February 20, 2012
Monday in Epiphany Last: In the likeness of a man
Opening Sentence
Commemoration: Cecile Isherwood
Psalter: Psalm 25
Lessons: Proverbs 27:1-6, 10-12; Philippians 2:1-13; John 18:15-18, 25-27
What does it mean to be in a human likeness? Does it mean that his appearance was merely a fantasy? This would be something merely similar to a human and not made in the likeness of a man. For to be made in the likeness of a man is to be a man. . . . So what does it mean, in a human likeness? With few exceptions he had all our common human properties. The exceptions: He was not born from sexual intercourse. He committed no sin. These properties he had which no human being has. He was not only human, which is what he appeared to be, but also God. . . . We are soul and body, but he is God, soul, and body. For this reason Paul says in the form – and so that when you hear of his emptying you may not suppose that he underwent change, degradation and some sort of annihilation of his divinity. Rather remaining what he was he assumed what he was not. Becoming flesh, he remained the Word of God. So it is in this respect that he is in the likeness of men, and for this reason he says and in form. His nature was not degraded, nor was there any confusion [of the two natures], but he entered a form.
He carefully uses the phrase in human likeness. For Christ was not one of the many but as one of the many. God the Word did not degenerate into a man. His essence as God did not change. Rather he appeared like a man, not deluding us with a phantom but instructing us in humility.
He honored the Father all the more, not that you may honor him less but that you may marvel all the more. Here we learn that he is truly a son who honors his father more than all else. No one could have honored God the Father more than God the Son. The measure of his sublimity corresponds with the depth of his humility.
When Morning Guilds the Skies
Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising. Isaiah 60:3
Commemoration: Cecile Isherwood
O God, by whose grace your servant Cecile Isherwood, enkindled With the fire of your love, became a burning and a shining light in your Church: Grant that we also may be aflame with the spirit of love and discipline, and may ever walk before you as children of light; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Psalter: Psalm 25
Lessons: Proverbs 27:1-6, 10-12; Philippians 2:1-13; John 18:15-18, 25-27
He carefully uses the phrase in human likeness. For Christ was not one of the many but as one of the many. God the Word did not degenerate into a man. His essence as God did not change. Rather he appeared like a man, not deluding us with a phantom but instructing us in humility.
He honored the Father all the more, not that you may honor him less but that you may marvel all the more. Here we learn that he is truly a son who honors his father more than all else. No one could have honored God the Father more than God the Son. The measure of his sublimity corresponds with the depth of his humility.
John Chrysostom
When Morning Guilds the Skies
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Last Sunday of Epiphany: The worse you are the more you need it and the less you can do it
Opening Sentence
Collect of the Day
Psater: Psalm 148, 149, 150
Lessons: 2 Corinthians 3:7-18, Luke 9:18-27
We are told that Christ was killed for us, that His death has washed out our sins, and that by dying He disabled death itself. That is the formula. That is Christianity. That is what has to be believed. Any theories we build up as to how Christ’s death did all this are, in my view, quite secondary: mere plans or diagrams to be left alone if they do not help us, and, even if they do help us, not to be confused with the thing itself. All the same, some of these theories are worth looking at.
The one most people have heard is the one I mentioned before – the one about our being let off because Christ had volunteered to bear a punishment instead of us. Now on the face of it that is a very silly theory. I f God was prepared to let us off, why on earth did He not do so? And what possible point could there be in punishing an innocent person instead? None of all that I can see, if you are thinking of punishment in the police-court sense. On the other hand, if you think of a debt, there is plenty of point in a person who has some assets paying it on behalf of someone who has not. Or if you take “paying the penalty,” not in the sense of being punished, but in the more general sense of “standing the racket” or “footing the bill,” then, of course it is a matter of common experience that, when one has got himself into a hole, the trouble of getting him out usually falls on a kind friend.
Now what was the sort of “hole” man had got himself into? He had tried to set up on his own, to behave as if he belonged to himself. In other words, fallen man is not simply an imperfect creature who needs improvement: he is a rebel who must lay down his arms . . . . This process of surrender – this movement full speed astern – is what Christians call repentance. Now repentance is no fun at all. It is something much harder than merely eating humble pie. It means unlearning all the self-conceit and self-will that we have been training ourselves into for thousands of years. It means killing part of yourself, undergoing a kind of death. In fact, it needs a good man to repent. And here comes the catch. Only a bad person needs to repent: only a good person can repent perfectly. The worse you are the more you need it and the less you can do it. The only person who could do it perfectly would be a perfect person – and he would not need it.
O Master, Let Me Walk With Thee
Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising. Isaiah 60:3
Collect of the Day
O God, who before the passion of your only-begotten Son revealed his glory upon the holy mountain: Grant to us that we, beholding by faith the light of his countenance, may be strengthened to bear our cross, and be changed into his likeness from glory to glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Psater: Psalm 148, 149, 150
Lessons: 2 Corinthians 3:7-18, Luke 9:18-27
The one most people have heard is the one I mentioned before – the one about our being let off because Christ had volunteered to bear a punishment instead of us. Now on the face of it that is a very silly theory. I f God was prepared to let us off, why on earth did He not do so? And what possible point could there be in punishing an innocent person instead? None of all that I can see, if you are thinking of punishment in the police-court sense. On the other hand, if you think of a debt, there is plenty of point in a person who has some assets paying it on behalf of someone who has not. Or if you take “paying the penalty,” not in the sense of being punished, but in the more general sense of “standing the racket” or “footing the bill,” then, of course it is a matter of common experience that, when one has got himself into a hole, the trouble of getting him out usually falls on a kind friend.
Now what was the sort of “hole” man had got himself into? He had tried to set up on his own, to behave as if he belonged to himself. In other words, fallen man is not simply an imperfect creature who needs improvement: he is a rebel who must lay down his arms . . . . This process of surrender – this movement full speed astern – is what Christians call repentance. Now repentance is no fun at all. It is something much harder than merely eating humble pie. It means unlearning all the self-conceit and self-will that we have been training ourselves into for thousands of years. It means killing part of yourself, undergoing a kind of death. In fact, it needs a good man to repent. And here comes the catch. Only a bad person needs to repent: only a good person can repent perfectly. The worse you are the more you need it and the less you can do it. The only person who could do it perfectly would be a perfect person – and he would not need it.
C.S. Lewis
Mere Christianity
O Master, Let Me Walk With Thee
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Saturday in Epiphany 6: The summer-power of love
Opening Sentence
Commemoration: Martin Luther
Psalter: Psalm 107:33-43, 108
Lessons: Genesis 35:1-20, 1 John 3:11-18, John 11:1-16
A ministers who has pure intellection only to offer to his people is like one who would in winter drag a plow over the frozen ground. He marks it, but does not furrow it. He who has to make the seed of truth grow in living men into living forms must have power to bring summer to men's hearts, -- light and heat; and then culture, whether it be by the plow or the harrow, by the hoe or the spade, will do some good. It is the summer-power of love, first, middle, and last, that every teacher and Christian preacher ought to seek. It is this that you ought to seek in the closet, in meditation, and in intercourse one with another. You must have a heart so alive and full of genial, sympathizing love that you feel yourself related to everything on the globe that lives and has the power of enjoyment. How this noble conception has been felt by the old ministers of New England! No man can read the writings of Jonathan Edwards, of Hopkins, and others of that school, without seeing how they were filled with this sense of doing for others, and the desire to confer blessings upon universal sentient being. Their system was, in many respects, very imperfect, but, after all, the ideal was in their mind. They had a true conception of the all-pervading power of love in the hearts of men, which ought to be the very center, out of which the whole ministry is to grow.
From the rising of the sun to its setting my Name shall be great among the nations, and in every place incense shall be offered to my Name, and a pure offering; for my Name shall be great among the nations, says the Lord of hosts. Malachi 1:11
Commemoration: Martin Luther
Almighty God, the sender in every age of faithful men and women to recall the Church to its task, and to renew its life: raise up, in this our day, prophetic heralds and evangelists, whose voices, like that of your servant Martin, will give strength to your Church, that your will may be done and your name be glorified, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and ever. Amen.
Psalter: Psalm 107:33-43, 108
Lessons: Genesis 35:1-20, 1 John 3:11-18, John 11:1-16
Henry Ward Beecher
Yale Lectures on Preaching, 1872
A Mighty Fortress is Our God
Friday, February 17, 2012
Friday of Epiphany 6: Wrestling Jacob
Opening Sentence
Commemoration: Onesimus
Psalter: Psalm 102
Lessons: Genesis 32:22-33:17, 1 John 3:1-10, John 10:31-42
Of the over 8,000 hymns he wrote during his lifetime, Charles Wesley was best remembered by his contemporaries for one which was based on a portion of today's Old Testament reading. "Wrestling Jacob," more commonly known today by its first line, "Come, O Thou Traveler Unknown," is considered by many to be the greatest English language hymn ever written. It is a reputation earned, not least of all, because of the high praise it received from the Father of English Hymnody himself, Isaac Watts.
Following Charles Wesley's death, his brother John paid tribute to him in the Minutes of the Methodist Conference of 1780. Included was a prominent mention of his greatest hymn.
Come, O Thou Traveler Unknown
I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth. Isaiah 49:6b
Commemoration: Onesimus
Almighty God, you proclaim your truth in every age by many voices: We thank you for the life of Onesimus. Let his willingness to confront his situation inspire us to a like bravery; to the honor of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Psalter: Psalm 102
Lessons: Genesis 32:22-33:17, 1 John 3:1-10, John 10:31-42
Following Charles Wesley's death, his brother John paid tribute to him in the Minutes of the Methodist Conference of 1780. Included was a prominent mention of his greatest hymn.
Mr. Charles Wesley, who, after spending fourscore years with much sorrow and pain, quietly retired into Abraham's bosom. He had no disease; but after a gradual decay of some months,The weary wheels of life stood still at last.
His least praise was, his talent for poetry; although Dr. Watts did not scruple to say, that "that single poem, Wrestling Jacob, is worth all the verses which I have ever written."
(JAG)
Come, O Thou Traveler Unknown
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Thursday in Epiphany 6: A quick primer on the antichrist
Opening Sentence
Commemoration: Janani Luwum and the Martyrs of Uganda
Psalter: Psalm 105:1-22
Lessons: Genesis 32:3-21, 1 John 2:18-29, John 10:19-30
The long standing popularity of books which exploit fears of the "end times" suggests there has always been an audience for authors who devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies. Popular eschatology and biblical eschatology, however, are not necessarily one and the same. A quick primer on what the Bible actually teaches about "the antichrist" might be in order here.
John wrote of "the antichrist" as "he who denies that Jesus is the Christ" (1 John 2:22). He was referring specifically to schismatic elements who "went out from us [the gathered faithful], but they were not of us" (1 John 2:19). They were possessed of a spirit that did not confess Jesus as having come in the flesh, that is, they denied the Incarnation, the Word made flesh (cf. 1 John 4:3). The term "antichrist" was, for John, primarily of theological, not political, import.
It is significant to note that John referred not only to "the antichrist" but to "many antichrists" (cf. 1 John 2:18) who had already come at the time he was writing. Unlike the truth, which is singular, falsehood comes in many forms. Thus, while the fullness of the truth is embodied in the one Lord Jesus Christ, falsehood cannot be embodied in a singular entity. Attempting to identify one person as "the antichrist," the embodiment of all that is false, is a futile endeavor. Just as "many antichrists" had come in John's day, so many more have come in our day. Their names, however, are of little significance. In the end, they will all be brought to nothing by him who is the Name above every name, the King of kings and Lord of lords, Jesus Christ.
He Reigns
Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising. Isaiah 60:3
Commemoration: Janani Luwum and the Martyrs of Uganda
Almighty God, who gave to your servant Janani Luwum and his Companions boldness to confess the Name of our Savior Jesus Christ before the rulers of this world, and courage to die for this faith: Grant that we may always be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in us, and to suffer gladly for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Psalter: Psalm 105:1-22
Lessons: Genesis 32:3-21, 1 John 2:18-29, John 10:19-30
John wrote of "the antichrist" as "he who denies that Jesus is the Christ" (1 John 2:22). He was referring specifically to schismatic elements who "went out from us [the gathered faithful], but they were not of us" (1 John 2:19). They were possessed of a spirit that did not confess Jesus as having come in the flesh, that is, they denied the Incarnation, the Word made flesh (cf. 1 John 4:3). The term "antichrist" was, for John, primarily of theological, not political, import.
It is significant to note that John referred not only to "the antichrist" but to "many antichrists" (cf. 1 John 2:18) who had already come at the time he was writing. Unlike the truth, which is singular, falsehood comes in many forms. Thus, while the fullness of the truth is embodied in the one Lord Jesus Christ, falsehood cannot be embodied in a singular entity. Attempting to identify one person as "the antichrist," the embodiment of all that is false, is a futile endeavor. Just as "many antichrists" had come in John's day, so many more have come in our day. Their names, however, are of little significance. In the end, they will all be brought to nothing by him who is the Name above every name, the King of kings and Lord of lords, Jesus Christ.
(JAG)
He Reigns
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Wednesday in Epiphany 6: The door into abundant life
Opening Sentence
Commemoration: Thomas Bray
Psalter: Psalm 101, 109
Lessons: Genesis 31:25-50, 1 John 2:12-17, John 10:1-18
"I came that they may have life and have it abundantly," Jesus says. Some have taken this passage and misled many into believing their life ought to be one of blessing upon blessing, joy without sorrow, comfort without suffering. Suffering is seen by these purveyors of the half-truth gospel as a sign of weak or inadequate faith. Life, for the victims of their false teaching, becomes one long guilt trip punctuated by the constant fear that they somehow lack the faith to inherit the kingdom.
But Jesus does not promise us a comfortable life, a luxurious life, or a life free from sorrow or suffering. Jesus says of those he came to save, “I came that they might have life and have it abundantly.”
Familiarity with the imagery Jesus uses is no less and obstacle to understanding what he is talking about than it was to his original hearers. Jesus says he is the "good shepherd" who "lays down his life for the sheep." Tending sheep was a common enough profession in Jesus’ day. Moreover, the Old Testament was replete with images of the shepherd. “The LORD is my shepherd. . .” What is Jesus doing, if not simply elaborating on what should be a very familiar tradition in the history of Israel? Yet, the people don’t understand this “figure of speech,” and many of us today are in the same boat. But why?
For the answer, we need look no further than the Scripture itself. “All who came before me,” Jesus says, “are thieves and robbers.” Now, think for a minute. This is all very, very basic. The coming of the Messiah, the true Shepherd of the sheep, is preceded by false teachers, pretenders, and those who would turn the truth on its head and deceive many. When Jesus arrives on the scene, a veil of deception has descended upon the people, stopping up their ears and turning their hearts to stone. They are enslaved by the false teachings of a religious establishment which has twisted the law so to make it an end in itself, rather than the means to prepare God’s people for the end, which comes in Jesus. When Jesus speaks of the shepherd who enters by the door, who calls the sheep by name and leads them out, he is employing the figurative language of apocalyptic. The shepherd gathering the sheep is an image of the end time, of the last day. It is Jesus gathering the elect, leading them out of the darkness of death and into the glorious light of the presence of God. But not only is Jesus the shepherd who enters by the door. He also says, “I am the door.” To enter through the door that is Christ is to enter into the life of Christ, which is the very life of God. That is the life, the abundant life, which Jesus came to give us.
But don’t be misled. The abundant life is not always the easy life. For As Christ had to suffer before entering into his glory, so we who would “follow in his steps” must also learn the way to life abundant through suffering. In fact more often than not, God’s glory is manifest in our suffering, just as it was in the suffering of Christ. It is a gracious thing, Peter says, “when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly.”
It’s not that God enjoys watching his people suffer. But he delights in giving grace upon grace to those who persevere under trial, keeping their eyes focused squarely on him who endured all things for their sake and, through his suffering, entered into glory.
Being mindful of God and of his good and gracious purposes, no single triumph, no single tragedy in this mixed up, sordid, upside down affair we call life is ever an end in itself. The sufferings, the sorrows, the trials and tribulations, as well as the joys and jubilations, are but the means to prepare us and draw us toward that most glorious end: Jesus himself, the Shepherd and Overseer of our souls. He is the end. He is the beginning. He is everything in between. He is the door through which we enter into abundant life.
Choose Life
From the rising of the sun to its setting my Name shall be great among the nations, and in every place incense shall be offered to my Name, and a pure offering; for my Name shall be great among the nations, says the Lord of hosts. Malachi 1:11
Commemoration: Thomas Bray
O God of compassion, who opened the eyes of your servant Thomas Bray to see the needs of the Church in the New World, and led him to found societies to meet those needs: Make the Church in this land diligent at all times to propagate the Gospel among those who have not received it, and to promote the spread of Christian knowledge; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Psalter: Psalm 101, 109
Lessons: Genesis 31:25-50, 1 John 2:12-17, John 10:1-18
"I came that they may have life and have it abundantly," Jesus says. Some have taken this passage and misled many into believing their life ought to be one of blessing upon blessing, joy without sorrow, comfort without suffering. Suffering is seen by these purveyors of the half-truth gospel as a sign of weak or inadequate faith. Life, for the victims of their false teaching, becomes one long guilt trip punctuated by the constant fear that they somehow lack the faith to inherit the kingdom.
But Jesus does not promise us a comfortable life, a luxurious life, or a life free from sorrow or suffering. Jesus says of those he came to save, “I came that they might have life and have it abundantly.”
For the answer, we need look no further than the Scripture itself. “All who came before me,” Jesus says, “are thieves and robbers.” Now, think for a minute. This is all very, very basic. The coming of the Messiah, the true Shepherd of the sheep, is preceded by false teachers, pretenders, and those who would turn the truth on its head and deceive many. When Jesus arrives on the scene, a veil of deception has descended upon the people, stopping up their ears and turning their hearts to stone. They are enslaved by the false teachings of a religious establishment which has twisted the law so to make it an end in itself, rather than the means to prepare God’s people for the end, which comes in Jesus. When Jesus speaks of the shepherd who enters by the door, who calls the sheep by name and leads them out, he is employing the figurative language of apocalyptic. The shepherd gathering the sheep is an image of the end time, of the last day. It is Jesus gathering the elect, leading them out of the darkness of death and into the glorious light of the presence of God. But not only is Jesus the shepherd who enters by the door. He also says, “I am the door.” To enter through the door that is Christ is to enter into the life of Christ, which is the very life of God. That is the life, the abundant life, which Jesus came to give us.
But don’t be misled. The abundant life is not always the easy life. For As Christ had to suffer before entering into his glory, so we who would “follow in his steps” must also learn the way to life abundant through suffering. In fact more often than not, God’s glory is manifest in our suffering, just as it was in the suffering of Christ. It is a gracious thing, Peter says, “when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly.”
It’s not that God enjoys watching his people suffer. But he delights in giving grace upon grace to those who persevere under trial, keeping their eyes focused squarely on him who endured all things for their sake and, through his suffering, entered into glory.
Being mindful of God and of his good and gracious purposes, no single triumph, no single tragedy in this mixed up, sordid, upside down affair we call life is ever an end in itself. The sufferings, the sorrows, the trials and tribulations, as well as the joys and jubilations, are but the means to prepare us and draw us toward that most glorious end: Jesus himself, the Shepherd and Overseer of our souls. He is the end. He is the beginning. He is everything in between. He is the door through which we enter into abundant life.
(JAG)
Choose Life
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Tuesday in Epiphany 6: Structure, spirit, and truth
Opening Sentence
Commemoration: Valentine
Psalter: Psalm 97, 99, 100
Lessons: Genesis 31:1-24, 1 John 2:1-11, John 9:18-41
“The structure is the message,” J.I. Packer said in an address to the Evangelical Ministry Assembly in 1991. Nowhere is this more true of Scripture than in the fourth Gospel. The Beloved Disciple weaves his story together through simple yet profound structural relationships.
When Nicodemus, who comes to Jesus at night, fails to understand Jesus’ statement, “You must be born again,” Jesus responds, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?” (John 3:10b). This reaction is almost incredulous on the part of Jesus. How could the man who is supposed to be Israel’s teacher—an expert in the law and the prophets—be so utterly in the dark, that is, blind, to what those sacred writings say? If Nicodemus does not understand so simple a concept as being born again, how can he possibly teach the people the deeper mysteries of God’s redemptive plan?
Contrast Jesus’ reaction to Nicodemus with the Pharisees’ reaction to the testimony of the man born blind: “You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us?” (John 9:34). The Word of God is a sharp, two-edged sword, and nowhere is it sharper than when this episode is considered within the wider context that stretches back to the encounter between Jesus and Nicodemus. But there is yet more to that wider context. The main thrust of the former blind man’s “teaching” to the Pharisees is, “We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him.” Here, the story connects back to another conversation, that between Jesus and the woman at the well (John 4:1-42). In that conversation, Jesus says, “But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:23-24).
True and false worship emerge here in as sharp a contrast as true and false teaching. The one naturally flows from the other. False and insincere worship—having the form of godliness but denying its power—leads to false and misleading teaching. The Pharisees demand of the man born blind, “Give glory to God,” is utterly ludicrous and hypocritical. They believe the only way to glorify (worship) God in this case is to deny that Jesus has the power of God to heal. The idea that God could become incarnate in Jesus and do a miraculous healing as a sign of the in-breaking of his kingdom did not fit in with the structures they had erected around their “worship” and, thus, was utterly foreign to their interpretation of the Scriptures.
But the man born blind does give glory to God by affirming Jesus’ power to heal. The Pharisees hear this, however, not as a testimony to the transforming power of God but as evidence of the man’s in-born sinfulness. They expel him from the synagogue, that is, from the place of worship. Jesus then seeks him out and asks him, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”
The man responds, “And who is he sir, that I may believe in him?”
Jesus tells him, “You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.”
Then, John ties together all the loose ends. “He said, ‘Lord I believe,’ and he worshiped him.”
As Nicodemus was unqualified to be Israel’s teacher because he lacked the basic knowledge of one who was truly “born again,” so the man born blind was eminently qualified to teach the Pharisees (Nicodemus himself being “a man of the Pharisees”) because he had been touched by the transforming power of God. As Jesus told the woman at the well that worship was not a matter of physical location but of spiritual orientation, so the man born blind, having been expelled from the place of worship, is able to worship without inhibition when he confesses his faith in Jesus.
Thus, Jesus’ declaration makes complete and perfect sense: “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.”
Open Our Eyes, Lord
I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth. Isaiah 49:6b
Commemoration: Valentine
Almighty and everlasting God, who kindled the flame of your Love in the heart of your holy martyr Valentine: Grant to us, your humble servants, a like faith and power of love, that we who rejoice in his triumph may profit by his example; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Psalter: Psalm 97, 99, 100
Lessons: Genesis 31:1-24, 1 John 2:1-11, John 9:18-41
When Nicodemus, who comes to Jesus at night, fails to understand Jesus’ statement, “You must be born again,” Jesus responds, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?” (John 3:10b). This reaction is almost incredulous on the part of Jesus. How could the man who is supposed to be Israel’s teacher—an expert in the law and the prophets—be so utterly in the dark, that is, blind, to what those sacred writings say? If Nicodemus does not understand so simple a concept as being born again, how can he possibly teach the people the deeper mysteries of God’s redemptive plan?
Contrast Jesus’ reaction to Nicodemus with the Pharisees’ reaction to the testimony of the man born blind: “You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us?” (John 9:34). The Word of God is a sharp, two-edged sword, and nowhere is it sharper than when this episode is considered within the wider context that stretches back to the encounter between Jesus and Nicodemus. But there is yet more to that wider context. The main thrust of the former blind man’s “teaching” to the Pharisees is, “We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him.” Here, the story connects back to another conversation, that between Jesus and the woman at the well (John 4:1-42). In that conversation, Jesus says, “But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:23-24).
True and false worship emerge here in as sharp a contrast as true and false teaching. The one naturally flows from the other. False and insincere worship—having the form of godliness but denying its power—leads to false and misleading teaching. The Pharisees demand of the man born blind, “Give glory to God,” is utterly ludicrous and hypocritical. They believe the only way to glorify (worship) God in this case is to deny that Jesus has the power of God to heal. The idea that God could become incarnate in Jesus and do a miraculous healing as a sign of the in-breaking of his kingdom did not fit in with the structures they had erected around their “worship” and, thus, was utterly foreign to their interpretation of the Scriptures.
But the man born blind does give glory to God by affirming Jesus’ power to heal. The Pharisees hear this, however, not as a testimony to the transforming power of God but as evidence of the man’s in-born sinfulness. They expel him from the synagogue, that is, from the place of worship. Jesus then seeks him out and asks him, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”
The man responds, “And who is he sir, that I may believe in him?”
Jesus tells him, “You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.”
Then, John ties together all the loose ends. “He said, ‘Lord I believe,’ and he worshiped him.”
As Nicodemus was unqualified to be Israel’s teacher because he lacked the basic knowledge of one who was truly “born again,” so the man born blind was eminently qualified to teach the Pharisees (Nicodemus himself being “a man of the Pharisees”) because he had been touched by the transforming power of God. As Jesus told the woman at the well that worship was not a matter of physical location but of spiritual orientation, so the man born blind, having been expelled from the place of worship, is able to worship without inhibition when he confesses his faith in Jesus.
Thus, Jesus’ declaration makes complete and perfect sense: “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.”
(JAG)
Open Our Eyes, Lord
Monday, February 13, 2012
Monday in Epiphany 6: Make space for God
Opening Sentence
Commemoration: Absalom Jones and Richard Allen
Psalter: Psalm 89:1-18
Lessons: Genesis 30:1-24, 1 John 1, John 9:1-17
Insignificant man, rise up! Flee your preoccupations for a little while. Hide yourself for a time from your turbulent thoughts. Cast aside, now, your heavy responsibilities and put off your burdensome business. Make a little space free for God; and rest for a little time in him.
Enter the inner chamber of your mind; shut out all thoughts. Keep only thought of God, and thoughts that can aid you in seeking him. Close your door and seek him. Speak now, my whole heart! Speak now to God, saying, I seek your face; your face, Lord, will I seek.
And come you now, O Lord my God, teach my heart where and how it may seek you, where and how it may find you.
Lord, if you are not here, where shall I seek you when you are absent? But if you are everywhere, why do I not see you present? Truly you dwell in unapproachable light. But where is unapproachable light, or how shall I come to it? Or who shall lead me to that light and into it, that I may see you in it? Again, by what signs, under what form, shall I seek you? I have never seen you, O Lord, my God; I do not know your face.
What, O most high Lord, shall this man do, an exile far from you? What shall your servant do, anxious in his love of you, and cast out far from your presence? He is breathless with desire to see you, and your face is too far from him. He longs to come to you, and your dwelling-place is inaccessible. He is eager to find you, but does not know where. He desires to seek you, and does not know your face.
Lord, you are my God, and you are my Lord, and never have I seen you. You have made me and renewed me, you have given me all the good things that I have, and I have not yet met you. I was created to see you, and I have not yet done the thing for which I was made.
And as for you, Lord, how long? How long, O Lord, do you forget us; how long do you turn your face from us? When will you look upon us, and hear us? When will you enlighten our eyes, and show us your face? When will you restore yourself to us?
Look upon us, Lord; hear us, enlighten us, reveal yourself to us. Restore yourself to us, that it may be well with us, yourself, without whom it is so ill with us. Pity our toilings and strivings toward you since we can do nothing without you.
Teach me to seek you, and reveal yourself to me when I seek you, for I cannot seek you unless you teach me, nor find you unless you reveal yourself. Let me seek you in longing, let me long for you in seeking; let me find you by loving you and love you in the act of finding you.
I Want to Walk as a Child of the Light
Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising. Isaiah 60:3
Commemoration: Absalom Jones and Richard Allen
Set us free, heavenly Father, from every bond of prejudice and fear: that, honoring the steadfast courage of your servants Absalom Jones and Richard Allen, we may show forth in our lives the reconciling love and true freedom of the children of God, which you have given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Psalter: Psalm 89:1-18
Lessons: Genesis 30:1-24, 1 John 1, John 9:1-17
Enter the inner chamber of your mind; shut out all thoughts. Keep only thought of God, and thoughts that can aid you in seeking him. Close your door and seek him. Speak now, my whole heart! Speak now to God, saying, I seek your face; your face, Lord, will I seek.
And come you now, O Lord my God, teach my heart where and how it may seek you, where and how it may find you.
Lord, if you are not here, where shall I seek you when you are absent? But if you are everywhere, why do I not see you present? Truly you dwell in unapproachable light. But where is unapproachable light, or how shall I come to it? Or who shall lead me to that light and into it, that I may see you in it? Again, by what signs, under what form, shall I seek you? I have never seen you, O Lord, my God; I do not know your face.
What, O most high Lord, shall this man do, an exile far from you? What shall your servant do, anxious in his love of you, and cast out far from your presence? He is breathless with desire to see you, and your face is too far from him. He longs to come to you, and your dwelling-place is inaccessible. He is eager to find you, but does not know where. He desires to seek you, and does not know your face.
Lord, you are my God, and you are my Lord, and never have I seen you. You have made me and renewed me, you have given me all the good things that I have, and I have not yet met you. I was created to see you, and I have not yet done the thing for which I was made.
And as for you, Lord, how long? How long, O Lord, do you forget us; how long do you turn your face from us? When will you look upon us, and hear us? When will you enlighten our eyes, and show us your face? When will you restore yourself to us?
Look upon us, Lord; hear us, enlighten us, reveal yourself to us. Restore yourself to us, that it may be well with us, yourself, without whom it is so ill with us. Pity our toilings and strivings toward you since we can do nothing without you.
Teach me to seek you, and reveal yourself to me when I seek you, for I cannot seek you unless you teach me, nor find you unless you reveal yourself. Let me seek you in longing, let me long for you in seeking; let me find you by loving you and love you in the act of finding you.
Anselm of Canterbury
I Want to Walk as a Child of the Light
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Sixth Sunday after Epiphany: Lord God, this morning
Opening Sentence
Collect of the Day
Psalter: Psalm 66, 67
Lessons: Genesis 29:20-35, 1 Timothy 3:14-4:10, Mark 10:23-31
And now, O Lord, this man of God,
Who breaks the bread of life this morning --
Shadow him in the hollow of thy hand,
And keep him out of the gunshot of the devil.
Take him Lord -- this morning --
Wash him with hyssop inside and out,
Hang him up and drain him dry of sin.
Pin his ear tot he wisdom-post,
And make his words sledge hammers of truth --
Bearing on the iron heart of sin.
Lord God, this morning --
Put his eye to the telescope of eternity,
And let him look upon the paper walls of time.
Lord, turpentine his imagination,
Put perpetual motion in his arms,
Fill him full of the dynamite of thy power,
Anoint him all over with the oil of thy salvation,
And set his tongue on fire.
And now, O Lord --
When I've done drunk my last cup of sorrow --
When I've been called everything but a child of God --
When I'm done traveling up the rough side of the mountain --
O -- Mary's Baby --
When I start down the steep and slippery steps of death --
When this old world begins to rock beneath my feet --
Lower me to my dusty grave in peace
To wait for that great gettin' up morning --
Amen.
O Lord, You're Beautiful
Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising. Isaiah 60:3
Collect of the Day
O God, the strength of all who put their trust in you: Mercifully accept our prayers; and because in our weakness we can do nothing good without you, give us the help of your grace, that in keeping your commandments we may please you both in will and deed; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Psalter: Psalm 66, 67
Lessons: Genesis 29:20-35, 1 Timothy 3:14-4:10, Mark 10:23-31
Who breaks the bread of life this morning --
Shadow him in the hollow of thy hand,
And keep him out of the gunshot of the devil.
Take him Lord -- this morning --
Wash him with hyssop inside and out,
Hang him up and drain him dry of sin.
Pin his ear tot he wisdom-post,
And make his words sledge hammers of truth --
Bearing on the iron heart of sin.
Lord God, this morning --
Put his eye to the telescope of eternity,
And let him look upon the paper walls of time.
Lord, turpentine his imagination,
Put perpetual motion in his arms,
Fill him full of the dynamite of thy power,
Anoint him all over with the oil of thy salvation,
And set his tongue on fire.
And now, O Lord --
When I've done drunk my last cup of sorrow --
When I've been called everything but a child of God --
When I'm done traveling up the rough side of the mountain --
O -- Mary's Baby --
When I start down the steep and slippery steps of death --
When this old world begins to rock beneath my feet --
Lower me to my dusty grave in peace
To wait for that great gettin' up morning --
Amen.
James Weldon Johnson
God's Trombones
O Lord, You're Beautiful
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Saturday in Epiphany 5: The Father of English Hymnody
Opening Sentence
Collect of the Day
Psalter: Psalm 87, 90
Lessons: Genesis 29:1-20, Romans 14, John 8:47-59
Isaac Watts is remembered today as "the Father of English Hymnody." Poetically gifted, he began complaining at an early age about the lack of spirited singing in the Congregational churches in which his father preached. When his father suggested he write some better songs, Watts eagerly obliged. Ultimately, he penned over 600 hymns, mostly based on the Psalms in keeping with his Congregationalist heritage.
As a dissenter from the Church of England, Watts's father had spent many years in prison because his views did not align with those of the reigning monarch. Under Queen Anne, however, the dissenters had been tolerated and Watts's father had been given his freedom. When the queen died without an heir in 1714, Watts was understandably concerned. A succession controversy was bound to arise and Watts feared a new monarch might re-institute a policy of non-toleration. Turning, as he often did, to the Psalms for comfort, he fell upon Psalm 90, a song attributed to Moses in which God is praised for being "our dwelling place in all generations." God, said this Psalm, was our help in ages past and our hope for years to come. Standing above time, he remains the one constant in an ever-changing world, the eternal refuge for those in every generation who put their trust in him.
The rest, as they say, is history. From that Psalm, Watts penned the hymn, "O God, Our Help in Ages Past."
The tune most often associated with Watts's text, interestingly enough, is "St. Anne" by William Croft, named in honor of the cathedral in which he then served as organist.
O God, Our Help in Ages Past
From the rising of the sun to its setting my Name shall be great among the nations, and in every place incense shall be offered to my Name, and a pure offering; for my Name shall be great among the nations, says the Lord of hosts. Malachi 1:11
Collect of the Day
Set us free, O God, from the bondage of our sins, and give us the liberty of that abundant life which you have made known o us in your Son our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Psalter: Psalm 87, 90
Lessons: Genesis 29:1-20, Romans 14, John 8:47-59
As a dissenter from the Church of England, Watts's father had spent many years in prison because his views did not align with those of the reigning monarch. Under Queen Anne, however, the dissenters had been tolerated and Watts's father had been given his freedom. When the queen died without an heir in 1714, Watts was understandably concerned. A succession controversy was bound to arise and Watts feared a new monarch might re-institute a policy of non-toleration. Turning, as he often did, to the Psalms for comfort, he fell upon Psalm 90, a song attributed to Moses in which God is praised for being "our dwelling place in all generations." God, said this Psalm, was our help in ages past and our hope for years to come. Standing above time, he remains the one constant in an ever-changing world, the eternal refuge for those in every generation who put their trust in him.
The rest, as they say, is history. From that Psalm, Watts penned the hymn, "O God, Our Help in Ages Past."
The tune most often associated with Watts's text, interestingly enough, is "St. Anne" by William Croft, named in honor of the cathedral in which he then served as organist.
(JAG)
O God, Our Help in Ages Past
Friday, February 10, 2012
Friday in Epiphany 5: "Pick it up and read it"
Opening Sentence
Collect of the Day
Psalter: Psalm 88
Lessons: Genesis 27:46-28:4, 10-22; Romans 13, John 8:33-47
[Writing about his conversion] In that very moment, from the absolute bottom of my soul there came together like a knot in my heart all of my past struggles and present arguments, and it caused me to break into tears. So that I would not embarrass anyone and so I could let myself go completely, I left Alypius [one of his close friends, later bishop of Thagaste]. He knew what was happening and let me go by myself. I found myself in a garden and collapsed there under a tree, sobbing like a baby and babbling about my worthlessness. . . . As I was carrying on, suddenly I heard from somewhere a voice -- like a child's -- saying softly, over and over, "Pick it up and read it." My confused mind cast about, trying to remember if these were the words to some game that children play, but I couldn't think of any. I got control of myself and stood up. I decided that this was a direct answer to me from God, directing me to take up His Holy Scripture and to read the first chapter that I opened to. . . . Quickly I raced back to where Alypius sat and seized the Epistles of Saint Paul which I had left there. Opening it, I rad to myself the first words that came to my eyes [Romans 13:13]: Not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying: but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh in concupiscence. I did not need to go on; as soon as I finished that one sentence perfect truth filled my heart; confusion and doubt were gone forever.
Trading My Sorrows
I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth. Isaiah 49:6b
Collect of the Day
Set us free, O God, from the bondage of our sins, and give us the liberty of that abundant life which you have made known o us in your Son our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Psalter: Psalm 88
Lessons: Genesis 27:46-28:4, 10-22; Romans 13, John 8:33-47
Augustine
Confessions
Trading My Sorrows
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Thursday in Epiphany 5: The true freedom of radical discipleship
Opening Sentence
Collect of the Day
Psalter: Psalm 83, 146, 147
Lessons: Genesis 27:30-45, Romans 12:9-21, John 8:21-32
"As he was saying these things, many believed in him" (John 8:30). But Jesus wants no part of those who believe in him for the wrong reasons. His words may captivate the crowds, but their captivation will soon turn to offense and outrage. Jesus is not, at this point, gathering the flock so much as he is thinning the herd. Not everyone can accept his words, least of all those who believe they are children of Abraham simply by reason of natural birth. Their opinion of Jesus begins to change very quickly when he says, "If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free" (vv. 31b-32).
Jesus' detractors are a group of Jews who are apparently ignorant of their own sacred history. They respond to Jesus by claiming, "We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone" (v. 33, from tomorrow's reading). What true "offspring of Abraham" could be so forgetful of the Israelites' experience in Egypt, where they were enslaved for 400 years before God raised up Moses to lead them to the Promised Land?
It is no wonder Jesus' words are so offensive to his hearers. They hit too close to home. In their hearts, these "offspring of Abraham" are still in Egypt, still enslaved, yet blissfully unaware that they have been enslaved at all. Their response to Jesus seems rather perfunctory. First, they claim fatherhood from Abraham. Then, they claim fatherhood from God. Jesus, however, minces no words. Their failure to accept his words proves conclusively that they are not children of Abraham, much less children of God. Their father is the devil, and they are behaving exactly as he would. They reject the truth in favor of lies. They cannot bear Jesus' words because his words are the truth. But their father, the devil, cannot speak except to utter lies.
"He was a murderer from the beginning," Jesus says, "and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies" (v. 44b). To have the devil as one's father, then, is not only to believe his lies but to live them, as well. The tragedy for those who reject Jesus is their complete ignorance of the truth about themselves. They are slaves to sin and offspring of the devil. They are living lies. The truth, far from setting them free as it does for those who hear and believe Jesus' words, only sets them off on a tirade which does nothing but prove how utterly lost and enslaved they are.
Jesus speaks "the truth" because he is "the truth" incarnate. To know "the truth" is to know Jesus. To know Jesus is to be truly free. But this is a difficult truth to accept, and not just for people in Jesus' day. It implies that every thought we think and every action we take apart from abiding in Christ is a manifestation not of freedom, but of slavery. When we choose to follow after the world, we are not choosing of our own free will. We are acting under compulsion as slaves of sin and children of the devil. Jesus' words expose the deception under which we have been living; the utter folly of living in bondage while thinking we are free.
Jesus calls us out of that bondage, out of that deception, and into the true freedom of radical discipleship. It is a freedom which we cannot accept without first accepting the ugly truth about ourselves: that we are miserable sinners, undeserving of the least of God's favors, least of all the gift of salvation he offers in his Son Jesus Christ. But that is a truth we cannot accept unless Jesus' word sets us free. To hear his word and walk away is to continue down the path of slavery to sin which can only lead to death. To hear his word and obey is to know the true freedom which only he can bring.
My Hope is Built
Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising. Isaiah 60:3
Collect of the Day
Set us free, O God, from the bondage of our sins, and give us the liberty of that abundant life which you have made known o us in your Son our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Psalter: Psalm 83, 146, 147
Lessons: Genesis 27:30-45, Romans 12:9-21, John 8:21-32
"As he was saying these things, many believed in him" (John 8:30). But Jesus wants no part of those who believe in him for the wrong reasons. His words may captivate the crowds, but their captivation will soon turn to offense and outrage. Jesus is not, at this point, gathering the flock so much as he is thinning the herd. Not everyone can accept his words, least of all those who believe they are children of Abraham simply by reason of natural birth. Their opinion of Jesus begins to change very quickly when he says, "If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free" (vv. 31b-32).
It is no wonder Jesus' words are so offensive to his hearers. They hit too close to home. In their hearts, these "offspring of Abraham" are still in Egypt, still enslaved, yet blissfully unaware that they have been enslaved at all. Their response to Jesus seems rather perfunctory. First, they claim fatherhood from Abraham. Then, they claim fatherhood from God. Jesus, however, minces no words. Their failure to accept his words proves conclusively that they are not children of Abraham, much less children of God. Their father is the devil, and they are behaving exactly as he would. They reject the truth in favor of lies. They cannot bear Jesus' words because his words are the truth. But their father, the devil, cannot speak except to utter lies.
"He was a murderer from the beginning," Jesus says, "and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies" (v. 44b). To have the devil as one's father, then, is not only to believe his lies but to live them, as well. The tragedy for those who reject Jesus is their complete ignorance of the truth about themselves. They are slaves to sin and offspring of the devil. They are living lies. The truth, far from setting them free as it does for those who hear and believe Jesus' words, only sets them off on a tirade which does nothing but prove how utterly lost and enslaved they are.
Jesus speaks "the truth" because he is "the truth" incarnate. To know "the truth" is to know Jesus. To know Jesus is to be truly free. But this is a difficult truth to accept, and not just for people in Jesus' day. It implies that every thought we think and every action we take apart from abiding in Christ is a manifestation not of freedom, but of slavery. When we choose to follow after the world, we are not choosing of our own free will. We are acting under compulsion as slaves of sin and children of the devil. Jesus' words expose the deception under which we have been living; the utter folly of living in bondage while thinking we are free.
Jesus calls us out of that bondage, out of that deception, and into the true freedom of radical discipleship. It is a freedom which we cannot accept without first accepting the ugly truth about ourselves: that we are miserable sinners, undeserving of the least of God's favors, least of all the gift of salvation he offers in his Son Jesus Christ. But that is a truth we cannot accept unless Jesus' word sets us free. To hear his word and walk away is to continue down the path of slavery to sin which can only lead to death. To hear his word and obey is to know the true freedom which only he can bring.
(JAG)
My Hope is Built
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Wednesday in Epiphany 5: Truly God by nature
Opening Sentence
Collect of the Day
Psalter: Psalm 119:97-120
Mem
Nun
Samekh
Lessons: Genesis 27:1-29, Romans 12:1-8, John 8:12-20
Who can rightly say, "I am the light of the world," except the one who is truly God by nature? Let the Pharisees go through the entire divinely inspired Scripture and search into the sacred and divine Word and show us who of the holy prophets ever dared to say such a thing or when an angel ever made such a claim. . . . The crowd of Pharisees thought that he spoke falsely. In their exceeding foolishness, they had no idea that there are those who set forth their own nature and tell what is essentially inherent in them, not out of boasting or because they are bent on making a name for themselves. Rather, they are simply declaring what they really are. . . . And so, even when our Savior Christ says that he is the light, he is speaking the truth and will not be found boasting. . . . But they attack him as though he is one of us. Without hesitation they say "Your record is not true" of the one who cannot lie. And yet, he decided to lead by the hand those who had gone astray . . . telling them what they had missed about him when they committed sacrilege by ascribing love of lying to him who is from above and begotten of God the Father.
Here I Am to Worship
Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising. Isaiah 60:3
Collect of the Day
Set us free, O God, from the bondage of our sins, and give us the liberty of that abundant life which you have made known to us in your Son our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and
for ever. Amen.
Psalter: Psalm 119:97-120
Mem
Nun
Samekh
Lessons: Genesis 27:1-29, Romans 12:1-8, John 8:12-20
Cyril of Alexandria
Here I Am to Worship
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Tuesday in Epiphany 5: The scandal of grace
Opening Sentence
Collect of the Day
Psalter: Psalm 78:1-39
Lessons: Genesis 26:1-6, 12-33; Hebrews 13:17-25; John 7:53-8:11
Steven Spielberg’s film version of The Color Purple includes a moving portrayal of a parable of grace. Sugar, a sexy, knock-’em- dead nightclub singer who works out of a ramshackle bar by the side of a river, is the classic prodigal daughter. Her father, a minister who preaches hellfire and brimstone in a church just across the way, hasn’t spoken to her in years.
One day as Sug is crooning “I’ve got somethin’ to tell you” in the bar, she hears the church choir answer, as if antiphonally, “God’s got something to tell you!” Pricked by nostalgia or guilt, Sug leads her band to the church and marches down the aisle just as her father mounts the pulpit to preach on the prodigal son.
The sight of his long-lost daughter silences the minister, and he glowers at the procession coming down the aisle. “Even us sinners have soul,” Sug explains, and hugs her father, who hardly reacts. Ever the moralist, he cannot easily forgive a daughter who has shamed him so.
The Hollywood portrayal, however, altogether misses the main point of the biblical parable. In Jesus’ version the father does not glower, but rather searches the horizon, desperate for any sign of his wayward child. It is the father who runs, throws his arm around the prodigal, and kisses him.
By making a sinner the magnanimous hero, Hollywood dodges the scandal of grace. In truth what blocks forgiveness is not God’s reticence---“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him”—--but ours. God’s arms are always extended; we are the ones who turn away. It is a wonderful truth, and one subject to devious exploitation.
Not long ago I sat in a restaurant and listened to yet another variation on a familiar theme. Daniel confided that he had decided to leave his wife after fifteen years of marriage. He had met someone younger and prettier, he said, someone who “makes me feel alive, like I haven’t felt in years.”
Daniel, a Christian, knew well the personal and moral consequences of what he was about to do. His decision to leave would inflict permanent damage on his wife and three children. Even so, he said, the force pulling him toward the younger woman was too strong to resist.
I listened to his story with sadness and grief. Then, during the dessert course, he dropped the bombshell, “The reason I wanted to see you tonight was to ask you a question. Do you think God can forgive something as awful as I am about to do?”
Historian and art critic Robert Hughes tells of a convict sentenced to life imprisonment on a maximum security island off the coast of Australia. One day with no provocation he turned on a fellow prisoner he barely knew and beat him senseless. The murderer was shipped back to the mainland to stand trial, where he gave a straightforward, passionless account of the crime, showing no sign of remorse. “Why?” asked the bewildered judge. “What was your motive?”
The prisoner replied that he was sick of life on the island, a notoriously brutal place, and that he saw no reason to keep on living. “Yes, yes I understand all that,” said the judge. “I can see why you might drown yourself in the ocean. But why murder?”
“Well, it’s like this,” said the prisoner. “I’m a Catholic. If I commit suicide I’ll go straight to hell. But if I murder I can come back here and confess to a priest before my execution. That way, God will forgive me.”
Do we fully appreciate the scandal of unconditional grace? How can I dissuade my friend Daniel from committing a terrible mistake if he knows forgiveness lies just around the corner? Or, worse, why not murder, like the Australian prisoner if you know in advance you’ll be forgiven?
The scandal of grace must have haunted the apostle Paul as he wrote the book of Romans. The first three chapters ring down condemnation on every class of human being, concluding, “There is no one righteous, not even one.” The next two chapters unveil the miracle of a grace so boundless that as Paul says, “where sin increased, grace increased all the more.”
Paul’s tone changes in chapter 6. I can almost see the apostle staring at the papyrus and scratching his head, thinking to himself, Wait a minute! What have I said? What’s to keep a murderer, adulterer, or common sinner from exploiting God’s lavish promise of “forgiveness in advance”?
More than once in the next few chapters Paul returns to this logical predicament: “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?” To such a devious question he has a pithy answer (“By no means!” or, as the King James Version has it, “God forbid!”) and a lengthy one. What Paul keeps circling around in those dense, wonderful chapters (6-8) is, quite simply, the scandal of grace.
Here is what I told my friend Daniel, in a nutshell. “Can God forgive you? Of course. Read your Bible. David, Peter, Paul—--God builds his church on the backs of people who murder, commit adultery, deny him, and persecute his followers. But because of Christ, forgiveness is now our problem, not God’s. What we have to go through to commit sin distances us from God—--we change in the very act of rebellion—--and there is no guarantee we will come back. You ask me about forgiveness now, but will you even want it later, especially if it involves repentance?”
Several months after our conversation, Daniel made his choice. I have yet to see any evidence of repentance. Now he tends to rationalize his decision as a way of escaping an unhappy marriage. He has rejected most of his Christian friends—--”Too narrow-minded,” he says—--and looks instead for people who celebrate his newfound liberation.
To me, though, Daniel does not seem very liberated. The price of his “freedom” has meant turning his back on those who cared about him most. He also tells me God is not a part of his life right now. “Maybe later,” he says.
God took a great risk by announcing forgiveness in advance. It occurs to me, though, that the scandal of grace involves a transfer of that risk to us. As George MacDonald put it, we are condemned not for the wicked things we’ve done, but for not leaving them.
Go and Sin No More
I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth. Isaiah 49:6b
Collect of the Day
Set us free, O God, from the bondage of our sins, and give us the liberty of that abundant life which you have made known o us in your Son our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Psalter: Psalm 78:1-39
Lessons: Genesis 26:1-6, 12-33; Hebrews 13:17-25; John 7:53-8:11
One day as Sug is crooning “I’ve got somethin’ to tell you” in the bar, she hears the church choir answer, as if antiphonally, “God’s got something to tell you!” Pricked by nostalgia or guilt, Sug leads her band to the church and marches down the aisle just as her father mounts the pulpit to preach on the prodigal son.
The sight of his long-lost daughter silences the minister, and he glowers at the procession coming down the aisle. “Even us sinners have soul,” Sug explains, and hugs her father, who hardly reacts. Ever the moralist, he cannot easily forgive a daughter who has shamed him so.
The Hollywood portrayal, however, altogether misses the main point of the biblical parable. In Jesus’ version the father does not glower, but rather searches the horizon, desperate for any sign of his wayward child. It is the father who runs, throws his arm around the prodigal, and kisses him.
By making a sinner the magnanimous hero, Hollywood dodges the scandal of grace. In truth what blocks forgiveness is not God’s reticence---“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him”—--but ours. God’s arms are always extended; we are the ones who turn away. It is a wonderful truth, and one subject to devious exploitation.
Not long ago I sat in a restaurant and listened to yet another variation on a familiar theme. Daniel confided that he had decided to leave his wife after fifteen years of marriage. He had met someone younger and prettier, he said, someone who “makes me feel alive, like I haven’t felt in years.”
Daniel, a Christian, knew well the personal and moral consequences of what he was about to do. His decision to leave would inflict permanent damage on his wife and three children. Even so, he said, the force pulling him toward the younger woman was too strong to resist.
I listened to his story with sadness and grief. Then, during the dessert course, he dropped the bombshell, “The reason I wanted to see you tonight was to ask you a question. Do you think God can forgive something as awful as I am about to do?”
Historian and art critic Robert Hughes tells of a convict sentenced to life imprisonment on a maximum security island off the coast of Australia. One day with no provocation he turned on a fellow prisoner he barely knew and beat him senseless. The murderer was shipped back to the mainland to stand trial, where he gave a straightforward, passionless account of the crime, showing no sign of remorse. “Why?” asked the bewildered judge. “What was your motive?”
The prisoner replied that he was sick of life on the island, a notoriously brutal place, and that he saw no reason to keep on living. “Yes, yes I understand all that,” said the judge. “I can see why you might drown yourself in the ocean. But why murder?”
“Well, it’s like this,” said the prisoner. “I’m a Catholic. If I commit suicide I’ll go straight to hell. But if I murder I can come back here and confess to a priest before my execution. That way, God will forgive me.”
Do we fully appreciate the scandal of unconditional grace? How can I dissuade my friend Daniel from committing a terrible mistake if he knows forgiveness lies just around the corner? Or, worse, why not murder, like the Australian prisoner if you know in advance you’ll be forgiven?
The scandal of grace must have haunted the apostle Paul as he wrote the book of Romans. The first three chapters ring down condemnation on every class of human being, concluding, “There is no one righteous, not even one.” The next two chapters unveil the miracle of a grace so boundless that as Paul says, “where sin increased, grace increased all the more.”
Paul’s tone changes in chapter 6. I can almost see the apostle staring at the papyrus and scratching his head, thinking to himself, Wait a minute! What have I said? What’s to keep a murderer, adulterer, or common sinner from exploiting God’s lavish promise of “forgiveness in advance”?
More than once in the next few chapters Paul returns to this logical predicament: “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?” To such a devious question he has a pithy answer (“By no means!” or, as the King James Version has it, “God forbid!”) and a lengthy one. What Paul keeps circling around in those dense, wonderful chapters (6-8) is, quite simply, the scandal of grace.
Here is what I told my friend Daniel, in a nutshell. “Can God forgive you? Of course. Read your Bible. David, Peter, Paul—--God builds his church on the backs of people who murder, commit adultery, deny him, and persecute his followers. But because of Christ, forgiveness is now our problem, not God’s. What we have to go through to commit sin distances us from God—--we change in the very act of rebellion—--and there is no guarantee we will come back. You ask me about forgiveness now, but will you even want it later, especially if it involves repentance?”
Several months after our conversation, Daniel made his choice. I have yet to see any evidence of repentance. Now he tends to rationalize his decision as a way of escaping an unhappy marriage. He has rejected most of his Christian friends—--”Too narrow-minded,” he says—--and looks instead for people who celebrate his newfound liberation.
To me, though, Daniel does not seem very liberated. The price of his “freedom” has meant turning his back on those who cared about him most. He also tells me God is not a part of his life right now. “Maybe later,” he says.
God took a great risk by announcing forgiveness in advance. It occurs to me, though, that the scandal of grace involves a transfer of that risk to us. As George MacDonald put it, we are condemned not for the wicked things we’ve done, but for not leaving them.
Phillip Yancey
Finding God in Unexpected Places
Go and Sin No More
Monday, February 6, 2012
Monday in Epiphany 5: The Immutability of Christ
Opening Sentence
Collect of the Day
Psalter: Psalm 80
Lessons: Genesis 25:19-34, Hebrews 13:1-16, John 7:37-52
It is well that there is one person who is the same. It is well that there is one stable rock amidst the changing billows of this sea of life; for how many and how grievous have been the changes of this year? How many of you who commenced in affluence, have by the panic, which has shaken nations, been reduced almost to poverty? How many of you, who in strong health marched into this place on the first Sabbath of last year, have had to come tottering here, feeling that the breath of man is in his nostrils, and wherein is he to be accounted of? Many of you came to this hall with a numerous family, leaning upon the arm of a choice and much loved friend. Alas! for love, if thou wert all and naught beside, O earth! For ye have buried those ye loved the best. Some of you have come here childless, or widows, or fatherless, still weeping your recent affliction. Changes have taken place in your estate that have made your heart full of misery. Your cups of sweetness have been dashed with draughts of gall; your golden harvests have had tares cast into the midst of them, and you have had to reap the noxious weed along with the precious grain. Your much fine gold has become dim, and your glory has departed; the sweet frames at the commencement of last year became bitter ones at the end. Your raptures and your ecstacies were turned into depression and forebodings. Alas! for our changes, and hallelujah to him that hath no change.
But greater things have changed than we; for kingdoms have trembled in the balances. We have seen a peninsula deluged with blood, and mutiny raising its bloody war whoop. Nay, the whole world hath changed; earth hath doffed its green, and put on its somber garment of Autumn, and soon expects to wear its ermine robe of snow. All things have changed. We believe that not only in appearance but in reality, the world is growing old. The sun itself must soon grow dim with age; the folding up of the worn-out vesture has commenced; the changing of the heavens and the earth has certainly begun. They shall perish; they all shall wax old as doth a garment; but for ever blessed be him who is the same, and of whose years there is no end. The satisfaction that the mariner feels, when, after having been tossed about for many a day, he puts his foot upon the solid shore, is just the satisfaction of a Christian when, amidst all the changes of this troublous life, he plants the foot of his faith upon such a text as this—"the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever." The same stability that the anchor gives the ship, when it hath at last got the grip of some immovable rock, that same stability doth our hope give to our spirits, when, like an anchor, it fixes itself in a truth so glorious as this—"Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever."
I shall first try this morning to open the text by a little explanation; then I shall try to answer a few objections, which our wicked unbelief will be quite sure to raise against it; and afterward I shall try to draw a few useful, consoling, and practical lessons from the great truth of the immutability of Jesus Christ.
I. First, then, we open the text by a little EXPLANATION—"Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever." He is the same in his person. We change perpetually; the bloom of youth gives place to the strength of manhood, and the maturity of manhood fades away into the weakness of old age. But "Thou hast the dew of thy youth." Christ Jesus, whom we adore, thou art as young as ever! We came into this world with the ignorance of infancy; we grow up searching, studying, and learning with the diligence of youth; we attain to some little knowledge in our riper years; and then in our old age we totter back to the imbecility of our childhood. But O, our Master! thou didst perfectly foreknow all mortal or eternal things from before the foundations of the world, and thou knowest all things now, and for ever thou shalt be the same in thine omniscience. We are one day strong, and the next day weak—one day resolved, and the next day wavering—one hour constant, and the next hour unstable as water. We are one moment holy, kept by the power of God; we are the next moment sinning, led astray by our own lusts; but our Master is for ever the same; pure and never spotted; firm, and never changing—everlastingly Omnipotent, unchangeably Omniscient. From him no attribute doth pass away; to him no parallax, no tropic, ever comes; without variableness or shadow of a turning, he abideth fast and firm. Did Solomon sing concerning his best beloved, "His head is as the most fine gold: his locks are bushy and black as a raven. His eyes are as the eyes of doves by the rivers of waters, washed with milk, and fitly set. His cheeks are as a bed of spices, as sweet flowers: his lips like lilies, dropping sweet smelling myrrh. His hands are as gold rings set with the beryl: his belly is as bright ivory overlaid with sapphires. His legs are as pillars of marble, set upon sockets of fine gold: his countenance is as Lebanon, excellent as the cedar?" Surely we can even now conclude the description from our own experience of him; and while we endorse every word which went before, we can end the description by saying, "His mouth is most sweet, yea he is altogether lovely. His matchless beauty is unimpaired; he is still 'the chief among ten thousand'—fairest of the sons of men." Did the divine John talk of him when he said—"His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; and his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters. And he had in his right hand seven stars; and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword; and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength." He is the same; upon his brow there is ne'er a furrow; his locks are gray with reverence, but not with age; his feet stand as firm as when they trod the everlasting mountains in the years before the world was made—his eyes as piercing when, for the first time he looked upon a new-born world. Christ's person never changes. Should he come on earth to visit us again, as sure he will, we should find him the same Jesus; as loving, as approachable, as generous, as kind, and though arrayed in nobler garments than he wore when first he visited earth, though no more the Man of Sorrows and griefs acquaintance, yet he would be the same person, unchanged by all his glories, his triumphs, and his joys. We bless Christ that amid his heavenly splendors his person is just the same, and his nature unaffected.. "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever."
Again: Jesus Christ is the same with regard to his Father as ever. He was his Father's well-beloved Son before all worlds; he was his well-beloved in the stream of baptism; he was his well-beloved on the cross; he was his well-beloved when he led captivity captive, and he is not less the object of his Father's infinite affection now than he was then. Yesterday he lay in Jehovah's bosom, God, having all power with his Father—to-day he stands on earth, man, with us, but still the same, for ever—he ascends on high, and still he is his Father's son—still by inheritance, having a more excellent name than angels—still sitting far above all principalities and powers, and every name that is named. O Christian, give him thy cause to plead; the Father will answer him as well now as he did aforetime. Doubt not the Father's grace. Go to thine Advocate. He is as near to Jehovah's heart as ever—as prevalent in his intercession. Trust him, then, and in trusting him thou mayest be sure of the Father's love to thee.
But now there is a yet sweeter thought. Jesus Christ is the same to his people as ever. We have delighted, in our happier moments, in days that have rolled away, to think of him that loved us when we had no being; we have often sung with rapture of him that loved us when we loved not him.
We have looked back, too, upon the years of our troubles and our trials; and we can bear our solemn though humble witness that he has been true to us in all our exigencies, and has never failed us once. Come, then, let us comfort ourselves with this thought—that though to-day he may distress us with a sense of sin, yet his heart is just the same to us as ever. Christ may wear masks that look black to his people, but his face is always the same; Christ may sometimes take a rod in his hand instead of a golden scepter, but the name of his saint is as much engraved upon the hand that grasps the rod as upon the palm that clasps the scepter. And oh, sweet thought that now bursts upon our mind!
Beloved, can you concede how much Christ will love you when you are in heaven? Have you ever tried to fathom that bottomless sea of affection in which you shall swim, when you shall bathe yourself in seas of heavenly rest? Did you ever think of the love which Christ will manifest to you, when he shall present you without spot, or blemish, or any such thing before his Father's throne? Well, pause and remember that he loves you at this hour a. much as he will love you then; for he will be the same for ever as he is to-day, and he is the same to-day as he will be for ever. This one thing I know: if Jesus' heart is set on me he will not love me one atom better when this head wears a crown, and when this hand shall, with joyous fingers, touch the strings of golden harps, than he does now, amid all my sin and care and woe. I believe that saying which is written—"As the Father hath loved me, even so have I loved you;" and a higher degree of love we can not imagine. The Father loves his Son infinitely, and even so to-day, believer, doth the Son of God love thee. All his heart flows out to thee. All his life is thine; all his person is thine. He can not love thee more; he will not love thee less. The same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.
But let us here recollect that Jesus Christ is the same to sinners to-day as he was yesterday. It is now eight years ago since I first went to Jesus Christ. Come the sixth of this month, I shall then be eight years old in the gospel of the grace of Jesus; a child, a little child therein as yet. I recall that hour when I heard that exhortation—"Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God, and beside me there is none else." And I remember, how with much trembling and with a little faith I ventured to approach the Saviour's feet. I thought he would spurn me from him. "Sure," said my heart, "if thou shouldst presume to put thy trust in him as thy Saviour, it would be a presumption more damnable than all thy sins put together. Go not to him; he will spurn thee." However, I put the rope about my neck, feeling that if God destroyed me for ever, he would be just. I cast the ashes on my head, and with many a sigh I did confess my sin; and then, when I ventured to draw nigh to him, when I expected that he would frown, he stretched out his hand and said, "I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins." I came like the prodigal, because I was forced to come. I was starved out of that foreign country where, in riotous living I had spent my substance, and I saw my Father's house a great way off; little did I know that my Father's heart was beating high with love to me. O rapturous hour, when Jesus whispered I was his, and when my soul could say, "Jesus Christ is my salvation." And now I would refresh my own memory by reminding myself that what my Master was to me yesterday that he is to-day; and if I know that as a sinner I went to him then and he received me, if I have never so many doubts about my saintship I can not doubt but what I am a sinner; so to thy cross, O Jesus, I go again, and if thou didst receive me then, thou wilt receive me now; and believing that to be true, I turn round to my fellow-immortals, and I say, "He that received me, he that received Manasseh, he that received the thief upon the cross, is the same to-day as he was then. Oh! come and try him! Come and try him! Oh! ye that know your need of him, come ye to him; ye that have sold for nought your heritage above may have it back unbought, the gift of Jesus' love. Ye that are empty, Christ is as full today as ever. Come! fill yourselves here. Ye that are thirsty, the stream is flowing; ye that are black, the fountain still can purify; ye that are naked, the wardrobe is not empty.
I can not pretend to enter into the fullness of my text as I could desire, but one more thought. Jesus Christ is the same to-day as he was yesterday in the teachings of his Word. They tell us in these times that the improvements of the age require improvements in theology. Why, I have heard it said that the way Luther preached would not suit this age. We are too polite! The style of preaching, they say, that did in John Bunyan's day, is not the style now. True, they honor these men; they are like the Pharisees; they build the sepulchers of the prophets that their fathers slew, and so they do confess that they are their father's own sons, and like their parents. And men that stand up to preach as those men did, with honest tongues, and know not how to use polished courtly phrases, are as much condemned now as those men were in their time; because, say they, the world is marching on, and the gospel must march on too. No, sirs, the old gospel is the same; not one of her stakes must be removed, not one of her cords must be loosened. "Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus." Theology hath nothing new in it except that which is false. The preaching of Paul must be the preaching of the minister to-day. There is no advancement here. We may advance in our knowledge of it; but it stands the same, for this good reason, that it is perfect, and perfection can not be any better. The old truth that Calvin preached, that Chrysostom preached, that Paul preached, is the truth that I must preach to-day, or else be a liar to my conscience and my God. I can not shape the truth. I know of no such thing as the paring off the rough edges of a doctrine. John Knox's gospel is my gospel. That which thundered through Scotland must thunder through England again. The great mass of our ministers are sound enough in the faith, but not sound enough in the way they preach it. Election is not mentioned once in the year in many a pulpit; final perseverance is kept back; the great things of God's law are forgotten, and a kind of mongrel mixture of Arminianism and Calvinism is the delight of the present age. And hence the Lord hath forsaken many of his tabernacles and left the house of his covenant; and he will leave it till again the trumpet gives a certain sound. For wherever there is not the old gospel we shall find "Ichabod" written upon the church walls ere long. The old truth of the Covenanters, the old truth of the Puritans, the old truth of the Apostles, is the only truth that will stand the test of time, and never need to be altered to suit a wicked and ungodly generation. Christ Jesus preaches to-day the same as when he preached upon the mount; he hath not changed his doctrines; men may ridicule and laugh, but still they stand the same—semper idem written upon every one of them. They shall not be removed or altered.
Let the Christian remember that this is equally true of the promises. Let the sinner remember this is just as true of the threatenings. Let us each recollect that not one word can be added to this Sacred Book, nor one letter taken away from it; for as Christ Jesus is yet the same, so is his Gospel, the same yesterday, to-day and for ever.
I have thus briefly opened the text, not in its fullest meanings, but still enough to enable the Christian at his own leisure to see into that depth without a bottom—the immutability of Christ Jesus the Lord.
II. And now comes in one of crooked gait, with hideous aspect—one that hath as many lives as a cat, and that can not be killed any how, though many a great gun hath been shot against him. His name is old Mr. Incredulity—unbelief; and he begins his miserable oration by declaring, "How can that be true? 'Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.' Why, yesterday Christ was all sunshine to me—to-day I am in distress!" Stop, Mr. Unbelief, I beg you to remember that Christ is not changed. You have changed yourself; for you have said in your very accusation that yesterday you rejoiced, but to-day you are in distress. All that may happen, and yet there may be no change in Christ. The sun may be the same always, though one hour may be cloudy and the next bright with golden light; yet there is no proof that the sun has changed. 'Tis even so with Christ.
Your frames are no proof that Christ changes: they are only proof that you change.
But saith old Unbelief again—"Surely God has changed if you look at the old saints of ancient times. What happy men they were! How highly favored of their God! How well God provided for them! But now, sir, when I am hungry, no ravens come and bring me bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening. When I am thirsty, no water leaps out of the rock to supply my thirst. It is said of the children of Israel that their clothes waxed not old; but I have a hole in my coat today, and where I shall get another garment I know not. When they marched through the desert he suffered no man to hurt them; but, sir, I am continually beset by enemies. It is true of me as it says in the Scriptures, 'And the Ammonites distressed Israel at the coming in of the year;' for they are distressing me. Why, sir, I see my friends die in clouds; there are no fiery chariots to carry God's Elijahs to heaven now. I lost my son; no prophet lay upon him and gave him life again; no Jesus met me at the city gates, to give me back my son from the gloomy grave. No sir, these are evil times; the light of Jesus Christ has become dim; if he walks among the golden candlesticks, yet, still it is not as he used to do. And worse than that, sir, I have heard my father talk of the great men that were in the age gone by: I have heard the names of Romaine, and Toplady, and Scott; I have heard of Whitfields and of Bunyans; and even but a few years ago I heard talk of such men as Joseph Irons—solemn and earnest preachers of a full gospel. But where are those men now? Sir, we have fallen upon an age of drivellings; men have died out, and we have only a few dwarfs left us; there are none that walk with the giant tramp and the colossal tread of the mighty fathers, like Owen, and Howe, and Baxter, and Charnock. We are all little men. Jesus Christ is not dealing with us as he did with our fathers. Stop, Unbelief, a minute: let me remind thee that the ancient people of God had their trials too. Know ye not what the apostle Paul says? "For thy sake we are killed all the day long." Now, if there be any change it is a change for the better; for you have not yet "resisted unto blood, striving against sin."
But remember that does not affect Christ; for neither nakedness, nor famine, nor sword, has separated us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. It is true that you have no fiery chariot; but then the angels carry you to Jesus' bosom, and that is as well. It is true no ravens bring you food; it is quite as true you get your food somehow or other. It is quite certain that no rock gushes out with water; but still your water has been sure. It is true your child has not been raised from the dead; but you remember that David had a child that was not raised any more than yours. You have the same consolation that he had: "I shall go to him; he shall not return to me." You say that you have more heart-rendings than the saints had of old. It is your ignorance that makes you say so. Holy men of old said, "Why art thou cast down, O my soul? Why art thou disquieted within me?" Even prophets had to say—"Thou hast made me drunken with wormwood, and broken my teeth with gravel stones." O, you are mistaken: your days are not more full of trouble than the days of Job; you are not more vexed by the wicked than was Lot of old, you have not more temptations to make you angry than had Moses; and certainly your way is not half so rough as the way of your blessed Lord. The very fact that you have troubles is a proof of his faith fulness; for you have got one half of his legacy, and you will have the other half. You know that Christ's last will and testament has two portions in it. "In the world ye shall have tribulation:" you have got that. The next clause is—"In me ye shall have peace." You have that too. "Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." That is yours also.
And then you say that you have fallen upon a bad age with regard to ministers. It may be so; but remember, the promise is true still. "Though I take away from thee bread and water, yet will I never take away thy pastors." You have still such as you have—still some that are faithful to God and to his covenant, and who do not forsake the truth, and though the day may be dark, yet it is not so dark as days have been; and besides remember, what you say to-day is just what your forefathers said. Men in the days of Toplady looked back to the days of Whitfield; men in the days of Whitfield looked back to the days of Bunyan; men in the days of Bunyan wept because of the days of Wycliffe, and Calvin, and Luther; and men then wept for the days of Augustine and Chrysostom. Men in those days wept for the days of the Apostles; and doubtless men in the days of the Apostles wept for the days of Jesus Christ; and no doubt some in the days of Jesus Christ were so blind as to wish to return to the days of prophesy, and thought more of the days of Elijah than they did of the most glorious day of Christ. Some men look more to the past than the present. Rest assured, that Jesus Christ is the same to-day as he was yesterday, and he will be the same for ever.
Alleluia! Sing to Jesus
Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising. Isaiah 60:3
Collect of the Day
Set us free, O God, from the bondage of our sins, and give us the liberty of that abundant life which you have made known o us in your Son our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Psalter: Psalm 80
Lessons: Genesis 25:19-34, Hebrews 13:1-16, John 7:37-52
But greater things have changed than we; for kingdoms have trembled in the balances. We have seen a peninsula deluged with blood, and mutiny raising its bloody war whoop. Nay, the whole world hath changed; earth hath doffed its green, and put on its somber garment of Autumn, and soon expects to wear its ermine robe of snow. All things have changed. We believe that not only in appearance but in reality, the world is growing old. The sun itself must soon grow dim with age; the folding up of the worn-out vesture has commenced; the changing of the heavens and the earth has certainly begun. They shall perish; they all shall wax old as doth a garment; but for ever blessed be him who is the same, and of whose years there is no end. The satisfaction that the mariner feels, when, after having been tossed about for many a day, he puts his foot upon the solid shore, is just the satisfaction of a Christian when, amidst all the changes of this troublous life, he plants the foot of his faith upon such a text as this—"the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever." The same stability that the anchor gives the ship, when it hath at last got the grip of some immovable rock, that same stability doth our hope give to our spirits, when, like an anchor, it fixes itself in a truth so glorious as this—"Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever."
I shall first try this morning to open the text by a little explanation; then I shall try to answer a few objections, which our wicked unbelief will be quite sure to raise against it; and afterward I shall try to draw a few useful, consoling, and practical lessons from the great truth of the immutability of Jesus Christ.
I. First, then, we open the text by a little EXPLANATION—"Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever." He is the same in his person. We change perpetually; the bloom of youth gives place to the strength of manhood, and the maturity of manhood fades away into the weakness of old age. But "Thou hast the dew of thy youth." Christ Jesus, whom we adore, thou art as young as ever! We came into this world with the ignorance of infancy; we grow up searching, studying, and learning with the diligence of youth; we attain to some little knowledge in our riper years; and then in our old age we totter back to the imbecility of our childhood. But O, our Master! thou didst perfectly foreknow all mortal or eternal things from before the foundations of the world, and thou knowest all things now, and for ever thou shalt be the same in thine omniscience. We are one day strong, and the next day weak—one day resolved, and the next day wavering—one hour constant, and the next hour unstable as water. We are one moment holy, kept by the power of God; we are the next moment sinning, led astray by our own lusts; but our Master is for ever the same; pure and never spotted; firm, and never changing—everlastingly Omnipotent, unchangeably Omniscient. From him no attribute doth pass away; to him no parallax, no tropic, ever comes; without variableness or shadow of a turning, he abideth fast and firm. Did Solomon sing concerning his best beloved, "His head is as the most fine gold: his locks are bushy and black as a raven. His eyes are as the eyes of doves by the rivers of waters, washed with milk, and fitly set. His cheeks are as a bed of spices, as sweet flowers: his lips like lilies, dropping sweet smelling myrrh. His hands are as gold rings set with the beryl: his belly is as bright ivory overlaid with sapphires. His legs are as pillars of marble, set upon sockets of fine gold: his countenance is as Lebanon, excellent as the cedar?" Surely we can even now conclude the description from our own experience of him; and while we endorse every word which went before, we can end the description by saying, "His mouth is most sweet, yea he is altogether lovely. His matchless beauty is unimpaired; he is still 'the chief among ten thousand'—fairest of the sons of men." Did the divine John talk of him when he said—"His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; and his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters. And he had in his right hand seven stars; and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword; and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength." He is the same; upon his brow there is ne'er a furrow; his locks are gray with reverence, but not with age; his feet stand as firm as when they trod the everlasting mountains in the years before the world was made—his eyes as piercing when, for the first time he looked upon a new-born world. Christ's person never changes. Should he come on earth to visit us again, as sure he will, we should find him the same Jesus; as loving, as approachable, as generous, as kind, and though arrayed in nobler garments than he wore when first he visited earth, though no more the Man of Sorrows and griefs acquaintance, yet he would be the same person, unchanged by all his glories, his triumphs, and his joys. We bless Christ that amid his heavenly splendors his person is just the same, and his nature unaffected.. "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever."
Again: Jesus Christ is the same with regard to his Father as ever. He was his Father's well-beloved Son before all worlds; he was his well-beloved in the stream of baptism; he was his well-beloved on the cross; he was his well-beloved when he led captivity captive, and he is not less the object of his Father's infinite affection now than he was then. Yesterday he lay in Jehovah's bosom, God, having all power with his Father—to-day he stands on earth, man, with us, but still the same, for ever—he ascends on high, and still he is his Father's son—still by inheritance, having a more excellent name than angels—still sitting far above all principalities and powers, and every name that is named. O Christian, give him thy cause to plead; the Father will answer him as well now as he did aforetime. Doubt not the Father's grace. Go to thine Advocate. He is as near to Jehovah's heart as ever—as prevalent in his intercession. Trust him, then, and in trusting him thou mayest be sure of the Father's love to thee.
But now there is a yet sweeter thought. Jesus Christ is the same to his people as ever. We have delighted, in our happier moments, in days that have rolled away, to think of him that loved us when we had no being; we have often sung with rapture of him that loved us when we loved not him.
"Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God;
He to save my soul from danger
Interposed his precious blood."
We have looked back, too, upon the years of our troubles and our trials; and we can bear our solemn though humble witness that he has been true to us in all our exigencies, and has never failed us once. Come, then, let us comfort ourselves with this thought—that though to-day he may distress us with a sense of sin, yet his heart is just the same to us as ever. Christ may wear masks that look black to his people, but his face is always the same; Christ may sometimes take a rod in his hand instead of a golden scepter, but the name of his saint is as much engraved upon the hand that grasps the rod as upon the palm that clasps the scepter. And oh, sweet thought that now bursts upon our mind!
Beloved, can you concede how much Christ will love you when you are in heaven? Have you ever tried to fathom that bottomless sea of affection in which you shall swim, when you shall bathe yourself in seas of heavenly rest? Did you ever think of the love which Christ will manifest to you, when he shall present you without spot, or blemish, or any such thing before his Father's throne? Well, pause and remember that he loves you at this hour a. much as he will love you then; for he will be the same for ever as he is to-day, and he is the same to-day as he will be for ever. This one thing I know: if Jesus' heart is set on me he will not love me one atom better when this head wears a crown, and when this hand shall, with joyous fingers, touch the strings of golden harps, than he does now, amid all my sin and care and woe. I believe that saying which is written—"As the Father hath loved me, even so have I loved you;" and a higher degree of love we can not imagine. The Father loves his Son infinitely, and even so to-day, believer, doth the Son of God love thee. All his heart flows out to thee. All his life is thine; all his person is thine. He can not love thee more; he will not love thee less. The same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.
But let us here recollect that Jesus Christ is the same to sinners to-day as he was yesterday. It is now eight years ago since I first went to Jesus Christ. Come the sixth of this month, I shall then be eight years old in the gospel of the grace of Jesus; a child, a little child therein as yet. I recall that hour when I heard that exhortation—"Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God, and beside me there is none else." And I remember, how with much trembling and with a little faith I ventured to approach the Saviour's feet. I thought he would spurn me from him. "Sure," said my heart, "if thou shouldst presume to put thy trust in him as thy Saviour, it would be a presumption more damnable than all thy sins put together. Go not to him; he will spurn thee." However, I put the rope about my neck, feeling that if God destroyed me for ever, he would be just. I cast the ashes on my head, and with many a sigh I did confess my sin; and then, when I ventured to draw nigh to him, when I expected that he would frown, he stretched out his hand and said, "I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins." I came like the prodigal, because I was forced to come. I was starved out of that foreign country where, in riotous living I had spent my substance, and I saw my Father's house a great way off; little did I know that my Father's heart was beating high with love to me. O rapturous hour, when Jesus whispered I was his, and when my soul could say, "Jesus Christ is my salvation." And now I would refresh my own memory by reminding myself that what my Master was to me yesterday that he is to-day; and if I know that as a sinner I went to him then and he received me, if I have never so many doubts about my saintship I can not doubt but what I am a sinner; so to thy cross, O Jesus, I go again, and if thou didst receive me then, thou wilt receive me now; and believing that to be true, I turn round to my fellow-immortals, and I say, "He that received me, he that received Manasseh, he that received the thief upon the cross, is the same to-day as he was then. Oh! come and try him! Come and try him! Oh! ye that know your need of him, come ye to him; ye that have sold for nought your heritage above may have it back unbought, the gift of Jesus' love. Ye that are empty, Christ is as full today as ever. Come! fill yourselves here. Ye that are thirsty, the stream is flowing; ye that are black, the fountain still can purify; ye that are naked, the wardrobe is not empty.
"Come, guilty souls, and flee away,
To Christ, and heal your wounds;
Still 'tis the gospel's gracious day,
And now free grace abounds"
I can not pretend to enter into the fullness of my text as I could desire, but one more thought. Jesus Christ is the same to-day as he was yesterday in the teachings of his Word. They tell us in these times that the improvements of the age require improvements in theology. Why, I have heard it said that the way Luther preached would not suit this age. We are too polite! The style of preaching, they say, that did in John Bunyan's day, is not the style now. True, they honor these men; they are like the Pharisees; they build the sepulchers of the prophets that their fathers slew, and so they do confess that they are their father's own sons, and like their parents. And men that stand up to preach as those men did, with honest tongues, and know not how to use polished courtly phrases, are as much condemned now as those men were in their time; because, say they, the world is marching on, and the gospel must march on too. No, sirs, the old gospel is the same; not one of her stakes must be removed, not one of her cords must be loosened. "Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus." Theology hath nothing new in it except that which is false. The preaching of Paul must be the preaching of the minister to-day. There is no advancement here. We may advance in our knowledge of it; but it stands the same, for this good reason, that it is perfect, and perfection can not be any better. The old truth that Calvin preached, that Chrysostom preached, that Paul preached, is the truth that I must preach to-day, or else be a liar to my conscience and my God. I can not shape the truth. I know of no such thing as the paring off the rough edges of a doctrine. John Knox's gospel is my gospel. That which thundered through Scotland must thunder through England again. The great mass of our ministers are sound enough in the faith, but not sound enough in the way they preach it. Election is not mentioned once in the year in many a pulpit; final perseverance is kept back; the great things of God's law are forgotten, and a kind of mongrel mixture of Arminianism and Calvinism is the delight of the present age. And hence the Lord hath forsaken many of his tabernacles and left the house of his covenant; and he will leave it till again the trumpet gives a certain sound. For wherever there is not the old gospel we shall find "Ichabod" written upon the church walls ere long. The old truth of the Covenanters, the old truth of the Puritans, the old truth of the Apostles, is the only truth that will stand the test of time, and never need to be altered to suit a wicked and ungodly generation. Christ Jesus preaches to-day the same as when he preached upon the mount; he hath not changed his doctrines; men may ridicule and laugh, but still they stand the same—semper idem written upon every one of them. They shall not be removed or altered.
Let the Christian remember that this is equally true of the promises. Let the sinner remember this is just as true of the threatenings. Let us each recollect that not one word can be added to this Sacred Book, nor one letter taken away from it; for as Christ Jesus is yet the same, so is his Gospel, the same yesterday, to-day and for ever.
I have thus briefly opened the text, not in its fullest meanings, but still enough to enable the Christian at his own leisure to see into that depth without a bottom—the immutability of Christ Jesus the Lord.
II. And now comes in one of crooked gait, with hideous aspect—one that hath as many lives as a cat, and that can not be killed any how, though many a great gun hath been shot against him. His name is old Mr. Incredulity—unbelief; and he begins his miserable oration by declaring, "How can that be true? 'Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.' Why, yesterday Christ was all sunshine to me—to-day I am in distress!" Stop, Mr. Unbelief, I beg you to remember that Christ is not changed. You have changed yourself; for you have said in your very accusation that yesterday you rejoiced, but to-day you are in distress. All that may happen, and yet there may be no change in Christ. The sun may be the same always, though one hour may be cloudy and the next bright with golden light; yet there is no proof that the sun has changed. 'Tis even so with Christ.
"If today he deigns to bless us
With a sense of pardoned sin,
He to-morrow may distress us,
Make us feel the plague within.
All to make us,
Sick of self and fond of him."
There is no change in him.
"Immutable his will,
Though dark may be my frame,
His loving heart is still
Unchangeably the same.
My soul through many changes goes,
His love no variation knows"
Your frames are no proof that Christ changes: they are only proof that you change.
But saith old Unbelief again—"Surely God has changed if you look at the old saints of ancient times. What happy men they were! How highly favored of their God! How well God provided for them! But now, sir, when I am hungry, no ravens come and bring me bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening. When I am thirsty, no water leaps out of the rock to supply my thirst. It is said of the children of Israel that their clothes waxed not old; but I have a hole in my coat today, and where I shall get another garment I know not. When they marched through the desert he suffered no man to hurt them; but, sir, I am continually beset by enemies. It is true of me as it says in the Scriptures, 'And the Ammonites distressed Israel at the coming in of the year;' for they are distressing me. Why, sir, I see my friends die in clouds; there are no fiery chariots to carry God's Elijahs to heaven now. I lost my son; no prophet lay upon him and gave him life again; no Jesus met me at the city gates, to give me back my son from the gloomy grave. No sir, these are evil times; the light of Jesus Christ has become dim; if he walks among the golden candlesticks, yet, still it is not as he used to do. And worse than that, sir, I have heard my father talk of the great men that were in the age gone by: I have heard the names of Romaine, and Toplady, and Scott; I have heard of Whitfields and of Bunyans; and even but a few years ago I heard talk of such men as Joseph Irons—solemn and earnest preachers of a full gospel. But where are those men now? Sir, we have fallen upon an age of drivellings; men have died out, and we have only a few dwarfs left us; there are none that walk with the giant tramp and the colossal tread of the mighty fathers, like Owen, and Howe, and Baxter, and Charnock. We are all little men. Jesus Christ is not dealing with us as he did with our fathers. Stop, Unbelief, a minute: let me remind thee that the ancient people of God had their trials too. Know ye not what the apostle Paul says? "For thy sake we are killed all the day long." Now, if there be any change it is a change for the better; for you have not yet "resisted unto blood, striving against sin."
But remember that does not affect Christ; for neither nakedness, nor famine, nor sword, has separated us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. It is true that you have no fiery chariot; but then the angels carry you to Jesus' bosom, and that is as well. It is true no ravens bring you food; it is quite as true you get your food somehow or other. It is quite certain that no rock gushes out with water; but still your water has been sure. It is true your child has not been raised from the dead; but you remember that David had a child that was not raised any more than yours. You have the same consolation that he had: "I shall go to him; he shall not return to me." You say that you have more heart-rendings than the saints had of old. It is your ignorance that makes you say so. Holy men of old said, "Why art thou cast down, O my soul? Why art thou disquieted within me?" Even prophets had to say—"Thou hast made me drunken with wormwood, and broken my teeth with gravel stones." O, you are mistaken: your days are not more full of trouble than the days of Job; you are not more vexed by the wicked than was Lot of old, you have not more temptations to make you angry than had Moses; and certainly your way is not half so rough as the way of your blessed Lord. The very fact that you have troubles is a proof of his faith fulness; for you have got one half of his legacy, and you will have the other half. You know that Christ's last will and testament has two portions in it. "In the world ye shall have tribulation:" you have got that. The next clause is—"In me ye shall have peace." You have that too. "Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." That is yours also.
And then you say that you have fallen upon a bad age with regard to ministers. It may be so; but remember, the promise is true still. "Though I take away from thee bread and water, yet will I never take away thy pastors." You have still such as you have—still some that are faithful to God and to his covenant, and who do not forsake the truth, and though the day may be dark, yet it is not so dark as days have been; and besides remember, what you say to-day is just what your forefathers said. Men in the days of Toplady looked back to the days of Whitfield; men in the days of Whitfield looked back to the days of Bunyan; men in the days of Bunyan wept because of the days of Wycliffe, and Calvin, and Luther; and men then wept for the days of Augustine and Chrysostom. Men in those days wept for the days of the Apostles; and doubtless men in the days of the Apostles wept for the days of Jesus Christ; and no doubt some in the days of Jesus Christ were so blind as to wish to return to the days of prophesy, and thought more of the days of Elijah than they did of the most glorious day of Christ. Some men look more to the past than the present. Rest assured, that Jesus Christ is the same to-day as he was yesterday, and he will be the same for ever.
Charles H. Spurgeon
Alleluia! Sing to Jesus
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