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Alleluia! He is Risen, therefore… We Praise Him!
Alleluia! He is Risen! Therefore
We Praise Him for He Keeps His Promises!
Psalm 146
In Jesus Name
May you praise God our Father as you realize the richness of the grace, the depth of the mercy, and the overwhelming love given to you in through the work of Jesus Christ.
He is Risen….response…and therefore!
Once upon a time there was a pastor who tired of his work, and that people never seemed to hear the message that he labored to create. As the story goes, he decided to do an experiment, and started to preach the same sermon, week after week. Eight weeks or so later, one of his elders asked him if he had used one of the stories in the sermon before, because it sure sounded familiar.
Now, I’ve never done that, probably never will, but I have to admit I’ve been tempted a time or two.
I do imagine that some of the series we do get repetitive. It’s not just me, it’s the readings and the focus of scripture. Though it may say the same thing many different ways there is but one message we preach – Christ Jesus who is the hope our glory.
Since Easter, we’ve used a familiar cry, getting more familiar it, perhaps even tiring of it. (though I hope not!)
Alleluia – He is Risen!
(He Is Risen Indeed, alleluia!)
and therefore –
(We are risen indeed, alleluia!)
Because of the resurrection, we have a new life, a holy life set apart to God, Because of our resurrection with Jesus we have peace, and we persevere.
Today we realize we live a life that is lived in praise of God, because He has kept His promises to us, to those who call upon His name.
LORD versus YHWH
They’ve got to hear this… but so do we!
Luther’s explanation of the 2nd!
As we look at Psalm 146, which is the passage we focus on this morning, we see one word repeated over and over. LORD – is all capital letters.
The word LORD is there, because the translators didn’t quite know what to do with God’s name. It is the name he revealed to the Moses, to reveal to the people He would save. It is the name we are commanded to never use in vain, but to call upon in times of need, and as we see today, to use to praise God.
Does it make a difference, whether we use Lord, which is a title, or the personal name of God? Imagine a man call his wife, Mrs. X, or saying, “wife, come here!”. As I asked people such questions this week, there was a consensus that using a title puts distance between two people, it acts as an insulator, moving the relationship from personal and intimate to more distant, more uncaring.
Luther, in talking about the 2nd commandment, talked of it, not just using the name of God improperly, but by using it in vain, because we don’t use it when we should, to praise Him, to praise Him by laying before Him our lives, our problems, our struggles. That’s what we are supposed to do, that’s how we are supposed to use His name.
God gave us His name to use, to help us realize how committed He was to keeping His promises, the actions that He would take and complete. That’s is why we have hope in YHWH, in God.
Hear the actions He takes again,
He gives justice to the oppressed and food to the hungry! The LORD frees the prisoners! The LORD opens the eyes of the blind! The LORD lifts up those who are weighed down! The LORD loves the godly! The LORD protects the foreigners among us! He cares for the orphans and widows! But he frustrates the plans of the wicked!
Where others fail us, God doesn’t. We aren’t going to get that kind of response from anyone else. We shouldn’t expect it from powerful people, yet we so often do, and complain when they let us down. Their plans don’t last past the time they leave office, never mind until they breathe their last. If our faith, if our trust is in God, then we have something, in them, not so much.
That is why we praise Him.
The Incarnational life – but not quite the way we think
That’s why we praise and glorify Him.
Just a few months ago, during the Christmas season, we praised God because, as the Gospel of John put it, “He came and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
We call that, using church words, the incarnation.
But we praise Him now for a different incarnation, that He has gathered us and given us a new birth Himself. We were born again, linked with His death, so that we could be raised with Him, so that we could relate to God the Father as our Father, so that we could use His name. He who dwelt among us, calls us to dwell in Him.
That is what Christianity is all about, the relationship we have with our Creator. With the God who loves each of us, and pulls us into Him. It is seen throughout our church service, from allowing Him to cleanse us from sin, to our leaving our burdens, the things that cause us anxiety in His hands in prayer, to communion, the most intimate meal’
He gives us His name to call upon, in prayer and praise. Knowing He is here, knowing He loves us,
That’s were find comfort, and the strength to do amazing things, as we reach out to those around us, loving those who do not know love, or the power of God to fix and heal relationships.
Incarnate, dwelling with God, or to use the old phrase, abiding in Him, we find something the world cannot give…..
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, and we are kept there, secured in that peace by Jesus Christ. AMEN.
Advent Devotion: Convenient, Comfortable Christianity? Hmmm…
William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825-1905) – The Flagellation of Our Lord Jesus Christ (1880) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Devotional Thought of the Day:
But when the Son of man comes, will he find any faith on earth? Luke 18:8b (NJB)
57 As they travelled along they met a man on the road who said to him, ‘I will follow you wherever you go.’ 58 Jesus answered, ‘Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head.’ 59 Another to whom he said, ‘Follow me,’ replied, ‘Let me go and bury my father first.’ 60 But he answered, ‘Leave the dead to bury their dead; your duty is to go and spread the news of the kingdom of God.’ 61 Another said, ‘I will follow you, sir, but first let me go and say good-bye to my people at home.’ 62 Jesus said to him, ‘Once the hand is laid on the plough, no one who looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.’Luke 9:57-62 (NJB)
650 When will you realise that your only possible way is to seek sanctity seriously. Make up your mind—don’t be offended—to take God seriously. That levity of yours, if you do not fight against it, could end up by becoming a sad and blasphemous mockery. (1)
Yesterday we began Advent, that time of year where we build expectation of Christ’s return, as we consider life prior to the Incarnation.
It is hard to look back, without considering the voices of the prophets, and their call on the people of God to take their relationship with God seriously. Their reminders that we have a relationship with God who has made it possible, and that we should neglect that relationship.
Yet too often we do.
Advent seeks to shake us from that – to prepare us for Christ’s coming – not just the 6 lbs 8 oz Baby Lord Jesus, lieing in a smelly feeding trough, but the returning Lord who gave it all, for us.
It’s a startling image in this day where peopel are put out if they are asked to pay more in taxes, or meet the expecations others place on their time and their lives. We want to be served instantly, we want it our way, we want things to be convenient, and comfortable, with no sacrifice and no cost.
We hear that salvation is free, that God paid all the cost for our sins, with Christ dieing on the cross, and we rejoice. We focus on that part of the message of God. We love it, rejoice in it, willing share that part with others.
But we don’t want the inconvenience of being in a relationship with God. It might be uncomfortable, He might ask us to sacrifice something, to downscale our lives in order to help others. He might ask us to spend time with Him, and with those people at church that aren’t like us. He may ask some of us even to suffer for the faith, and how many of us are really willing to do that?
SO the prophetic question is asked – do you trust God? Are you willing to trust Him, even if it seems to mean some personal cost? What if it means giving up a personal dream, or embracing discomfort? What if it means being alienated from family? What if it means our friends turn their back on us, because we won’t be there when they want us to be, because of our commitments to serve others, especially those others they might consider “less deserving”? Will you trust God, when it costs you a little of what it cost Jesus, the shame He embraced on the cross? Are you willing to trust Him enough that you would embrace suffering, if it meant one more person would know Christ?
Remember why – it was for the joy awaiting Him, the joy of sharing His glory with you! The joy of bringing you into the glory and love that is shared between this Triune God we worship.
Is your trust in Him, your love for Him enough to embrace a inconvenient, uncomfortable messy way of life?
Look beyond the manger, and the shining stars and “cute” depictions of the birth of Christ. Look at the rejections He endured, Look at the cross He bore, and the investment He’s made, promising you the Holy Spirit, the Comforter. KNow His faithfulness, His trustworthiness, His love and mercy….
and embrace a life of faith and trust…. knowing that no other life is worth living.
Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). Furrow (Kindle Locations 2728-2731). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
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If Faith=knowing Him, not just about Him…then Worship is…
Lord’s prayer in Coptic language (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Devotional THought of the day:
7 “When you pray, do not use a lot of meaningless words, as the pagans do, who think that their gods will hear them because their prayers are long. 8 Do not be like them. Your Father already knows what you need before you ask him. 9 This, then, is how you should pray: ‘Our Father in heaven: May your holy name be honored; 10 may your Kingdom come; may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us today the food we need. 12 Forgive us the wrongs we have done, as we forgive the wrongs that others have done to us. 13 Do not bring us to hard testing, but keep us safe from the Evil One. For Yours is the Kingdom, and the Power and the Glory, Forever and Ever, AMEN! Matthew 6:13 (TEV)
It’s necessary to be convinced that God is always near us. Too often we live as though our Lord were somewhere far off—where the stars shine. We fail to realize that he is also by our side—always. For he is a loving Father. He loves each one of us more than all the mothers in the world can love their children, helping us and inspiring us, blessing … and forgiving. How often we’ve erased the frowns from our parents’ brows, telling them after some prank, “I won’t do it again!” Maybe that same day we fall again…. And our father, with feigned harshness in his voice and a serious face, reproves us, while at the same time his heart is softened because he knows our weakness: “Poor boy,” he thinks, “How hard he tries to behave well!” We have to be completely convinced, realizing it to the full, that our Lord, who is close to us and in Heaven, is a Father, and very much our Father. (1)
At the end of the Lord’s Prayer, there is what is called a Doxology, a time of praise and worship. Some translations leave it out – citing that it doesn’t appear in some manuscripts. Some do, taking the opposite approach that it appears in most. I don’t bother with those explanations… all that much.
It belongs there… IMHO… for it is the reaction of what happens when someone can let God be God, when they realize He is by their side, as St Josemaria says, ALWAYS. When we realize how loving He is, how merciful, how close to us, and our Father.
There are a few acronymns that would replace this prayer, this outline of prayer. ACTS is one, ITCP is another. They have been used for a while, but I think they rely too much on our intellect and strength. THey have us start where we should end – with adoration, with hearing how we are to live. They don’t start with the relationship, the prodigal finding himself in the Father’s arms, the mom begging Jesus to heal her daughter, Peter… downcast and distraught, realizing his betrayal.
I think we need to start where Jesus taught us to. To pour out to God our despair, our brokenness, trusting that He is our Father, and as we pour out that brokenness, as He lifts the anxiety, the guilt, the pain from our hearts, as He assures us of our protection and His love. It is then, as He lifts us up, as He calms us, as He reminds us of His love and peace… and His presence…
Then praise, and oh the praise.
I’ve often said we confuse the word translated as “believe/faith” with the gathering and storing of knowledge of God. It isn’t. It is trusting Him, finding ourselves in a relationship where we can depend,on God, and growing to the point where we turn to Him first, rather than trying to do this all on our own. Praise and Worship isn’t about what we do – it is the reaction to what He has done. It isn’t about being perfect enough in our performance, it is, having abandoned ourselves, living in Him, delighting in His presence, realizing we have been revived and healed and restored by Him, and living the life He has given us.
We have been delivered into God’s presence, and He has told us, He is our Father – the incredible picture that St Josemaria paints of the our Father, the one who patiently works with us, correcting us, encouraging and empowering us, who simply wants to walk by our side through life. Prayer is that conversation, that walk – that dance, as we together with God – enjoy His glory, enjoy His creation, and find ourselves led in this incredible dance of joy….
May you realize this day…how close you are to Our Father…
(1)Escriva, Josemaria (2010-11-02). The Way (Kindle Locations 706-713). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
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Adoration- is it part of your worship?
Devotional Discussion of the day:
In a few days, the strains of familiar music will fill your ears, if it hasn’t already. The sounds of Christmas (even though it is not advent.)
But as I plan out our special services, one chorus keeps resounding in my mind, echoing louder and louder, as it does as we sing it on Christmas Eve.
Venite Adoreum – Come! Adore Him! ( Or as we sing it, O Come let us Adore Him)
It brings a question to mind, how much of our music – whether traditional choir cantatas, or contemporary pieces spend time in adoration, in awe, in realizing that this isn’t just another holiday to be happy, but this in God. present, real, here. God coming in weakness yet fully in glory, God whom the angels in heaven cannot but praise, God whose reflection carried by angels causes incredible fear, (why else are their first words – Be not Afraid?)
Do we adore – with every fiber of our being – God in our midst? God incarnate? Do we pause to consider the enormity of this event, the blessedness? The beyond all imagination glory of a humble stable, a young lass, and her fiance, lookng down and knowing beyond all doubt..that this was God?
Maybe we don’t want to.. because if we do… we have to realize how much we need Him, desperately need Him.
Not just then…. not just on the cross…. but now.
Come my friends, let us adore Him!
Live Graciously, even in an Election Year!
Consider these passages – as you engage others, and post your positions on facebook…
5:43 “You’re familiar with the old written law, ‘Love your friend,’ and its unwritten companion, ‘Hate your enemy.’ 44 I’m challenging that. I’m telling you to love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer, 45 for then you are working out of your true selves, your God-created selves. This is what God does. He gives his best—the sun to warm and the rain to nourish—to everyone, regardless: the good and bad, the nice and nasty. 46 If all you do is love the lovable, do you expect a bonus? Anybody can do that. 47 If you simply say hello to those who greet you, do you expect a medal? Any run-of-the-mill sinner does that. 48 “In a word, what I’m saying is, Grow up. You’re kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you.
Matthew 5:43-48 (MSG)
4:19 Let us love, then, because he first loved us. 20 Anyone who says ‘I love God’ and hates his brother, is a liar, since whoever does not love the brother whom he can see cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 Indeed this is the commandment we have received from him, that whoever loves God, must also love his brother.
1 John 4:19-21 (NJB)
May that which we say, and post, reflect God’s glory to a world that more than enough evil and darkness.
Words of Life
Discussion thought for the day:
At lunch yesterday, I was reading a biography of a priest. He was serving in Spain during the Civil War that tore apart the country prior to World War II, and as he and many others were escaping across the mountains, the biographer included this…
“The student from Catalonia kept a journal of his experiences on the trip. On November 28 he wrote, “Here the most moving event of the whole trip takes place: Holy Mass. On a rock and kneeling down, almost prostrate on the ground, a priest with us is saying Mass. He doesn’t say it like other priests in churches…. His clear and heartfelt words penetrate the soul. Never have I attended Mass like today’s. “*
As a Lutheran pastor, such an impact is what I would desire – that no matter the location, a incredible cathedral, a simple chapel, a campground or on a retreat (this has happened on a few retreats I have been on – where everyone just knew… it was time to drop everything else… and rearrange the day around communion). It is not the location, by no means, but the miracle of God, dwelling in the midst of His people….
Such words as the student’s…most pastors and priests I know… would love to hear… because it means God is working through us…
To know that God could use, would use our words, much as this priest’s, much as St. Peter’s at Pentecost. To bring life and hope, to re-create the scene in Ezekiel 37, where life was generated, breathed into being… That the people would realize, not the presence of the pastor/priest, but the presence of God reaching them through the words, through the sacrament…
It brings to mind the words of Peter, as Jesus was abandoned by so many… and Jesus asks if they would desert him as well…
6:68 ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the message of eternal life, 69 and we believe; we have come to know that you are the Holy One of God.’
John 6:68-69 (NJB)
May our words, the words of Pastors and Priests in mass/service, and the words of our people so be heard… for they are not ours – but His – words of eternal life, words that are clear, and heartfelt, but that penetrate souls…
* de Prada, Andres Vazquez (2011-04-19). The Founder of Opus Dei: Volume II, God and Daring (The Life of Josemaria Escriva) (Kindle Locations 3453-3456). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
