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.

Every day

 This week we begin worship with:

Ezekiel 16:8b

I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness; I made my vow to you and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Lord GOD, and you became mine.

 

We worship at Christ Covenant Church. We are astutely aware of the covenant God made with Adam, Noah, Abraham, and the New Covenant in Christ Jesus.

Hebrews 9:15

Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.

But we often forget how desperately we actually need it.  Without it we have nothing to cover our shame. We are exposed and undefended (ʿervâ).  We need this every day. 

We are also more willing to use the phrase “my Savior” than “your servant”.  We are His every day.

Let’s keep these in mind as we worship Him this day. 

 

Our identity

 Today we start worship with :

1 John 4:16-17,21

God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world... And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.

Starting with the fact of our very existence, Job deduced that God must exist, and that God must have a divine purpose that includes love toward us. On that foundation of God’s love John and Job both agree that we may have confidence for the day of judgement.  

Job 19:26-27

 And after my skin has been thus destroyed,

    yet in my flesh I shall see God,

whom I shall see for myself,

    and my eyes shall behold, and not another.

    My heart faints within me!

 

John then, having heard the command from the lips of our Lord Jesus Christ, connects us back to that purpose. As He is, so we are to be.

John 13:34-35

 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

 

Love is our identity.