Monthly Archives: May 2024
Cast out, and Brought Back In, the Comfort of the Sacraments
Thoughts that drive me to Jesus, and to His cross!
19 “But you must follow me and obey the laws and commands I have given you. You must not serve or worship other gods. 20 If you do, I will take the Israelites out of my land, the land I have given them, and I will leave this Temple that I have made holy. All the nations will make fun of it and speak evil about it. 21 This Temple is honored now, but then, everyone who passes by will be shocked. They will ask, ‘Why did the LORD do this terrible thing to this land and this Temple?’ 22 People will answer, ‘This happened because they left the LORD, the God of their ancestors, the God who brought them out of Egypt. They decided to follow other gods and worshiped and served them, so he brought all this disaster on them.’ ” 2 Chronicles 7:19-22 NCV
That to which your heart clings and entrusts itself is, I say, really your God.
4 The purpose of this commandment, therefore, is to require true faith and confidence of the heart, and these fly straight to the one true God and cling to him alone.
Is it too presumptuous to interpret this extraordinarily scintillating image of suffering “outside the city” in the spiritual context of the basic liturgical rule laid down in Matthew 5:23–24, according to which the Christian, before bringing his gift to the altar, must go first to be reconciled with anyone who has anything against him? Does the Cross erected outside the city not also mean that in Christ God is under way to his unreconciled children, to whom he draws near with a love that does not wait for the other—the guilty one!—to take the first step?
ALL hail! King of mercy. Hail! Thou Who art the life, the joy and the hope of our souls. We miserable children of Eve cry unto Thee. We long for Thee, sorrowful and weeping in this vale of tears. Hail, therefore, O Lord Christ! Thou Who dost intercede for us with God, turn Thine eyes, beaming with mercy, upon us, and show Thyself unto us, Thou blessed Son of God and of Mary, when the days of our misery shall have passed, O gracious gentle, sweet, and lovely Jesus Christ. Amen.
Yet Luther does not replace one tyranny for another; his argument for a return to the biblical understanding of the sacraments is moderated by a consideration of traditions and external practices in relation to their effects on the individual conscience and faith.
The dedication of Solomon’s temple is an amazing discourse, and Solomon’s prayer forms the basis of much of my understanding of our need for the sacraments, those tangible moments where grace overwhelms our reason and strength. In all of my readings this morning, it seems to be the focus, starting with God’s response to the prayer of Solomon.
It is not a nice response, as it prophetically indicates that people will have various idols to deal and to which they will trust their future, and their emotional stability. This is idolatry, whether it is praying to or worshipping an image an artist painted, sculpted or cast, or whether it is chasing after money, sex, fame, even health. Whatever we think will bring us peace, cause the end of anxiety and stress—they are idols.
Following such idols, leads us to a dark place, away from God. In the Old Testament that was “outside the camp,” away from the community of God established by Him, that He and His people could walk and live together. What we call church – not the buildings, but the meeting as His community together–our idolatry removes us from that….our sin drives us out into the wilderness. Eventually, we thirst for God, for a way to come home,
Pope Benedict’s point about Jesus dying outside the temple – outside the city of God hits hard. He dies outside the camp, where all the sinners are. Jews, Romans, everyone passed by that hill, where he was crucified. It is there we find the King of mercy, who came out to the sinners. He came out of heaven for us, He died, outside the city of God, theplace where God put His name for us, to show us His mercy, the mercy we need to cling too, and we need to cry out for, the mercy shown by Jesus, as Loehe says, the Son of God and the son of Mary.
This is why the sacraments are so needed in our time. The comfort of take those broken by sin, and seeing them cleansed in baptism, the comfort shown as the pastor/priest announces on Christ’s behalf that you are forgiven, the comfort of the Body and Blood of the Lord, given and shed for the forgiveness of sin, all tangible moments where God comes to us! We aren’t holy enough, we are perfect, we are broken, and God transforms us. Not magically, not because of an incantation or vain repitition of words, but because this is how and what God promised. What He makes known throughout scripture.
Such and incredible comfort!
I would dare walk into someone’s home uninvited, just barging in, but we walk into God’s presence, we find home there, because of what occurs in as the Holy Spirit points to our being united with Christ’s death and resurrection.
We are his, we belong in the city of God, in the Holy of Holies where He dwells. For He went outside to get us, and bring us home. AMEN!
Martin Luther, “The Large Catechism: The First Commandment.” Tappert, Theodore G., editor. The Book of Concord the Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. Mühlenberg Press, 1959, p. 365
Ratzinger, Joseph. Co-Workers of the Truth: Meditations for Every Day of the Year. Edited by Irene Grassl, Translated by Mary Frances McCarthy and Lothar Krauth, Ignatius Press, 1992, p. 173.
Lœhe, William. Seed-Grains of Prayer: A Manual for Evangelical Christians. Translated by H. A. Weller, Wartburg Publishing House, 1914, p. 355.
Herrmann, Erik H. “The Babylonian Captivity of the Church.” Church and Sacraments, edited by Hans J. Hillerbrand et al., vol. 3, Fortress Press, 1520, pp. 9–10.
Blessed are those without “Filters”
Thoughts which drag me to Jesus, and to the Cross
23 Then the king gathered all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem together. 2 He went up to the Temple of the LORD, and all the people from Judah and Jerusalem went with him. The priests, prophets, and all the people—from the least important to the most important—went with him. He read to them all the words of the Book of the Agreement that was found in the Temple of the LORD. 3 The king stood by the pillar and made an agreement in the presence of the LORD to follow the LORD and obey his commands, rules, and laws with his whole being, and to obey the words of the agreement written in this book. Then all the people promised to obey the agreement. 2 Kings 23:1-3 NCV
Why we need to learn this is because within each of us is a child of Adam who does not fully trust God. There is someone who wants to control his own life down to the last detail, someone who struggles to believe that God can and will meet all of his needs, someone who questions God’s efficiency and foresight and his unbelievable patience –with all that is wrong in the world and in my life–and someone who absolutely dreads the full implications of the stark order: “Follow Me!”
The correction of this disorder explains why, as the apostles follow Jesus, he constantly does things that set them off. He lets them be frightened at sea, confused on land, and sad and distressed, in his company. He does things that seem to go against common sense, and when provoked, they are very vocal about their frustration, anger, sadness, confusion. And then it gets real. Finally, the unfiltered emotion has broken through and the Physician takes it from there. Healing begins with an exposed wound.
LORD, hear my prayer and let my cry come unto Thee. Hide not Thy face from me for I am poor and needy. Incline Thine ear unto me. When I cry unto Thee, hear me and answer me.
I have a friend, well actually I have several–but I am thinking of one in particular, who has publicly confessed to not have a filter. He is known for saying things without thinking them through, and he gives you, bluntly and honestly, who he is. Sometimes it’s kinda cute, sometimes it is more than abrasive! And sometimes, it is so full of God’s love and hope that everyone sits back in awe,
As I’ve grown older, I have come to appreciate people like this more and more. I long to share the gospel with them, even if they are militant opposed to the Church, and they blame Jesus for the excesses and sins of the people who are sinners, yet are trying to depend on Him. Simply put, the lack of a filter works against them, for that means they have less of a filter defending them. They will put up a fight, but it isn’t hidden behind a false reality that has been carefully constructed. THey end up being wonderful evangelists as well, for they realize their need for God.
You see this with King Josiah. They find for him the scriptures (how they lost them is crazy) and he hearing them goes into high gear and floors it. He and the people repent, and then they begin to clean house – the house of God. And oh do they clean house! and city! and Nation! (Basically a revival breaks out) What an amazing, unfiltered response to hearing about the love of God!
This is what Fr. John is getting at – the extent of the filters we set up to that God has to remove, and then the work of Jesus “Setting us off,” all so that in our state of unfiltered emotion, He can serve us, wash our feet, calm our storms, heal us, and through the cross, the grave and the resurrection, restore us, as broken as we are. But he has to destroy those filters first.
It is then, without filters, without filters, that we can cry out Loehe’s prayer and mean it.
It is then that we can deal with our brokenness honestly, we can confess our sins, and trust God to do what He promised…
Fr. John Henry Hanson, Coached by Josemaria Escriva, p.90
Lœhe, William. Seed-Grains of Prayer: A Manual for Evangelical Christians. Translated by H. A. Weller, Wartburg Publishing House, 1914, p. 321.
God Takes our Loads: A Sermon on Psalm 81:1-10 (Part 3 of the series God at Work in Our Lives)
God at Work in Our Lives
God Takes our Load
Psalm 81:1-10
† In Jesus Name †
May the grace of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ be revealed in your lives, as you are freed from your load of burdens!
- Why We Praise Him
I want you to hear the words you just sang again…
So take me as You find me,
All my fears and failures,
Fill my life again!
It is as we realize this prayer will be answered that we move from crying out for God’s mercy to crying out His praises:
Savior, He can move the mountains!
My God is mighty to save!
He is mighty to save!
Forever, Author of salvation!
He rose and conquered the grave!
Jesus conquered the grave!
The last song we will sing in the service has a similar format –
My sin O the bliss,
Of this glorious tho’t:
My sin not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross!
And I bear it no more,
What comes after that?
Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord, O my soul!
As we look this summer at how God is working in our lives, we will see that as He works, our praises just erupt. To see God removes that which crushes us, as He heals that which rips our hearts in two, as He restores us after life breaks us into a million pieces it is unbelievably powerful! And our hearts just sing His praises…
This is why we praise the Lord who is here…
- Jubilee Worship
The psalm this morning starts out encouraging us to do something:
Sing praises to God, our strength. Sing to the God of Jacob. 2 Sing! Beat the tambourine. Play the sweet lyre and the harp!
In other words- rejoice! Praise Him! Glorify Him!
Side note – to glorify something means to establish and recognize how valuable/invaluable Someone is in your life!
Get that definition again – in fact read it.. to glorify something means to establish and recognize how valuable/invaluable Someone is in my life!
Why – it will sound silly, but because of what is described in the next verse:
Blow the ram’s horn at new moon, and again at full moon to call a festival! 4 For this is required by the decrees of Israel; it is a regulation of the God of Jacob.
A brief explanation here – it is the blowing of a ram’s horn at the monthly feast, and especially at the 50 year sabbath, that results in the praise. You see, that Horn was used as a alert to not only the presence of God, but the pouring out of his mercy—which was celebrated at an incredible festival giving thanks to God.
It signified the cancelling of debt – and at the 50th year – the restoration of all that was lost, sold off, surrendered to others. It required the restoration of relationships long thought dead.
In other words—the removal of every burden that could weigh people down….which is described in the next two verses,
5 He made it a law for Israel when he attacked Egypt to set us free. I heard an unknown voice say, 6 “Now I will take the load from your shoulders; I will free your hands from their heavy tasks.
That is why we worship our LORD Jesus Christ—that is why “The is with YOU is so an incredible statement
It is life changing.
- No foreign gods –
He is a God who listens! Unlike the foreign gods that were worshipped at the time and the ones people entrust themselves now, God cares! He listens. Hagar, the servant girl of Sarah, who Sarah forced to sleep with Abraham her husband, and then drives her and her son away in jealousy describes it better than any other:
13 Thereafter, Hagar used another name to refer to the LORD, who had spoken to her. She said, “You are the God who sees me.” She also said, “Have I truly seen the One who sees me?” Genesis 16:13 (NLT2)
To see the one who sees you… who knows you, who listens to your cries!
That is why the psalmist writes on God’s behalf, the law part of this passage:
8 “Listen to me, O my people, while I give you stern warnings. O Israel, if you would only listen to me! 9 You must never have a foreign god; you must not bow down before a false god.
God is clear—He will invest all the power that raised Christ Jesus from the dead. SO what sense does it make to entrust your life, your soul, your heart to some other “god?” For that is what a god is, who are what you entrust yourself to, depending on that to help you live. Whatever you decide to invest your time, your talents, your happiness, your life. It is what you turn to when the burdens of life are more than you can bear….
And only one God can do anything about those burdens. Only one God can lift them, and remove the burdens from your hands!
- Burdens relieved, filled with Good things!
Again, hear the promise:
“Now I will take the load from your shoulders; I will free your hands from their heavy tasks.
That is what the cross is all about—for Jesus frees us from the heaviest of burdens there!
He washes them away here – something we need to remember.
Here, at the altar, He lifts the burdens off of your shoulders, He frees your hands from these heavy weights…. All of these hurts, all of the scars, all of the the crud in your life.
This is why we worship Him, and this is the time and place to remind you of this in a tangible way that Ihope you remember. So this is what I want you to do.
In your bulletin, there is a sheet of paper with the word burden on it.
To often we hang onto these burdens to long, we think we have to deal with them. So when you come up for communion- bring the piece of paper. Hold onto it, grasping onto it like we do with our brokenness.
When you are here at the rail, I will take it from you, exchanging it for the Body of Christ, and Deacon Bob will give you the Blood shed for the forgiveness, the removal of allt he weight of your sin…Try to see God at work in this, for this is what He’s promised to do, to remove those burdens, to care for all you care deeply about…
And you will leave the paper here… and the load it represents…and walk away free of it…try not to take up the burdens again, but be confident in His love and care.
For God promised to fill you with good things – even as He removes the load off your shoulders, and what filled your hands..
For He sees you, and lives with you- determined to overwhelm you with His peace that passes all understanding – for you are His… you are Christ’s
Let’s pray!
