Good News

 Today we begin worship with:

Isaiah 40:9-11

Go on up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good news; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good news; lift it up, fear not; say to the cities of Judah, "Behold your God!" Behold, the Lord GOD comes with might, and His arm rules for Him; behold, His reward is with Him, and His recompense before Him. He will tend His flock like a shepherd; He will gather the lambs in His arms; He will carry them in His bosom, and gently lead those that are with young.

We are the herald of some really good news!

First that our God is here. Not somewhere far away.  Not somewhere inaccessible, but right here. 

Second, that we know His strong arm, that we are His reward, and know personally His recompense.

Third, that He will gather us, His Lambs, into his arms and gently lead us.

News good enough that we should share it!

Uphill

Today we begin worship on the second week of Advent with:

Luke 2:1-7

In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be registered, each to his own town. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

In the previous chapter (Luke 1) Zechariah and Elisabeth were told their son would herald the Messiah. Their unborn son leapt in the womb to greet Mary upon her visit. And Mary sang at the opportunity to be part of God’s plan of salvation.  

The months later (Matthew 1:18-25) Joseph, assured by the angel, took Mary as his wife despite the untimely pregnancy. 

This young couple obeyed and “went” up (anabainō) to Bethlehem.  They obeyed to be registered. They obeyed to parent the Messiah. They obeyed to be an active part of God’s plan.  Their walk was 100 slow miles first up out of the natural bowl that is Nazareth, then across a series of east-west ridges, and then uphill to just south of Jerusalem, to which the Jews had ascended for generations.

Are we likewise willing to be named with Jesus?  Are we willing to walk with Him where that will take us?  Even if it is unplanned, inconvenient, and often uphill?  Even if it is a lifetime commitment?

Reflection

 Today we begin worship and this advent season 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.”

For out of Zion shall go forth the law,

    and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

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.

O house of Jacob,

    come, let us walk

    in the light of the Lord. 

The phrase "the latter days" speaks of what comes after history.  This is the Kingdom of God. 

We are used to judges, legislators, and presidents, whose power is divided and limited to prevent its corruption.  But our incorruptible God will instead serve as its king forever.  He will hold court and bring peace.

We are used to nations at war.  Each trying to either expand or defend their kingdom.  But under one King there is no need.  So the weapons of war become unnecessary and can be put to better use.

People from all nations will flow (nāhar) into it.  The word in Hebrew speaks of the shimmering light off of the stream as the water moves.  We are invited to walk in that light and to reflect it.

Forever

 Today we start worship with:

Psalm 30:5

For his anger is but for a moment,

    and his favor is for a lifetime.

Weeping may tarry for the night,

    but joy comes with the morning.

This psalm was chosen to be sung at the dedication of the temple. It is important. It spans the emotional spectrum from God’s anger to His favor, and from David’s mourning to his dancing.  It is the retelling of what appears to be David’s Job-moment (Job 19:21-27).

David had mistakenly said:

Psalm 30:6-7

As for me, I said in my prosperity,

    “I shall never be moved.”

By your favor, O Lord,

    you made my mountain stand strong;

you hid your face;

    I was dismayed.

When David declared himself immovable, God temporarily removed His favor.  In losing that favor, David came to understand his mortality, and the problem that it causes.

Psalm 30:9

“What profit is there in my death,

    if I go down to the pit?

Will the dust praise you?

   Will it tell of your faithfulness?

But then he came to understand the certainty of his resurrection, because God’s glory demands his eternal praise.

Psalm 30:12

O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever

 

Reason to love

 This week we begin worship with:

Deuteronomy 10:18-19

He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing.  Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.

Other verses command us to love.  The last phrase of this verse gives us the reason to love.  

Speaking to Jews, who had been just redeemed from the slavery of Egypt, they were told to love sojourners because they, themselves, were sojourners.  They had been in that same condition. 

Stepping forward to today, one could metaphorically say we are still sojourners.  We are waiting for our redemption.  But that does not parallel this verse.  Our sojourning has not ended, so it is not the reason to love others.

If said to us today, the reason to love the unlovable is that we too were once dead in our sins.  We were once just as guilty, just as messy, just as rebellious. It is the reason to love. 

Blessed

 This morning we start worship with:

Revelation 19:9

And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.”

The first word of this message to us is past tense about a future event.

At the college I attended, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, we were famous for two things: regularly beating MIT in academic competitions and for having a good hockey team.  To get the coveted season tickets students would line up for weeks in advance.  If they were successful, then they were “blessed”.  They were able to dress up in red and cheer the team on week after week.

Many of the beatitudes work this way Matthew 5:4-9.  We are blessed because of what will happen.  In God’s sovereignty He controls both the cause and that wonderful effect.  And we worship today because of these “true words of God”.

Two beatitudes have an immediate present tense blessing.  They are the first and the last.

Matthew 5:3,10

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

How are they immediate?  We have left one kingdom and entered another. This too is a cause for worship.

Colossians 1:13

He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son

God cannot . . .

This week we start worship with:

2 Timothy 2:11-13 

The saying is trustworthy, for: If we have died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful—for he cannot deny himself.

This verse is introduced as a “trustworthy saying” (pistos logos).  In our current day, this is indeed a rare find.  Something we can actually trust. 

But when we read it, we find that we are the ones who cannot necessarily be trusted.  Will we endure?  Will we continue to identify ourselves with the crucified Christ?  Will we remain faithful?

Against this frailty, we are given the backstop, the buttress, and the foundation that God cannot deny (arneomai) Himself.  That is, He cannot act outside His character.

Job 10:11-12 

You clothed me with skin and flesh,

    and knit me together with bones and sinews. 

You have granted me life and steadfast love,

    and your care has preserved my spirit.

Worship today that divine character.

Cursed

 Today we start worship with:

Galatians 3:13

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”

When we say that someone is cursed, we often think of fate being against them.

But a curse (katara) is really a “down prayer”.  God is being asked to do something against someone. 

We forget that a curse has a requester.  The request was recorded on Mount Ebal:

Deuteronomy 27:26

‘Cursed is the one who refuses to keep the words of this law.’ Then all the people will say, ‘Amen!’

We called down that curse.  We called down that curse upon ourselves.  Jesus has stepped into that place.  To receive not only what we deserved, but what we called for.

May our worship start with that thought.

Follow me!

 This morning we begin worship with:

Jeremiah 17:9–10a

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? “I the LORD search the heart and test the mind..."

The heart (lēḇ) is the origin of thought and emotion.  Here it is declared deceitful (ʿāqōḇ).  

It will fool you.  It will trip you up.  Recall please how Jacob tricked Esau and bought his birthright for the cost of a bowl of soup and how Jacob was born holding Esau’s heel.  That Hebrew word for “deceit” is derived from that very action (ʿāqaḇ).

When placed into a situation where you have to deal with a deceitful person, who you cannot trust, what do you do?  Would you follow them?  No.  The counsel to “follow your heart” is from the pit of Hell.  A moment of anger or desire can trick you out of a life’s work or a life long relationship.

Instead, you keep them at arm’s length.  You watch them, understand their selfish motives, and you protect yourself from their actions.  We have a partner in this, this verse tells us the Lord tests our heart and knows all its tricks.  His advice:

John 21:22b

You follow me!”

Forever

Today we start worship with Psalm 73.

Like the Torah, Psalms has five internal books. This psalm is the first psalm of the middle book. This verse is, not it’s valley, but rather it’s pinnacle.

The psalmist describes personally almost giving in to the envy of the unrighteousness. He saw them succeeding in life and not receiving their just do.  In his envy he was driven to anger.

Psalm 73:21-22

21 

When my soul was embittered,

    when I was pricked in heart,

22 

I was brutish and ignorant;

    I was like a beast toward you.

But when the Psalmist entered the sanctuary of God he “discerned their end” (Psalm 73:17) and was released from that anger.

Climbing out of that pit, he reaches the pinnacle which is our verse for today:

Psalm 73:25

Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you

He sees that one day his own body will fail, but that God will not.

Psalm 73:26

My flesh and my heart may fail

   but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

 

Sake

 Today we are called to worship with:

Isaiah 45:4

For the sake of my servant Jacob, and Israel my chosen, I call you by your name, I name you, though you do not know me.

Here the Lord was speaking through Isaiah calling Cyrus as His chosen servant to free Israel from the Babylonian exile.  

God did this for the sake or purpose (maʿan) of His servants Jacob and Israel.  This was being done because of a prior promise that had no cause in Cyrus. 

Genesis 17:5 

No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.

Today we wake, worship, and go back to work this week under that same prior promise and for that same purpose.  Paul said it well:

2 Timothy 2:10

Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.