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On May 2, 2024 By In Church, Discipleship, Theology, Worship

Angels

While playing prominent roles in history, the nature and function of angels remain mysterious to a great degree. We meet them in the first pages of Scripture. The serpent is an angelic creature (something we learn more about as Scripture unfolds). Cherubim, angels, guard the way to the Tree of Life after the man and woman are expelled. Angels visit Abraham. The angel of Yahweh leads the children of Israel through the Sea and in the wilderness. Cherubim adorn the Tabernacle and Temple. Angels bring messages from God to Daniel (see Dan 10), Zechariah, and Mary (Lk 1). Four-faced angels make up the throne chariot of God, as seen in Ezekiel 1. Angels play a prominent role in the Book of Revelation. Angels are everywhere in history, but we seem to know very little about them.

By carefully examining Scripture, we can begin to unravel the mysteries surrounding angels and gain insights into their significant role in God’s economy.

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On April 4, 2024 By In Theology, Worship

War & Peace

When President Biden declared Easter Sunday “Transgender Visibility Day,” American Christians took to social media platforms to express their outrage at a blatant finger in the eye to Christ and his church. It is not enough that the White House pushes this LGBTQ+ agenda throughout the year, giving an entire month to celebrate these sins that disorder and destroy. Now, they are trying to re-order the Christian calendar, which has set the rhythms of American life from its earliest days. The agenda is clear: we are at war with the Christian faith and want to see its vestiges wiped out of our society. People hate God. They don’t hate the concept of “god.” They don’t hate certain gods. They hate the God who has revealed himself in the Person of Jesus. The one true and living God.

Hatred of God runs deeper than you might think. What the Biden administration did is obvious hostility, but the truth is that hatred of God is endemic to all humans, including you.

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On March 30, 2024 By In Theology, Wisdom, Worship

How God Became King: Where Is God?

Holy Saturday seems to be that day that is lost within all the Holy Week observances. We go through the feast of Maundy Thursday, the solemn vigil of Good Friday, and then we simply wait around for Resurrection Sunday morning. But what happened Saturday? Well, not much. But that is actually the point, and it deserves some attention.

In Matthew’s Gospel, we hear about events that happen in between Friday and Sunday, what, on the church calendar, is called Holy Saturday. We know the end of the story. We anticipate the end of the story. And well we should because Matthew has given us explicit statements of Jesus as well as hints of anticipation throughout his record of Jesus’ life. But all of this occurs in history, which means that it takes time. Sometimes we want to jump over this part and immediately start reading the final chapter. If we do, we miss an important part of the gospel story and the opportunity to understand just a little better how God works.

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On March 29, 2024 By In Theology, Worship

How God Became King: The Death of the Son of Man

On Palm Sunday, Jesus rode into Jerusalem deliberately announcing his kingship. He tells his disciples to go find a certain donkey with her colt and untie them. Garments and palm branches line his way while children cry out to him in prayer and praise for salvation all with Jesus’ approval. Jesus’ statement was bold, to say the least. Through his conscientious actions, he announced his kingship. He knew the crowds gathering for Passover would make these connections as well. Worshipers certainly did. They were calling him the Son of David, God’s Messiah, the one whom Psalm 2 declares will rule the nations with a rod of iron and Psalm 110 says sits at Yahweh’s right hand. The Jewish leaders made the connections as well, especially when he took up his kingly calling to cleanse the Temple.

Jesus is King, and he has come to take back what Adam so willingly handed over to the serpent. The serpent will not give up what was given to him without a fight. That’s alright. Jesus came to fight and win. His war strategy still befuddles the minds of many, but it was and remains effective.

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On March 28, 2024 By In Theology, Worship

How God Became King: Ritualized Love

Jesus commanded his disciples on this night to “love one another as I have loved you.” Jesus gave this command in the context, not only of washing the disciples’ feet, but also in the establishment of the Lord’s Supper (something that John only alludes to).

The Lord’s Supper, anticipating the cross and resurrection, is ritualized love. To say that it is “ritual” doesn’t mean that it is empty, a mere rote repetition of what Jesus commands us to do. God’s rituals, formed by his word, are creative; God’s rituals form us into people he wants us to be through the words and actions that he prescribes. Responding in faith means submitting to the ritual in totality. This includes meditating on what you are doing and seeking to conform your life to the meaning.

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On March 21, 2024 By In Theology, Worship

Palm Sunday: The King. The Healer.

“Would that there were kings in Gondor, as there were once upon a time, they say! For it is said in old lore: The hands of the king are the hands of a healer. And so the rightful king could ever be known” (The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Book 5, Chapter 8, emphasis original). After the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, Faramir, the new steward of Gondor, lay at the point of death and was being grieved by an old wife, Ioreth, the eldest woman in the houses of healing. She longed for a king because kings had the ability to heal. To her surprise, the king arrived. He didn’t have the appearance of a king, but his kingship was revealed in his healing powers.

Some believe Tolkien references Medieval lore that English and French kings had healing powers. Others posit that he is making an apparent reference to the kingship of Jesus. Even if Jesus’ kingship wasn’t at the forefront of Tolkien’s mind, Aragorn’s healing powers as king are an echo of the Great King.

When the blind beggar, Bartimaeus, cries out for healing, he calls out to the Son of David, the king of Israel, to heal him (Mk 10:47). Why would he call for the king of Israel to heal him? Because he knew that the hands of the king were the hands of a healer. Isaiah prophesies that the servant of Yahweh, the king, will heal the land, open the eyes of the blind, and unstop the ears of the deaf (Isa 35:1, 4, 5; see also 42:7). The king is revealed by his healing powers.

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On February 29, 2024 By In Church, Discipleship, Theology, Worship

The Cosmic Church

What is the church? Is it really all that important? If you ask evangelical Christians in America, you will get a variety of responses. In one survey, when evangelicals were asked whether or not every Christian has an obligation to join a local church, thirty-six percent of the respondents said, “Yes,” and fifty-six percent said, “No.” In another survey, a similar fifty-six percent agreed that worshiping alone or with one’s family is a valid substitute for regularly attending the worship of the church. Many professing Christians see the church as a good but non-essential part of the Christian life. The church is an aid to my personal relationship with Jesus, but my participation in the church has little to no bearing on my relationship with God and eternal destiny.

Paul disagrees.

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On February 15, 2024 By In Discipleship, Theology, Wisdom, Worship

The Powerlessness of Fasting

Fasting is on the minds of many Christians around the world at this time because we have entered the season of Lent, a time in the Church Year that, among other things, focuses on Jesus’ forty-day fast in the wilderness. Fasting is encouraged as the church disciples her members to take up their crosses and follow Christ.

Fasting has a long and sometimes muddled history. God has always approved of fasting if it is done within the boundaries and for particular purposes. It can be argued that a form of fasting existed before the fall as God forbade the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil for a time. This pre-fall fast was a practice in patience, praying and waiting for the time God would allow them to eat and move into another stage of glory.

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On January 4, 2024 By In Christmas, Theology, Worship

Star Wars

In C. S. Lewis’s The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, that crabby little modernist, Eustace, seeks to inform Ramandu, a retired star, of what a star is in his world. “In our world,” says Eustace, “a star is a huge ball of flaming gas.” Ramandu replies, “Even in your world, my son, that is not what a star is, but only what it is made of.”

So it is in the story of Scripture. Stars aren’t merely balls of flaming gas that dot the black sky. Stars are rulers and authorities. This is their function from the fourth day of creation. God says that the greater light–the sun–will rule the day and lesser light–the moon and stars–will rule the night (Gen 1:14-18). These lights will judge for the earth, determining festival times and seasons. From this point forward, the lights in the heavens not only ruled these particular times, but they were also symbols of all rulers and authorities in the earth.

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On November 21, 2023 By In Discipleship, Family and Children, Theology, Worship

The Demands of Paedocommunion

One danger of any ritual is thinking it works for blessing standing alone. The water of baptism magically grants eternal salvation apart from faith. The bread and wine of the Lord’s Supper convey blessings no matter how you live outside of the church or if you participate in the worship service. The “sinner’s prayer” saves apart from participation in the body of Christ and without perseverance. No matter the ritual, there are always dangers of isolating them from a full life of faith, treating them as if they are magic spells.

Those of us who have the privilege of practicing full covenant communion (that is, welcoming our baptized children to the Table) are not immune from the danger. Just as some treat baptism as something of a finish line, so some parents and churches treat paedocommunion (child communion) as if eating the bread and drinking the wine of communion are all that matters for the children. They don’t have to participate in the rest of the service. They can be in a nursery or some other room in the building, cutting themselves off entirely from the rest of the congregation, but when it comes time for communion, they expect to be a part.

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