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Often when you hear a sermon or teaching on Romans 16:3-16, it’s called the “Greet One Another” passage and a lot of hay is made of how we should great one another in the church. You hear this sermon in church plants, encouraging everyone to greet visitors so the church will be friendly and they will return because the place is so warm and loving.

But that’s missing the forest for the trees! It’s not just a command to say hello often and nicely, but it’s a catalog of saints in various churches and a catalog of how we ought to be relating to one another — of what kind of saints we ought to be! Paul is saluting a faithful bunch of people, people that we should emulate. People he regards highly.

For example, three times Paul mentions “fellow workers in Christ Jesus,” or “fellow prisoners,” or “fellow workers in the Lord.” Paul is in a Christian body that works together; how often do you strive for that? Four times Paul mentions greeting a “beloved” saint. Paul wants greeted those who “risked their necks for my life,” a woman who was a “mother to me as well,” and twice those who “worked hard for you” or “worked hard in the Lord.” Mothering and hard work don’t go unnoticed by Paul! And there are whole churches, relatives, and friends in the Lord he wants greeted on his behalf. Finally, he instructs them to greet one another with a holy kiss! This is a warm body that exemplifies serving in the Spirit of Christ!

So the next time you greet someone in the body, think about how blessed you are to commune with such people, and strive to serve like those that Paul commends.

We have seen in Pastor Thacker’s sermons how God makes a fool of His enemy, Pharaoh. We see how Pharaoh’s schemes make less and less sense. His ramblings seem almost those of a mad-man as he defies God in the face of the plagues bringing greater and greater disaster upon the land.

God laughs at his enemies. It’s plain enough to see in the passages of scripture. And believe that God is currently in the midst of making sport of the godless even today. While we may rightly pray for the salvation of those enemies, that’s not always God’s purpose, just as it was not His purpose with Pharaoh. And as we face the godlessness of our current culture, it can be difficult to see what is really going on from our vantage point. That’s why we need the lens of Scripture. “The wicked plots against the just, and gnashes at him with his teeth. The Lord laughs at him, for He sees that his day is coming … But the wicked shall perish; And the enemies of the Lord, like the splendor of the meadows, shall vanish. Into smoke they shall vanish away.” — Psalm 37:12–13;20

Open your eyes of faith and see what Yahweh our God sees: the ramblings of madmen intent upon their own destruction. Their cries of, “believe the science,” clash with their own actions. Their war against the unborn belies their claim of care for women. God uses their own ramblings to bring them to shame. Remember that you serve the one who made all things. You are on the winning side. Laugh at God’s enemies with Him.

The signs of life abound in our congregation with the births this year both past and upcoming. And what a joy to welcome these dear ones to our midst, as the waters of baptism bear witness that they belong to Christ. This is the life of the church as we look around at our congregation and see folks from all stages of life.

In Matthew 18, as part of our Lord’s discourse on who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, He said to his disciples, “Take heed that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that in heaven their angels always see the face of My Father who is in heaven.” Matthew 18 points us to the truth that children are very important in the life of the church, and, indeed, in the kingdom of heaven. And, we do well to remember that we, even as adults, are likened to children all the time as “children of God.” In our infants in particular, we witness their faith in us as they look to us for their care. As we nourish their bodies, physically, we are also instructed to nourish them spiritually as they grow. And, paradoxically, what is commanded to us for the nourishing of our own faith? To become like children. And if we do not, we will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.

As we receive these children in the name of Christ, we receive Christ, and we become even as little children. Thanks be to God for His good gifts and the way he points us to riches of eternal life through the children he entrusts to us!

The Church’s life is one of hope because all of her activities express and nourish hope. The word gives hope, prayer nourishes hope, singing expresses and builds hope, and baptism certainly nourishes hope as we contemplate the union with Christ that we “hope” will be but the conduit to joyful eternal life, beginning in this sin-infected life. After all, Jesus didn’t do all those things that we hear recited in the prayer from the French baptism liturgy just to let the baby die in infamy! No, that Jesus claims that baby as his own, or the adult, gives us great joy and hope for their lives. And it should! All of the church’s activities in fact create hope because they are avenues of communication with God. This makes sense because the Trinity created mankind and made us in his image that we might enjoy fellowship and eternity with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We are adopted into his family, and all these churchly activities are but fellowship with God in his family. And that familial fellowship is one of hope because God himself is a God of hope. “In the communion of the Trinity, the Father anoints His Son with the eternal Spirit, in hope that the Son will re-bestow the Spirit on the Father. In Jesus, we are brought into that circulation of joy, glory, love, loyalty, and hope” (Leithart, God of Hope, 84) that exemplifies the divine life. Your hope burns and shines when you keep in close communion with the God who is hope. And how do you do that? By keeping the church and her communion life close to your heart!

You must come to worship every Sunday! Not just because God commands you to in the fourth commandment and the example of the church meeting on the first day of the week, but because worship builds hope in you. When you sing praises to the Lord, when you remember His works in ages past, when you remember that He sent Jesus to cleanse you of your sins, when you pray and thank the Lord for all His blessings (along with those next to you), when you hear His word and are encouraged that He is moving and active in your world, when you sit at His table and eat and drink of him, and remember that He is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world and thereby unites us to the Father, then your confidence and trust is built up in the Lord. When you remember and do all these things, you are given hope for the future; because there is nothing that God hasn’t done and can’t do! If we can be reconciled to God almighty, certainly we can be reconciled to one another! What are our sins against each another compared to sinning against the Godhead who lives for eternity? Yet we have peace with both God and man! And it’s at worship that you are commissioned by the Lord to take the Good News that Jesus is Lord and tell it to everyone you meet and apply it in everything you do. Without worship, you have no hope and no expectation of blessing or happiness in the future. Worship is but the nursery of hope!

Throughout each year in the life of Israel, the blood of dead animals was spread on the furniture of the sanctuary so that the sanctuary bore the guilt and impurity of the worshipper. The priesthood, and the High Priest, ate of those purification offerings, and so bore the sins of the people in themselves. On the Day of Atonement in Leviticus 16, the blood of the bull for Aaron and his family, and the blood of the goat for Israel was brought into the very throne room of Yahweh and sprinkled on his feet, on the covering of the Ark. These Purification offerings brought the very sins of the people and laid them upon Yahweh; he bore the burden of her sin, of his bride. So in two ways the Priesthood (and Israel) was cleansed and revitalized; the purification offerings and the transferring of the sins of Israel that the High Priest bore to the scapegoat.

But Israel’s life with God was at a distance, since the blood of bulls and goats cannot give life. We not only need the removal of sin; we also need holiness to live with God. This all points to Jesus, the Lamb of God, who removes sin from us by bearing it upon himself, but who also rises from the dead and unites us to himself by washing us and giving us to eat of himself. Hence Paul’s encouraging words about Jesus in Romans 4.25, “who was delivered up for our trespasses AND raised for our justification/ righteousness.” In him the veil of separation is torn down and we are brought into God’s presence!

“Remember Lot’s wife.” That’s what Jesus tells his disciples to do on the day when the Son of Man is revealed (Luke 17). He’s warning his disciples to flee from the coming destruction of Jerusalem just as Lot and his family was warned to flee the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19.15ff). He warns them not to “turn back” and then mentions Lot’s wife, who “looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.” The inference to the disciples is that if they look back, if they think about staying with the old covenant and the old system tied to the temple, they will become like Lot’s wife who looked back to the old life of Sodom and was reduced to a pillar of salt. But what does it mean that she became a pillar of salt? Why “salt,” and not granite or sandstone or lime? Why salt? The answer has to do with how salt is used in the scriptures: it’s a seasoning. It’s applied to the sacrifices that Yahweh will eat; if it loses its flavor, it’s “not good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet (Matthew 5.13). Paul says “let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt…” (Col. 4.6). Jesus’ instruction to them, and to us, is not look back at the old satanic life that you left when you became His slave; if you do, you’re no good to Him and the new life and new Jerusalem that you live in. Instead, keep your eyes on Jesus so that you season the church and kingdom for greater taste, inviting others to “taste the Lord and see that he is good.” Don’t leave others with a bad taste in their mouth!

Let’s face it. In an age of blockbusters and action movies and captivating podcasts and even “miracles” and “visions” in various branches of the church, we all, on the inside, crave the exciting and sensationalistic versions of stuff. But then we come to worship and hear the bible being read and the singing of hymns and even the chanting of psalms, and think to ourselves, “This is not very exciting. Wish it were more juiced up!” We crave the outlandish. But what saith the scriptures? Well, the scriptures say we all sound like the rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day before he ended up in Hades (Luke 16.19ff). He wanted Father Abraham to send poor Lazarus to warn his five brothers. When Abraham replied “They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them,” he complained and said not good enough. He wanted the sensationalistic presentation: someone from the dead! Then they would repent. But Abraham wasn’t having any of it: “If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.”

Think about that: the Word heard is more convincing than a raised dead person saying the same thing! This means you have the best representation of the truths of God in the reading and hearing of God’s word in the worship service! Better and more convincing than a dead guy trying to convince you to believe or repent or worship! And when you are witnessing to unbelievers, Father Abraham says don’t crave the sensationalistic tricks and lures; more convincing is the bible in your hands, the recitation of God’s word from your memory.

For the last forty or fifty years, Christians have fallen into the practice of not naming the name of Jesus when they speak out in the public square. Can you remember a politician or even a leading Christian ever saying, “Jesus hates homosexuality.” We know this because in Matthew 19 Jesus quotes from Genesis 1 and 2 where he says “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’” Jesus is absolutely clear. But Christians cop out using the name of the King, and instead refer to ambiguous and less specific terms like “The Moral Majority” or “Traditional Values” or “historical practice” or “biological science,” or use bumper stickers that say “God Bless America,” (not “Jesus Bless America”) etc. But nowadays the majority is not moral by biblical standards, and traditional values are two married men and two children in a family. Why do Christians shy away from using their Lord’s specific name? Because it puts a target on them of naming a historical person who taught clearly and took clear positions and who said “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” That’s exclusive, and it bothers people and puts them on edge; it says they are wrong to worship Buddha or Allah or themselves or pleasure or wealth, etc. But we must not shy away from naming the name of Jesus, because that is the Gospel: Jesus is Lord. To not mention his name as the foundation for all our thinking and living is to withhold the very salvation of man!

Jesus said “Let the little children come to me,” and he held them and blessed them. The mothers bringing the children thought that was important: that Jesus the man/Messiah/teacher, hold their children, pray over them and bless them bodily. Even little nursing infants! And Jesus agreed, sending the disciples off to the side for stopping the mothers. Should we learn something from this with regard to our passing the faith on to our children? As husbands and fathers, no doubt; our wives tend to be nurturers right out of the box. But men aren’t as attuned to following Jesus’ example, and so we need to work at it. What can we learn? Well, let the little children come to us! Children need to, actually want to, sit on daddy’s lap on the couch, at the dinner table, even during the sermon during worship. Dad’s should be careful to hold their kid’s hands during the day, while walking to the car or into the restaurant, sitting on the couch during family worship, or while praying before meals. How about reading stories to them before bed with them nestled around you? How about holding your little ones while they fall asleep on your lap, snuggling them, or lying next to them on the bed telling them stories as they drift off? Father’s should hug their daughters often to assure them that he cares for them and to give them male attention, which they surely desire as they get older. You want them getting that attention from dad and not inappropriately from some young man! Not to mention rassling with the boys from time to time! The point is, there are a million ways to give your children the blessing of love demonstrated bodily!

Pastor Meyers made the point two weeks ago in his sermon to the congregation that nowhere in the scriptures do we find that spirituality is a personal, separatistic, individualistic pursuit. He made the point that holiness is a corporate pursuit, even for the individual. Even hearing the word requires a public gathering, as somebody else is reading the bible to be heard by us or the congregation. Holiness is pursued in the midst of the congregation, as the rituals were all public: sacrifices, baptisms, readings, processions, feasts, paying of vows, etc. There were always others around, even if it was just Levites and priests assisting. This strikes our modern ears as “abnormal,” having been taught from a young age to pursue true spirituality by individually reading the bible, quiet times, getting away with God, praying in our closets, taking walks with God, listening to Him speak to us, etc. We discipline our bodies to remove the “flesh” component as much as possible so that we are in the Spirit as much as possible. In short order, that is Greek Gnosticism. The Scriptures instead teach we grow and mature in the corporate body; hence, all the public worshipping and feasting and singing. And that fits completely with God’s Trinitarian character, as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit spend eternity laughing, feasting, talking, serving, and fellowshipping together. Through our creation, they brought us into that corporate fellowship. As we spend time with other images of God, keeping all our eyes on the Fathers, Son, and Spirit, little wonder then that we reflect the Three to one another. That’s spirituality!

As mentioned last week, the “Ordinary” of Ordinary Time does not mean “mundane,” but is the term used because such Sundays are designated according to their ordinal numbers: First Sunday, Second Sunday, etc. Yet, without any major events or festivals between now and Reformation, there is a certain sense in which we have entered an “ordinary routine” of the liturgical year and cycle. This is not meant to imply that the life lived in Christ by the Spirit is commonplace. Far from it, and yet there is something to be said for the rhythm of life that a regular routine provides. Most of life is not marked by great feasts. We do not live in a constant party, which would be exhausting and diminish the times for celebration, but in the usual day-to-day of rising from sleep, working, eating, drinking, talking, playing, and lying down to sleep. We go to sleep, we “die” each night, only for the Lord to “resurrect” us each morning, to raise us to the life to be lived in Him by faith. That is hardly mundane, and yet it is our common experience, to which we barely give any thought, as we readily and rightly give ourselves to the daily duties the Lord sets our hands to do. Ordinary Time is a significant portion of our lives in which we live out the realities of Christ’s incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, and the giving of the Spirit. It is ordinary, gloriously ordinary.