Awake, manly sleeper, arise up and shine
It’s day twelve of Christmas: an opportune time
to tell each old passerby, stranger or neighbor
the lingering news of the birth of the savior.
Get up, out of bed. Rouse the wife; dress the kids!
It’s Sunday, the Lord’s Day, so open those lids.
As good time as any to gather together
to tell the wide world ’bout the birth of the savior.
Take tithings! Take tidings! Take voices and lives!
Take sons, and your daughters and beautiful wives!
Now take to the streets and go tell them the news!
Sing into the air, and rumble the pews!
They all need to know on this twelfth Christmas morn, so tell on the mountain that Jesus is born!
Take up to your tweeting while onlookers look!
Yes, even on Sundays, they’re checking Face-book.
Say that there’s still treasure to find if they search.
Tell them it’s still Christmas, and you’re off to church…
Where you and your wife and your daughters and sons
will sing with the church and your voice will be one,
proclaiming and naming the day for the Lord,
so all who have ears will know Jesus is born!
They all need to know on this twelfth Christmas morn, so tell on the mountain that Jesus is born!
For each time we gather we show the Lord’s death,
Proclaimed in our feasting, and singing and rest,
A jolly old message, his death ends in life
So gather your daughter, your son and your wife.
No matter a girl or a boy, both invited,
An old saint or baby by water united,
The whole group is needed from eldest to least,
For these are the rules from the Lord of the feast!
And neighbors are watching to see who we are,
And why in the bitter cold pile into cars,
With gifts in our pockets to give to our father,
So gather your wives and your sons and your daughters!
And dress royal merry, and rollick in cheer.
For we are together with Christmas still here!
Be servantly smilers, and make them exclaim:
“O, who is their king, and now what is his name?!
“These smiles mean something! What news have they heard?
These gatherings weekly are part of this word!
And see how they love one another this way!
Excited, united, like on Christmas day…
“As if every Sunday they rise from the grave,
they rise with the Sun, and they’re one in their ways,
One body all risen, all living and blessed.
Together they Sing, and they Feast, and they Rest.
“Reminds me of Christmas with Carols and Kids
All up with the sun for the fun that is hid!”
So rush to the manger, and sing, rest and eat!
And take all those babies, their savior to meet.
They greet him with joy and with honor and drool.
He comes as a baby, a poor man, a fool.
But babies stop enemies, voicing his might.
That’s why he made Christmas an infant’s delight.
So open the present in view of your street,
Delight, like a child, your savior to meet.
The joy found in Christmas is not just one date,
but twelve days, all Sundays as we celebrate.
His birth we proclaim on this twelfth Christmas morn; go tell on the mountain that Jesus is born!
Acts 2 at Pentecost provides key verses for interpreting baptism.
THE BAPTISM FIGHT OVER ACTS 2
When credobaptists and paedobaptists contend over the meaning of Acts 2.37-39, the baptists (credobaptists) usually have the easier time in front of the audience because most of us are ready to hear through baptistic ears – doesn’t it say “repent”? And so they posit that a baby cannot turn from idols. The paedobaptist thinks the baby is turned in heart toward God, and that the direction of heart requirement is taken care of. Hasn’t God always been “God to you and to your children”? Isn’t that enough?
The other major argument which works well as a crowd-pleaser in favor of the credobaptist view is the word, “and” connected to the apparent qualifier, “all those who are far off, as many as the Lord our God shall call to himself.” That is, “the promise,” they say, is not for every last one of you-plural, but for as many of you-plural whom the Lord calls. It is not for your children, but for as many of your children as the Lord calls; and it is not for all those far off, but for as many foreigners as the Lord calls.
Isn’t this an obvious and simple use of the distributive property of multiplication?
(A + B + C)(X) = AX + BX + CX
We might ask: if no group is being specified, then why is a listing of groups given at all? (more…)
Jupiter – someone who won’t expedite your prayers.
A friend wrote me a question, and I think the answer might be beneficial to many of us.
Does praying a lot make God more likely to act?
I think the answer to the quantity question raised by “you have not because you ask not,” is that God is not impressed with quantity for the sake of quantity – but that he looks for faithfulness that happens to express itself in many prayers. It is found in the faithfulness to ask about everything that you need. You will either be a person who goes to God, or a person who goes elsewhere with your needs and complaints and desires.
LET’S SEE WHAT JAMES ACTUALLY HAS IN MIND
When James says “you ask not,” he isn’t saying that they are not ever trying to get any needs met by anyone – I believe he is indicting them for asking elsewhere. He indicts them (in 1.8, and 4.8) for “double-mindedness.” Which is a term for idolatry. It is spiritual two-timing. We know this because James 4.8 is referring to a pair of images in Psalm 24.
Please note – I have amended this essay to fix a conflation of passages, a mistake I made in its original publicationa.
Jacob wrestles with Jesus at the gate of the house of God, and he hangs on unceasingly for he sake of goal of the prize of the blessing from his wrestling partner. Jacob vows and follows through: I will not let you go unless you bless me. And after Jacob wins, the defeated Jesus hands over the goods – the blessing Jacob sought. And yet, there is something Jesus would not give him. Jacob asked for his name, which Jesus had not given out yet. Jesus refused. And he also wounded Jacob with a simple touch. We know that Jesus let Jacob win. But within the limits Jesus set, Jacob did win after a long, hard battle.
Jesus tells us to pray this way, like a persistent Jacob – or in Jesus’ parables in Luke – as a persistent widow, and as friend willing to annoy his friend in the middle of the night. We are to knock, as the widow would at the judge’s door. Or we are to pursue our friend in the middle of the night, when he is most likely to relent for the sake of the annoyance. The widow’s great weapon for defeating that judge is, indeed, “persistence.” The friend’s effectiveness is in his annoyance! And all this with a wicked judge, and a bothered, groggy friend. God is not evil or tired, so even better for our labor of persistent annoyance. God is not wicked that he should ignore us, nor is he short fused or sleepy that we should annoy him. But he says the action of prayer will work closely enough to make these analogies our guide. Bother him like he is failing to give you justice, and use annoying repetitiveness as your weapon. He will condescend to be limited, and at some point we will fill up the measure he has set before him, and he will arise and get to work for our benefit.
Of course remember, he NEVER gives out what he doesn’t want to give out, or what we ask for before it is time to get it. So you can’t actually force God to do what you want. But he will let you badger him into doing what he already wants to do. He is just waiting for your voice to rise persistently. He wants a wrestler out of you.
He may also wound you in the process. He wounds to show what power he will use to bless you. He wounds you to remind you that you are not the source of the blessing that he will bring. He wounds to mark you with a persistent reminder of the good God who stooped to the willingness to play a game of uncle, and who let you get your knee between his shoulders before he said “you win.”
Jacob wasn’t stronger than Jesus. He was just more persistent than the limit Jesus set beforehand. He was doing what Jesus wanted him to do.
When man begs at the gate of the friend in the middle of the night, he is doing what Jesus wants him to do.
When the old woman persists in annoying the judge, she is begging and badgering for justice the way Jesus wants her to.
What Jesus will not give us is what he himself does not wish to give us. He will do what he wants to do.
Persistence, repetition, patience, and asking according to the will of God. This is what he wants us to do.
One last note – Common to Jacob and the story of the friend, the wrestling with God is at night. This is a natural time to pray, and many pray when they wake in the mid-night. Jesus’ disciples could not stay awake while he prayed mid-night. But this is also meaningful to our struggles. Struggles always feel like night time, and so we are reminded not to sleep through our troubles, but to see the trouble, the night time as a signal that the friend is in the right situation to be annoyed into action. Instead of thinking, God will do nothing – think, this is exactly when God wants me to bother him into acting. Into doing.
And after we persist, he will let himself be beaten into action, but he will arise to prove himself powerful (and often to prove us weak), and he will act in a way that his strength is displayed.
It isn’t magic we can wield, but it is a prescribed formula we can trust. It is not a formula we can time to know when we will flip the switch. And if we ask for what he does not want, he will say no. But we must learn that often we have not because we wrestle not.
Thanks to Nathan N., my faithful friend for pointing his Nathanic finger and saying “You are the man…who has mixed up two similar passages.” Accordingly, I repent. (back)
Thanks to Nathan N., my faithful friend for pointing his Nathanic finger and saying “You are the man…who has mixed up two similar passages.” Accordingly, I repent.
Proverbs. Kids needum. And they’re ready-built for kid ears.
Here are a few ways that the wisdom of Yhwh appeals to the young and malleable. When the proverbial father says, “Listen my son,” he then proceeds to focus on what is…
STUPID
Kid’s like to call things stupid. Heck… I like to call things stupid too. Especially when I am calling evil “stupid” in front of my kids: Guess who is stupid? Those who hate wisdom and instruction. I mean… idiots, really. (Don’t be offended, friend – This doesn’t have to be you.)
HEROIC
The Lion of Judah wrote words that lionize the spiritually fruitful. Because the wise (those who have the fruit of the Spirit blossoming from their tongues and hands and feet) they are heroes! Everybody wants to be righteous, you know? Everyone who’s anyone wants to respect his father and mother. No one is cooler than a wise man. That guy who saves his money and works hard…awesome!
UNFORGETTABLE IN PICTURES
Prostitutes are ugly and scary…their gaping mouths are graves.
Stolen bread will make your gut a bag of rocks. Then it isn’t so fun to eat anymore.
Fools go eat dinner with zombies sitting in a grave in hell. Oops. Don’t go there.
Robert Louis Stevenson, from Treasure Island
Lustful men light matches on their zippers and then set the flame down on their privy parts. Good idea, eh?
Girls who are beautiful, but not wise, are like jewelry covered in pig-snot. Go fix that.
Lazy people are so afraid to act… because, you know, the monsters out there might get me if I go outside.
CHALLENGING
Do your kids like a treasure hunt? Tell them to find wisdom under every rock. If they hunt it down, they will have rooms full of fine treasures. Tell them nothing is more worthwhile than the treasure hunt. Tell them that when they find it, they should cling to it. Oh, and tell them that the treasure map starts in chapter 1 of Proverbs, where they meet a guardian sphinx. They can answer this dark riddle to pass: Do you fear Yhwh?
But Oooooh to get your hands on a hunk of that TREASURE inside!!!
Teach your treasure hunters to pass the gate, storm the store room, and find some jewel encrusted, shining, golden plate. Show them how to do this, and then ask them to hold it up in the sun so they can recognize the reflection of their own face in it.
Cause that’s what kids like. And since their proverbial father Yhwh, when he made kids and when he made the book of proverbs, knew who he was writing to.
I’m going to tell you that the conquering of the nations will happen within history and is not merely an immediate transformation that will happen after the resurrection of judgment day. That is, I will argue for postmillennialism, but in a roundabout way. I could just tell you to read 1 Corinthians 15 and say that I think that about covers it, but I want to show something very fun I heard while listening to the story of Jacob meeting Rachel this week.
This post is not nearly as long as the last post, but it does have some pieces to set in place. I think it has a nifty payoff as well. I might add, I highly suggest investing zero dollars in a free app called Soundgecko. I prefer to listen to posts – it is easier than reading.
I need to set up the story context in Genesis, set up a note about the liturgical feasts of Israel, and then tie them into the Rachel and her sheep story. And suggest we do a lot of singing to make the world belong to Jesus. Here we go:
BROTHERS, SHEEP, AND DISUNITY
Once upon a time, two shepherds had so many sheep that they could not keep them from strife, so those brothers could not dwell together in unity. This was Abraham and Lot. Brother can mean relative.
“And Lot, who went with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents, 6 so that the land could not support both of them dwelling together; for their possessions were so great that they could not dwell together, 7 and there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram’s livestock and the herdsmen of Lot’s livestock.” (Gen 13.5-7)
Now hold that thought, it will need to be brought back up in a second.
THREE FEASTS
But in the course of time God did a lot of things. Things so big that he wanted them commemorated, and things that he wanted commemorated in anticipation of bigger things to come.
He passed over the sins of his people, while judging those who opposed him.
He passed out his word.
He let the people out of Egypt (taking many Egyptians with them) and allowed them to rest from slavery) taking them into a land of Sabbath Rest.
These are the three feasts of Passover, Weeks (Pentecost), Booths. Feasts which also anticipated the Cross, the coming Holy Spirit, and the in-gathering of the nations.
We know that these three feasts required a gathering of all Israel in Jerusalem every year. The flocks of Israel had to gather before the celebration. And because it meant gathering of God’s people, his sheep, it meant they would spend a week at a time in unity, in cramped quarters, in tents.…celebrating what God’s work had done to the world, and what it would do to the world to come.
And so they sang on the way to these feasts, the Psalms of Ascent (Pss 120-134). They even sang about brothers dwelling in cramped quarters and getting along, because that’s the picture of what salvation does for the world – makes the world a big, tight bundle of goodness, and full of people redeemed:
“Behold how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!.…For there YHWH has commanded the blessing: Life Eternal!” (Ps 133.1,3)
A BASIC PROBLEM RESOLVED ON A SMALL SCALE
What we have seen so far is that one basic problem to sin is that brothers cannot dwell in unity, and sheep flocks are driven apart. Liturgically, God designed to force brothers back into unity and to sing about it on the way to doing it. (This is something God likes to do a lot).
The flock have to be gathered together, and they sing about liking it, and then we see eternal life flowing out from Jerusalem to the world… It’s just the way the story goes.
A BASIC PROBLEM RESOLVED ON A BIG SCALE
We’re all well aware that Jesus did the big work of fixing the world during Passovera. And that he sent out his word as Spirit on Pentecost. These events necessarily took place while all Israel was gathered together in unity. He didn’t do them randomly in a moment of obscurity, but in a congregational setting, when they were together.
And there the Lord was crucified, and there the Lord was buried, and there the Lord rolled the stone out of the way of the tomb, and there the Lord commanded the blessing: Eternal Life! And there the Lord sent them out to get their inheritance of the ingathered nations.
A WEIRDER CONNECTION
Hunker down now for 14 verses from Genesis 29:
Then Jacob went on his journey and came to the land of the people of the east. 2 As he looked, he saw a well in the field, and behold, three flocks of sheep lying beside it, for out of that well the flocks were watered. The stone on the well’s mouth was large, 3 and when all the flocks were gathered there, the shepherds would roll the stone from the mouth of the well and water the sheep, and put the stone back in its place over the mouth of the well.
4 Jacob said to them, “My brothers, where do you come from?” They said, “We are from Haran.” 5 He said to them, “Do you know Laban the son of Nahor?” They said, “We know him.” 6 He said to them, “Is it well with him?” They said, “It is well; and see, Rachel his daughter is coming with the sheep!” 7 He said, “Behold, it is still high day; it is not time for the livestock to be gathered together. Water the sheep and go, pasture them.” 8 But they said, “We cannot until all the flocks are gathered together and the stone is rolled from the mouth of the well; then we water the sheep.”
9 While he was still speaking with them, Rachel came with her father’s sheep, for she was a shepherdess. 10 Now as soon as Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of Laban his mother’s brother, and the sheep of Laban his mother’s brother, Jacob came near and rolled the stone from the well’s mouth and watered the flock of Laban his mother’s brother. 11 Then Jacob kissed Rachel and wept aloud. 12 And Jacob told Rachel that he was her father’s kinsman, and that he was Rebekah’s son, and she ran and told her father.
13 As soon as Laban heard the news about Jacob, his sister’s son, he ran to meet him and embraced him and kissed him and brought him to his house. Jacob told Laban all these things, 14 and Laban said to him, “Surely you are my bone and my flesh!” And he stayed with him a month. (Gen 29.1-14)
END OF BIBLE QUOTE
DID YOU SEE IT?
We are in the same book where Lot and Abraham’s flocks and shepherds could not dwell in unity. And here we have the beginning of the story of when Israel himself is finding the wife (or wives) that will make Israel into many, many sheep, there we learn something about the plan. The shepherds wait for all to be gathered together, and then they roll the stone away, and then water can flow out to the sheep.
Just let it sit there for a bit and run over the imagistic connections for a while.
Of course, Jacob proved to be strong enough to roll the stone away on his own, and to take care of his bride’s many sheep. And we hear about brotherly unity – that bone of bones and flesh of flesh family oneness.
SINGING AND THE FUTURE OF THE WORLD – THE SOLUTION ON THE GRANDEST SCALE
We have a Lord who rolled a stone away and waters his flock weekly when we are gathered together. And he gave us a specific command to gather the nations.
The future of history looks like this (can you believe I am going to give you an outline of the future?):
1 – WORSHIP: The Church will continue the liturgical work of singing about gathering in unity while meeting with the Lord who declares salvation, and who flows out through us.
2 – INGATHERING: The nations will get gathered into the church. All the nations.
3 – FINAL RESURRECTION: The last enemy to be defeated will be death.
4 – ETERNAL CELEBRATION: Jesus will hand us all to his father together with himself as a head, and we will be a giant Trinitarian wedding gift – that bone and flesh kind.
Where do I get this outline? 1 Cor 15. (And Psalm 2 and Psalm 110).
I suggest reading Psalm 2 and 110, and then 1 Corinthians 15 and listening for promise that the Son will win the hand of all nations. That he will crush the heads of all wicked leaders of those nations and will supplant them (like Jacob) and take over their subjects. You can see the same thing in Daniel 7.
The fact that this happens on multiple levels should free us to read very similar statements (Like in Matt 24.14) as being about 70 AD and also applying to the future. This strengthens Postmillennialism and discards any hint of hyperpreterism. Postmill good. Heretical Hyperpreterism bad. We don’t need to choose between ingathering in the first century, and ingathering in the rest of history. Plus, you get to read 1 Corinthians 15 in a way that is natural to the wording in it.
Notice that this needs to happen within history, before “death” is done away with as the LAST enemy, as 1 Cor 15 explicitly says. The timing matters. The whole flock of the earth must be gathered together first, and only then will he roll the stone from our grave. Then we will receive his water for eternity. And we have the pleasure of singing that this is true along the way, until it is true. And it will become true, in part because we sing that it is true.
That is, Passover and Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which was in all an 8 day combination of 4 feasts: 1) PASSOVER always fell on a numbered day of the month, but as such, it was not always on the same day of the week. The next seven days were the 2) FEAST OF UNLEAVENED BREAD. During that 8 day period would be a 3) SABBATH, and the next day would be the 4) FEAST OF FIRSTFRUITS. In the year Jesus was crucified and resurrected, Passover was on Friday, the Sabbath was on Saturday, and the Feast of Firstfruits was Sunday. Crucified on Passover, Raised on Firstfruits. (back)
That is, Passover and Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which was in all an 8 day combination of 4 feasts: 1) PASSOVER always fell on a numbered day of the month, but as such, it was not always on the same day of the week. The next seven days were the 2) FEAST OF UNLEAVENED BREAD. During that 8 day period would be a 3) SABBATH, and the next day would be the 4) FEAST OF FIRSTFRUITS. In the year Jesus was crucified and resurrected, Passover was on Friday, the Sabbath was on Saturday, and the Feast of Firstfruits was Sunday. Crucified on Passover, Raised on Firstfruits.
HOW TO KEEP THE LAW WHEN THERE IS NO LAW: Understanding the Fruit of the Spirit in Context
Moses with the Tablets of the Law – Rembrandt
We live in a time when our governments on all levels are driven by the business of making rules. This is how they make revenue; this is how they justify their existence; this is how large corporate interests maintain their permanence and power — by keeping the right people in a place to keep giving the citizens more regulations. There are so many rules that it is a burden to try to keep up with the rules – apparently now under the ACA, we have minute codicils added for bizarre minutiae: you may have heard that there is a separate insurance code to be entered for being “hit in the head by a turtle.” And not even the regulators seem to be aware of what the new stipulations will do to their own departments. In recent months congressional staffers have started quitting and looking for other jobs because they won’t be able to afford to work for congress anymore once the ACA regulations kick in. They write bad laws, and nobody knows what all the laws say.
Why do we resent such laws? We resent being “mothered” by the state, especially when it seems like “mother who knows best” is really a crook. We call it the Nanny State. Well, this illustrates two things helpful things for us – 1) Law, whether good or bad, acts like a parent or guardian to tell us what to do, and 2) erroneous, tyrannical or overflowing laws are painful burdens.
Perugino, “Moses’s Journey into Egypt and the Circumcision of His Son Eliez” (c 1482).
THE CURRENT SERIES
Is about Paedocommunion, but we are slowly working our way up to it. The first two posts were about the biblical teaching that we expect covenant children normatively to have faith from the womb (Paedofaith). Now we move on to Paedobaptism – by talking about Moses and circumcision. Eventually we will get to Paedocommunion proper.
Israel had been promised an inheritance. A gift from their father. Israel was God’s firstborn son. As the son of the King of the earth, Israel would go out as Prince of the earth, ruling in God’s place – as a messenger, showing forth God’s image, and being a blessing to the world. God had sealed to Israel this promise of blessing all the nations of the earth eventually, but along the way, there would be some who did not treat them well. God would bless their benefactors, and curse their enemies.
I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. (Gen 12.3)
This is a story about one of Israel’s enemies, and about marking the difference in “mine” and “not mine.”
ONCE UPON A TIME GOD TOUCHED SOME BABIES
…who had been brought into his very throne room, into the heart of his holy space – and they – those nursing babes, were sat on God’s lap.
Now God’s holy space has bouncers, deacons, arrow-invested warriors who wait at the breach of the tabernacle and all around to keep the false from coming into the room. These cherubim, as they are sometimes called, are gatekeepers. The flaming sword turning each way to keep the unworthy out.
One cherub said to another, I think someone got into the holy place, someone who was uninvited. Let us guard the holiness of the Lord!
So the cherubim rebuked the intruding babies, and actually, that meant telling off their parents, because the nursing babies, even infants, could not do but what their believing Jewish parents made them do.
HAVE YOU EVER SEEN GOD WHEN HE’S ANGRY?
Sometimes he floods the place. Sometimes he rains sulfur. Sometimes he spews his blasphemous people out into Babylon. By the way, don’t forget to remind me what he almost did to Moses one time and why! Oh, but that can wait.
There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, ‘Mine!’Abraham Kuyper
