Pastor’s Page

This Sunday is Trinity Sunday. For further reading on the history and meaning of this occasion, I recommend the following: http://www.stpaulskingsville.org/trinity.htm

It is not unreasonable to suppose that the life of prayer will draw us into a genial camaraderie, so secure in God’s grace and confident in his beneficence that we are irresistibly carried along in the flow of the river of God, viewing everyone and everything with the cheeriest of feelings. But reason, at least reason inexperienced and untested in the life of prayer, isn’t the best guide in these matters. When we take the Psalms as our guide, we find that people who pray have a lot of enemies, and that they spend a lot of their praying time dealing with them.

Most of us would prefer it otherwise. We commonly indulge our preference by subjecting the Psalms to severe editing, cutting away any negativism that offends piety and disturbs the peace. The editing is usually unconscious, accomplished by the simple expedient of withdrawing the imagination and sliding over the offensive passages. Psalm 137 is on nearly everyone’s list for revision. Psalm 137 is the scandal of the Psalter.

– Eugene Peterson, Answering God: The Psalms as Tools for Prayer

This story is commendable on a number of levels. http://www.rabbitroom.com/?p=5046

Last night I finished Jeffrey Overstreet’s book, Auralia’s Colors. It is an engaging, beautifully descriptive, and masterfully woven tale. This is a story with layers. In fact, I am finding myself tempted to pick it up and start over again to see what else I can glean from it’s pages. The climax and ending were not what I was expecting, so now I am left to impatiently await the arrival of the second book of the series in the mail, Cyndere’s Midnight. If you enjoy a bit of fiction, you will not be disappointed by Auralia’s Colors.

Perusing my old blog today and thought this quote from John Calvin was worth re-posting.

“But we must realize that at whatever time we are baptized, we are once for all washed and purged for our whole life.Therefore, as often as we fall away, we ought to recall the memory of our baptism and fortify our mind with it, that we may always be sure and confident of the forgiveness of sins. For, though baptism, administered only once, seemed to have passed, it was still not destroyed by subsequest sins. For Christ’s purity has been offered us in it; his purity ever flourishes; it is defiled by no spots, but buries and cleanses away all our defilements.

“Nevertheless, from this fact we ought not to take leave to sin in the future, as this has certainly not taught us to be so bold. Rather, this doctrine is only given to sinners who groan, wearied and oppressed by their own sins, in order that they may have something to lift them up and comfort them, so as not to plunge into confusion and despair” (Institutes,Book IV, XV, 3, emphasis added).

Today marks the fortieth day after Easter, the day our Lord ascended to His throne in Heaven. I suspect that we are not nearly as excited about today as we ought to be. Granted, we will be celebrating the ascension this coming Lord’s Day, but today marks an amazing moment in God’s saving work and in the history of the world.

Not to state the obvious, but when you stop and think about it, we have been moving to this day since Advent and Christmastide. Our liturgical year begins anticipating the coming of the Savior, and then rejoices in the God who came in the flesh of man to deliver the world from sin. We behold Jesus’ manifestation in Epiphany; mediate on His engagement in holy war through suffering, which culminates on the cross, in the Lenten season; and then resoundingly declare His victory over death and the grave at Easter. And this victory celebration, lasting more than one Sunday, finds its climax in the risen King’s ascension to His throne.

Jesus ascended to the glory from which He came signifying that He accomplished the will of His heavenly Father; that God’s plan of salvation was successful; and that the “earthly” phase of Jesus’ work was complete. This is reason for celebration. Although we might think it would have been better for Jesus to stay on the earth, Jesus himself says otherwise. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you (John 16:7). Jesus is speaking of the giving of the Holy Spirit, evidence that the ascension has taken place. Quoting Psalm 68, Paul declares in Ephesians 4: When he ascended on high…he gave gifts to men. Our heavenly King has lavished upon the church what she needs to grow to maturity, to serve Him, to continue the kingdom work on earth, and chief among those gifts is the Holy Spirit. This is hardly a small thing! Hardly a meager gift! If Jesus had not ascended then He could only be in one place at a time, but the coming of the Holy Spirit dramatically changed that dynamic. As Laurence Hull Stookey notes, “the ascension is an affirmation that the Risen One is now bound by neither time nor space. Jesus of Nazareth dwelt some thirty years in a very small territory to the east of the Mediterranean. But through the power of the resurrection Christ is revealed as being present at all times and in all places. That presence is effected by the power of the Holy Spirit, which is nothing less than Christ filling all things.” So we celebrate the ascension, and eagerly anticipate Pentecost.

Finally, we need to realize that this world has been put back on course and the curse of sin undone. Paul declares that Jesus is the firstborn from the dead that in all things He may have the preeminence. For in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross (Col. 1:18-20). Jesus’ ascension has made a way for man to enter into God’s presence, even as we ascend each Lord’s Day to the very throne room where Jesus now sits. Further, Jesus’ ascension foreshadows the future to come. The promise of the new heavens and the new earth is sure because there is already resurrected dust of the earth in heaven. The old creation has been exalted and transformed, joined to the new creation begun in Christ Himself, culminating in the perfect joining of heaven and earth at the last. Therefore, in the ascension of Christ, we not only find assurance for the redemption of our souls, but also encouragement for the kingdom work that is our calling. We are joined to Christ. He is victorious. He has given us the Spirit, therefore our labors are not in vain.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control – Galatians 5:22

The last few weeks I have been meditating on how the fruit of the Spirit is instructive to the parenting of our children. Of course we want our children to bear this fruit as they mature in the faith, but how much more so should these attributes be the pattern for our own lives as we seek to nurture and train them? The aroma of our homes should be this fruit, and wherein we are lacking, let us pray for the Holy Spirit to provide what is needed. Pray that the Lord would increase your love, joy and peace in your children; pray that he would increase your patience, kindness and goodness toward them; pray for faithfulness, gentleness and self-control in your dealings with them. If you have yet to memorize the fruit of the Spirit, then do so, that it might be at the forefront of your mind and quick to your thoughts. Begin seeing your children through this lense, and you may never look at them quite the same way again.

How should Christians view life? From a Christian perspective, correct? Believers, above all others, should view the world – should see life – through a thoroughly biblical lens. Yet, if you were to ask ten different Christians what it means to think biblically, it would not be surprising to hear eleven different answers. So who is right and who is wrong?

Well, it could be that one is right and the other is wrong. It could be that neither are right and both are wrong. Or it could be that both are right and neither are wrong – even though both may contend the other to be wrong. Perhaps you think I am straying from my point about thinking biblically, and that I am espousing some form of relativism where truth is determined by each individual, so allow me to clarify.

Scripture is patently clear regarding God’s salvific work in the world through the Lord Jesus. In no way do I intend to cast doubt upon the fundamentals of biblical faith – such as are found in the Apostles’ Creed. Nor am I calling into question the rich heritage that we have in our various confessions and creeds. Certainly there are matters that would be deemed as “non-negotiable.” Nevertheless, we must develop a biblical understanding of how we are to live every day life. We must learn wisdom, which is not an easy task.

Wisdom can be simply defined as “skill in living,” to which all of Scripture directs us. However, we have also been given the Wisdom Literature, which consists of Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon. Each of these books points us to Christ, while also speaking to Christian experience. Job asks the question of why God does what He does, and answers that we are but men. The Song of Solomon speaks to married love, while the Psalms function as the emotions of God’s people and teach us to pray. Proverbs gives us principles of life in nugget form, and Ecclesiastes tells us that life does not make sense no matter how hard we try to figure it out. If we are to be those who live wisely, who live with skill, then we will meditate often in this portion of the Sacred Text, and be rightly challenged by the tensions that we find there. What do I mean?

In Proverbs 26:4 Solomon states, Do not answer a fool according to his folly, Lest you also be like him. This seems to be fairly straightforward instruction as to how we are to deal with a fool. But what is it that he says in the very next verse? Answer a fool according to his folly, Lest he be wise in His own eyes. Wait a second. Didn’t Solomon just say that we are not to answer a fool, and now he is saying we are? Which is it? Do we answer a fool or don’t we? The answer is yes… and yes. It takes discernment to determine when to answer and when not to answer. It takes wisdom.

Solomon is teaching us that life is not fashioned by cookie cutters. It is not about everything being nice and neat, with checklists to help us determine what we are to do in every given situation. No, Solomon takes the checklist, tears it into pieces, and throws it in the trash. We want simple answers and simple solutions. We want things to be black and white, making concessions for some gray. But that is not what the Bible teaches us. Life isn’t black and white and gray. Life is blue, green, yellow, red, purple, crimson, orange and violet. Life is to be lived in color.

Scripture sets forth principles of life, and those principles are the same for all believers. However, the application of those principles may vary widely between Christians. Sometimes you answer a fool according to his folly, and sometimes you do not. Sometimes what you determine for your life or the life of your family, based on biblical principles, may be the exact opposite of what another believer decides to do in his or her family. Both can be right, and both can be wrong for thinking they are really biblical and the other is not. So let us not relegate wisdom to a narrow and minimalist view of the world, but understand that God’s portrait for life has nuance and variation. He does not hesitate to dirty His brush with colors to create just the right shade, and neither should we.

Tomorrow is Pentecost, the third great festival of the Christian year. Although transformed by the Church since the outpouring of the Holy Spirit as recorded in Acts 2, Pentecost was originally celebrated by Israel. Along with Passover and the Feast of Tabernacles, Pentecost (also known as the “Feast of Weeks” or the “Feast of Harvest”) was one of the three annual festivals when all of the men of Israel were required to appear before Yahweh. The word “Pentecost” itself means “fifty days,” derived from the Greek used in Leviticus 23:15-16: You shall count seven full weeks from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering. You shall count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath. Then you shall present a grain offering of new grain to the LORD (ESV, emphasis added). Fifty days prior to Pentecost was the beginning of Passover.

So Pentecost has been around for thousands of years, but what about its celebration in the Church since that momentous event recorded in Acts 2? Sources vary, but there appears to be ample evidence of a fifty-day festival season dating back to the end of the second century. Pentecost is considered “the oldest season of the Church’s year…. It is a fifty-day long Sunday – the Latin version of St. Athanasius’ letters actually calls it magna dominica, the great Sunday – and consequently neither fasting nor kneeling was allowed during it” (cited by Cobb in The Study of Liturgy, 463). By the fourth century the celebration of Pentecost began to take fuller shape. Pentecost and Ascension were initially celebrated on the same day, but then a separate Ascension feast emerged on the fortieth day. As a result, Pentecost focused upon the descent of the Holy Spirit for the constituting of the Church of God, and the fifty-day celebratory season was continued by some.

Based on the historical evidence, it is clear that Pentecost had a prominent place in the calendar of the Early Church, and that more than a single day. Pentecost needs to have greater significance to the Church today as well. Beginning at Pasch (Easter), this is to be a season of joy and triumph, a fifty-day Lord’s Day in which the resurrection and dominion of Christ are celebrated. We need to capture the spirit of the Early Church and so declare to the world, and the Church herself, that we have great cause for celebration. Jesus, the ascended King in Heaven, sent the Holy Spirit to make for Himself a new people and a new world. What better reason to have a party!

“It is usual to speak in a playfully apologetic tone about one’s adult enjoyment of what are called ‘children’s books’. I think the convention a silly one. No book is really worth reading at the age of ten which is not equally (and often far more) worth reading at the age of fifty – except, of course, books of information. The only imaginative works we ought to grow out of are those which it would have been better not to have read at all. A mature palate will probably not much care for creme de menthe: but it ought still to enjoy bread and butter and honey.” – C.S. Lewis, On Stories.

Is President Obama really this naive?

Addressing the National Prayer Breakfast, Obama spoke of how faith has often been a divisive tool, responsible for war and prejudice. But, he said, “there is no religion whose central tenet is hate. There is no God who condones taking the life of an innocent human being,” and all religions teach people to love and care for one another. That is the common ground underlying his faith-based office, he said. (Source: AP).

Or, let’s come at it a different way. What God does he serve, given his support for abortion, which (to use his words) is “taking the life of an innocent human being”?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20090205/pl_politico/18444