Peace

This first week of Advent, we start with:

 Isaiah 2:2-5

It shall come to pass in the latter days

    that the mountain of the house of the Lord

shall be established as the highest of the mountains,

    and shall be lifted up above the hills;

and all the nations shall flow to it,

    and many peoples shall come, and say:

“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,

    to the house of the God of Jacob,

that he may teach us his ways

    and that we may walk in his paths.”

Visiting the Netherlands my family experienced a pedestrian-jam.  Imagine a street where cars are not allowed.  Imagine too, the need to do maintenance like on any other street.  People still needed to get where they where going and filled shoulder to shoulder by the workman shuffling in a continuous stream toward their goal.  This passage speaks of a goal so wonderful that the nations would stream to it.

For out of Zion shall go forth the law,

    and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

What are they seeking?  They seek the law.  They want to be taught how to worship God and to live in justice.

He shall judge between the nations,

    and shall decide disputes for many peoples;

and they shall beat their swords into plowshares,

    and their spears into pruning hooks;

nation shall not lift up sword against nation,

    neither shall they learn war anymore.

Be careful to note that this is not a world government.  National identity is still preserved.  This is not a single race.  Racial identity is preserved.  But each willingly streams to Zion for what we all crave and that is peace, the end of war.

O house of Jacob,

    come, let us walk

    in the light of the Lord.

During Advent we light candles.  We worship a baby who is "the Light of the World".  Understand that peace and justice can only occur in this light.  Darkness hides.  What is hidden cannot be brought to justice.  

So starting with ourselves let us join this wonderful stream and walk toward that light.

Wearing your heart

 This week our worship starts with:

Psalm 30:11-12 

You have turned for me my mourning into dancing;

you have loosed my sackcloth

and clothed me with gladness,

that my glory may sing your praise and not be silent.

O LORD my God, I will give thanks to you forever!

A few weeks back we looked at this Psalm (Weeping may tarry for the night) and understood that while it was sung at the dedication of the temple, rather than bringing any glory to its builder, it brought glory to the LORD, the source of David's restoration after a terrible fail of character.

In these concluding verses we hear his transformation of his heart, demonstrated in his actions:

• mourning - This is not the quiet and subdued mourning of western culture.  This is the gut-wrenching wailing of the middle east.
• dancing - Please recall the unabashed joy expressed by David in 2 Samuel 6:14-22, when he danced as-if-no-one-was-watching to the chagrin of his wife Michal.

And then in his garment:

• sackcloth - A scratchy, ill-fitting, and improvised garment made of the temporary cloth weaved of husks and other fibers to hold grain for transport.
• gladness - Rather than a physical festal garment, this is raw joy.

To take a phrase from Shakespeare, David is "wearing his heart on his sleeve".  He is so full of joy that he cannot hide it from anyone around him.  

And it is this joy that he claims as "my glory" (kabowd).  It was not the silent abundance of his treasury, or the clattering armor of his army, or the awe inspiring temple in which they stood.  David's glory was the praise he brought his God.

From fear to favor

Today we begin worship with:

Acts 2:46-47

And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

Let’s recall when these days were. Acts 2 happens just a short 50 days after the horrific events of the Passion of Christ.  Mobs, shouting, soldiers, fear.  During the days immediately following the Resurrection the disciples regularly locked themselves in a room out fear of the Jews (John 20).

What changed?  What took them from fear to favor?

Did they remain quiet so no one would be offended?  No.

Acts 2:14

But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them: “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give ear to my words.

Was what they said pleasant and seeker-friendly?  No.

Acts 2:23

this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.

So what was it that brought them favor with all the people? It was a change of heart.  They now had a “glad and generous” heart. 

Ezekiel 36:26-27

And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

Let us indeed walk in gratitude for what we have been given and seek daily how to be generous with it, for that is the rule we must follow.

In that day . . .

Today we begin worship with:

Isaiah 26:3-4

You keep him in perfect peace

    whose mind is stayed on you,

    because he trusts in you.

Trust in the Lord forever,

    for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.

“Perfect peace” is literally “peace peace”.  Repeated words are an ancient form of highlighter.  This passage is very much about peace, but a peace that is happening on a very dark day.

Isaiah 26:5

For he has humbled

    the inhabitants of the height,

    the lofty city.

He lays it low, lays it low to the ground,

    casts it to the dust.

God in His sovereignty is executing judgement and we are told to temporarily hide.

Isaiah 26:20

Come, my people, enter your chambers,

    and shut your doors behind you;

hide yourselves for a little while

    until the fury has passed by.

But look where!  It is not somewhere made by us that might fail.

Isaiah 26:1

In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah:

“We have a strong city;

    he sets up salvation

    as walls and bulwarks.

It is in a city God has made, whose walls will not fail, whose gates are open to us that we may enter in and be safe. 

Break the rule

 We begin worship this week with:

Galatians 5:1

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

This verse starts with an odd phrase that repeats itself.  Why was Paul being so emphatic about freedom?  The Galatians were doing something nonsensical.  They were wasting the freedom given by Christ and returning to the familiarity of enslavement.

Galatians 5:7 

You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth?

We live in a freedom-loving country.  We abhor the idea of slavery.  We love movies where the hero breaks free from the yoke of oppression.  We would never fall into such a trap.  Or would we?

If we are honest with ourselves, freedom scares us.  If we are free to decide, then we have to . . . decide.  If we decide, we could get it wrong.  If only there were a set of rules we could follow, then we would know that we are doing the right thing.  Our shoulders actually yearn for the familiarity of the yoke.

Paul takes one of those rules and shatters the yoke.  

Galatians 5:6

For in Christ Jesus neither ________ nor ________ counts for anything, but only faith working through love.

Paul did not replace the rule that you must be circumcised with a new rule that you must not be circumcised.  He threw away the rule.

In the verse above, I left the rule blank.  Think for a moment, what rule you cherish, to which you are yoked, that prevents you from showing the love of Christ.  Then break it,