Lectionary for 10/31/08

Today's readings are Deuteronomy 32.28-52 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Deut.+32.28-52 ), Matthew 20.17-34 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Matt.+20.17-34 ), and Deuteronomy 33.1-29 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Deut.+33.1-29 ).

As we read today we see God's promises.  Look at his great love as shown in Deuteronomy 32.  See what our Lord is doing?  He is killing his enemies, and not the kind of sorrowful just mercy killing we picture of the sad farmer who shoots his dog after the dog is caught in the hen house.  This is the violent frenzy of a warrior brutally killing man after man in hand to hand combat, sword dripping with gore, garments soaked in blood, furious for more.  So great is the Lord's love for his righteous name.  He will jealously defend his righteousness, utterly destroying all who try to stand against him.

Wait, you say, this isn't God's love!  It's madness!  But it is the requirement of the word God has given.  He is the Lord and there is no other.  Our God does not have rivals.  He alone is the one who created and sustains all things by his word.  He made the world and all that is in it, including all his decrees which he has given to people.  Our responsibility is to keep all his decrees perfectly or we are not his people.  The soul who sins must die.

So where is God's love in all this?  Matthew 20.28 tells us that "the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."  Jesus, that perfect Son of Adam, the true man, has come to ransom us.  He himself has come to receive the wrath of God.  As God defends his righteousness, he pours out his righteous judgment on his own son, rather than on all of sinful humanity.  Jesus Christ becomes our sin bearer.  We are no longer subject to God's wrath, but subject to his love.

For whom does Jesus give his life?  Throughout the New Testament, whenever "many" is stated without a noun it is compared to either "few" or "none."  It is the opposite.  It means "everyone."  Yes, as uncomfortable as we may be with this reality, it is precisely what the Bible says.  All have sinned.  Jesus gave his life to ransom them.  It is finished.  Christ has paid the penalty for my sin, for your sin, for the sins of all who are far off to the thousandth generation.  Nothing we can or will do appropriates the atonement.  It is poured out for us.  We merely hear and believe.  Christ died for your sin.  Believe it.  It is real.

Lectionary for 10/28/08

Today's readings are Deuteronomy 30.1-20 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Deut.+30.1-20 ) and Matthew 19.1-15 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Matt.+19.1-15 ).

We see today in Deuteronomy 30 a call to repentance.  Our Lord has already told us that we are likely to be unfaithful to his commands, that we in fact can expect not to follow his commands and that we can anticipate receiving the penalty that he lays out for lawbreakers.  And we see we are lawbreakers, unfaithful, easily enticed into following false gods and our own desires.  But now see the mercy of our Lord and Savior who calls us to repentance and promises us restoration.  He has put his word in our minds and our hearts.  He has not revealed himself to us in a way we cannot hear and understand.  He has made his mercy and grace accessible to us.  He calls us to repent, and we can do it again and again, whenever we find we are wandering in a foreign land and acting as if our God is not who he is.

What commentary does Jesus make on this issue?  Moses gave divorce because of the hardness of hearts.  He has allowed us to do according to the hardness of our hearts, but it is still a bad thing.  Jesus proclaims forgiveness and restoration as well.  Who may come to him?  Everyone who is of a hard heart or a tender heart may come to Jesus in repentance and faith.  How much repentance do the very little children he welcomes have?  It's hard to say.  Are they welcome to turn to him in faith?  Certainly.  

Lord, grant us the faith of little children to turn to you and to know that you receive us.  Give us your Spirit and enable us to trust that you will cleanse us from all sin.

Lectionary for 10/27/08

Today's readings are Deuteronomy 29.1-29 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Deut.+29.1-29 ) and Matthew 18.21-35 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Matt.+18.21-35 ).

Our Lord addresses us through Moses in Deuteronomy 29, establishing a new covenant.  See how in this covenant God takes the commandments he has given before and adds a very specific individual element.  While Israel remains the people of his covenant and promises, he will place individual blessings and cursings on those who obey or disobey.  The person who turns from his grace and chooses to take his own human glory will be subject to the curse of God.  The individual man is responsible for his own disobedience and will receive the reward of his own guilt.  We have been given mighty signs of God's blessing.  We have had God's word revealed to us.  We have been given God's promise.  And I do say "we" because at this point national Israel also includes proselytes from among the Gentiles.  

Why does our Lord specify this individuality in his blessing and cursing?  He is quite clear about it.  It is so that the other nations will see that the people of God's promise are those who act according to the promise he has revealed to them.  Those who do not act according to the promise of God are rejecting God's promise and are choosing to earn their own rewards.

Today's reading in Matthew shows the fruit of that choice to earn our own reward.  The servant who owes 10,000 talents, enough, incidentally, to equip a fleet of a hundred warships for about eight years, a phenomenal sum of money, is held to account.  He is to pay his debt.  He realizes he is a just debtor to a master he cannot repay.  His response is essentially to confess his inability and to throw himself on the mercy of the master, knowing that it has cost him all his life and freedom.  That servant then attempts to collect a smaller debt.  It is smaller but not inconsequential.  This is a few months' wages.  It is not inconsequential but is something which can reasonably be repaid, though likely not immediately.  Though his debtor acts with the same commitment to repay but here has the added bonus of an ability to repay, the first servant does not act as his master did.  We see how the master rewards the servant according to the servant's attitude, not according to the master's attitude.

Our Lord has given us a promise, an eternal life of blessing.  We have earned his curse.  As we confess that we have earned God's curse he pours out on us his blessing and reminds us of the wrath which his son Jesus Christ incurred on our behalf. As we choose to stand in our own righteousness our Lord allows us to fall before him in our own righteousness, receiving the condemnation we have earned.  Let us confess that our Lord and Savior is good, that his word is right, that he has made us heirs of his promise.  Let us turn to him in confession and faith.  Let us receive the good gifts our Lord has prepared for us, his eternal blessings.

Lectionary for 10/26/08

Today's readings are Deuteronomy 28.1-22 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Deut.+28.1-22 ) and Matthew 18.1-20 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Matt.+18.1-20 ).

Today we see blessings and cursings proclaimed upon Israel based on Israel's obedience or disobedience.  See the righteous requirement of God's Law, the force with which God speaks.  If we are transgressors, if we do not perfectly keep his requirements, we are partakers of the curse.  And we all must confess we are partakers of the curse.  So why don't we see the weight of God's judgment falling upon us?  Why do we not suffer the penalty for our sin?  Look how great our Lord's mercy and forgiveness are.  Look how he has not treated us as our sins deserve.  See our reading in Matthew and look at the kind of shepherd our Lord is, leaving the flock to seek out the stray.

I wonder if we've ever thought about this kind of animal husbandry?  A solo shepherd, without backup, will in fact not leave an intact flock of sheep unprotected to go looking for a stray.  The stray is likely very difficult to find and during the shepherd's absence the rest of the flock is subject to predators, wandering, all manner of dangers.  But what kind of shepherd do we have in Christ?  Just like we see the crazy farmer who plants seeds even where they can't be harvested reasonably, we have the crazy shepherd who goes to seek the sheep that has wandered and placed itself right in the jaws of the hungry wolves.  

We are blessed wherever we are, even though we have not kept our Lord's commands.  Our Lord himself has taken all the punishment for our sin and has left us as the holy nation who obey his word.  He has poured out his blessing on us, becoming the accursed one in our place.  He has rescued us from all evil.

Thanks be to God for his great love.

Lectionary for 10/24/08

Today's readings are Deuteronomy 25.17-26.19 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Deut.+25.17-26.19 ) and Matthew 17.1-13 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Matt.+17.1-13 ).

As we read today we consider the offerings we bring to God.  Let's observe just a few of the many important elements from these passages.

1)  We bring offerings to God remembering his provision for us.

2)  The offerings we bring support people who are serving him in particular ways he has ordained.

3)  We recognize that Jesus is the true firstborn from the dead, raised to new life, the first fruits of the resurrection.  All our giving points to him and his glory.

 

Lectionary for 10/22/08

Today's readings are Deuteronomy 20.1-21 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Deut.+20.1-20 ) and Matthew 15.21-39 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Matt.+15.21-39 ).

In Matthew 15.21-28 we see a microcosm of God's redemptive love.  A Canaanite woman comes to Jesus and asks him to heal her daughter.  Jesus first makes no reply to her whatsoever.  She persists in trying to talk with Jesus, who gives two perfectly reasonable explanations for an unwillingness to heal her daughter.  He was sent to the people of Israel.  They are the chosen people of God.  In the end Jesus does heal her daughter.

What's going on here?  Do we see an example that says our persistence in prayer, our persuasiveness, our unwillingness to let go of God will bring the answer we desire?  Many people will teach that using this passage and the parable of the neighbor who comes late at night asking for food as their texts.  But this is not consistent with the sovereign grace and will of God revealed throughout Scripture.  So what do we do with this?

First, observe that the woman had no real claim on God's mercy.  Our Lord is the God of Israel.  He has never made the kind of claims for the people of Tyre and Sidon that he does for the descendants of Abraham.  There is no reason why the woman would seek out Jesus based on her heritage or his.  

The woman comes to him anyway and is quite forceful and persistent about it.  "Jesus heals other people.  My daughter is as important as they are.  And I'm a good person who comes and asks for his attention!" This begging of our own merit is universally rejected by our Lord.  In effect he says, "Really?  You are worthy of salvation?  You are worthy of forgiveness by the God of creation?  You should be accepted by the one who has no sin and who doesn't allow sin into his presence?  Go ahead, prove it."

We are not going to prove our merit.  Nor does the Canaanite woman.  She cannot prove her merit because she doesn't have merit before God.  None of us does.  It doesn't matter how good we are, how many things we have done with our lives, or how needy we or the people we know might be.  This has no merit before God.

While the woman is persisting in asking Jesus' help she begins humbling herself.  Jesus says that not even dogs, among the least respected animals in the culture, get the provision that is intended for the children.  She has no recourse but to be a child.  And she has tried the fact that she is a caring mother and that her child is in desperate straits.  What does the woman do?

She puts her desires to death, leaves her worthiness and her daughter's plight behind, and realizes that she should have no better treatment than a despised mongrel which would just as easily be cuffed on the ear and sent whining out the door.

How does our pride, our sense of wishing to receive what we deserve or to claim the right to beg on others' behalf interfere with our relationship with the living God?  In the end, like the Canaanite woman, we must die to ourselves and live to Christ.  We realize our sinfulness and that we must die so Christ can live in us.

"O almighty God, merciful Father, I, a poor, miserable sinner, confess to you all my sins and iniquities with which I have ever offended you and justly deserved your punishment now and forever.  But I am heartily sorry for them and sincerely repent of them, and I pray you of your boundless mercy and for the sake of the holy, innocent, bitter sufferings and death of your beloved Son, Jesus Christ, to be gracious and merciful to me, a poor sinful being."

We have been put to death with Christ and are raised with him in newness of life.

Lectionary for 10/20/08

Today's readings are Deuteronomy 19.1-20 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Deut.+19.1-20 ) and Matthew 15.1-20 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Matt.+15.1-20 ).

Over and over again in Scripture we see God's commands - how to live, how to think.  And today we see our Lord's protection for us when despite our best efforts we manage to sin.  The cities of refuge are provided for the protection of those who accidentally harm someone and need to flee from the family's vengeance.  But what about in Matthew 15.19, where we have all sorts of violence coming from within?

Let us rejoice today, knowing that Jesus is our city of refuge, who has given us rest from our sin.  His grace is a mighty flowing river, washing our hearts and minds, purifying them.  May the Lord continue to cleanse our hearts so our lives may bring forth the good fruit he desires.  

Lectionary for 10/19/08

Today's readings are Deuteronomy 18.1-22 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Deut.+18.1-22 ) and Matthew 14.22-36 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Matt.+14.22-36 ).

I have the opportunity to fill the pulpit of a small rural congregation today.  Here's the text of the sermon from Deuteronomy 18.  I pray it may be of encouragement to someone.

Lord, speak through me to this congregation.  I pray that you will take your word and accomplish your purposes through it.  Change your people into your image.  Create faith in our hearts and empower us for life and godliness, in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, amen.

Hear the word of God as recorded in Deuteronomy 18.1-8.

Deuteronomy 18:1 "The Levitical priests, all the tribe of Levi, shall have no portion or inheritance with Israel. They shall eat the Lord's food offerings  as their  inheritance. 2 They shall have no inheritance among their brothers; the Lord is their inheritance, as he promised them. 3 And this shall be the priests' due from the people, from those offering a sacrifice, whether an ox or a sheep: they shall give to the priest the shoulder and the two cheeks and the stomach. 4 The firstfruits of your grain, of your wine and of your oil, and the first fleece of your sheep, you shall give him. 5 For the Lord your God has chosen him out of all your tribes to stand and minister in the name of the Lord, him and his sons for all time.

6 "And if a Levite comes from any of your towns out of all Israel, where he lives—and he may come when he desires —to the place that the Lord will choose, 7 and ministers in the name of the Lord his God, like all his fellow Levites who stand to minister there before the Lord, 8 then he may have equal portions to eat, besides what he receives from the sale of his patrimony. 

1) God has proclaimed that his servants should receive provision for all their needs.

This passage is not talking about the priesthood of all believers.  Let's look at the context and see what kind of people it is talking about.   The Levites were chosen as the tribe of Israel which would serve as the firstfruits offering to God.  They were essentially the national tithe.  They did not normally have inheritances, because the Lord was their inheritance.  God chose them for particular types of service enabling the Israelites in their worship.  Among the Levites were the descendants of Aaron, who were the priests.  But there were many other Levites who were not the priests.  They were more or less ancillary servants of God, who assisted the priests in every way necessary.  But unlike the average person, their lives were distinct due to their being supported by the offerings of the people and the fact that their inheritance was from the Lord rather than from property held by their parents.

What is our Lord's attitude about the Levites?

1)  They should be welcomed to minister to the people.

2)  They should receive provision for their needs.

3)  They are chosen by God to enable his people in their worship.

Is there a modern parallel within the body of Christ for the Levite in the time of Moses?  Yes.  These would be the elders leading your congregation, those serving before the Lord our Great High Priest, proclaiming Scripture to you and enabling you in your worship, whether ruling elders or teaching elders.  These are the people who watch over you.  They pray for you, encourage you, and seek to understand the Scripture well so as to bring Christ and his answers to you.  They have a high calling.

What is our attitude about these leaders in the body of Christ?  All too often we take these servants of Christ for granted.  We ask for their prayers, their counsel, their  admonition, then we harden our hearts before our Lord and refuse to bow to the admonition our elders bring, we refuse to heed their wise counsel, thus giving them reason to admonish us further,  we harden ourselves even to the conviction of the Holy Spirit.  We are a stubborn and rebellious people, just like the people of Israel.  We sing the praises of our shepherds and we refuse to heed their word.  We make trouble for our leaders.   We think they should always be present for us in the hard times but we neglect their care in the good times, making the hard times even harder.  We withhold their due from them out of self-serving greed while we claim poverty, a desire to avoid exalting human leaders, even a need to be more involved in this mission or that charity.  Rather than providing for God's servants freely and with a willing heart we close our hearts, our lives, our bank accounts.  We do not appreciate what the Lord appreciates.  We deny his appointment of provision for his servants and make them go out to beg or glean fields.  Surely we take what God has called good and call it an evil burden.  This ought not to be so.  Our Lord has provided for our need.  He has brought us his undershepherds.  They are a gift from him to equip the saints for the work of ministry (Eph. 4.12).  Let us not reject God's gifts.  Let us rather receive this precious gift.

Under the leadership God has provided for us, we move on to our next point today.  Hear the word of God as recorded in Deuteronomy 18.9-14.

Deuteronomy 18.9 "When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. 10 There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering,  anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer 11 or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, 12 for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord. And because of these abominations the Lord your God is driving them out before you. 13 You shall be blameless before the Lord your God, 14 for these nations, which you are about to dispossess, listen to fortune-tellers and to diviners. But as for you, the Lord your God has not allowed you to do this.

2)  God's people bring a biblical faith into the walks of life he has given them.

Most of us would read this passage from Deuteronomy 18.9-14 and deny the kind of "abominable practices" Moses mentions.  Though watching network news sometimes seems rather like consulting mediums or fortune-tellers, really relatively few people, and especially very few people who genuinely would call themselves biblical Christians seek out this kind of spiritism.  But let's look a little bit below the surface.  Listen to verse 9 again.  "You shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations."  What are the practices and priorities of our nation?  Granted, some of them are downright biblical and good.  Well enough, we want to practice those things which are biblical and good.  But looking at the end of verse 13, what has the Lord not allowed us to do?  Do we support those things?  What do we find scintillating?  What kind of sin tickles your fancy?  I'll wait a moment.  You're supposed to be honest with yourself.  A while ago we had some time for repentance and forgiveness.  Did we manage to skip over something?  We all have sin we cling to.  And many times we see that our sin is sin which our community thinks is quite all right.  Which one of those ten commandments do we violate first thing in the day when we wake up?  What do we honor and serve rather than the true and living God? 

God's people bring a genuine biblical faith into their communities.  While the people we work with, volunteer with, go to the ball park with, and pick up trash by the road with may not have a problem with the sin that besets us, they were never made our moral standard.  God did not give the unbelieving nations to proclaim Scripture and confront sin.  Who did he give to do that?  We're back to point one again.  God has given us leaders in his church who proclaim Scripture, who confront sin, and who proclaim God's forgiveness again from Scripture.  We do not live under the moral code of our nation, whether it be Constitution Party, Democrat, Green, Libertarian, or Republican (note the alphabetical order and forgive me if I left out your flavor of choice).  We bring a genuine biblical faith wherever we go.  We are the people God is equipping "for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes" (Eph. 4.12-14, ESV).    That's what we are.  It's in the nature of the believer.  And our Lord has not left us without help.  We realize we need help.  So do our leaders.  What will we do?  We must look to God's provision, not our human cunning.

 

Now hear the Word of God as recorded in Deuteronomy 18.15-22.

Deuteronomy 18.15 "The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen— 16 just as you desired of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, 'Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.' 17 And the Lord said to me, 'They are right in what they have spoken. 18 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. 19 And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him. 20 But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or  who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.' 21 And if you say in your heart, 'How may we know the word that the Lord has not spoken?'— 22 when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him.

3)  God raises up a prophet like Moses (but greater).

We are easily deceived.  We are quick to listen to the prophets who speak falsehood, whose message is not the message our Lord has given us for our life and for our good.  And we see that those words of the false prophets are not God's words.  They are not steadfast and sure. They are not eternal.  They are inferior building materials being stacked higgledy-piggledy, sometimes on the foundation of Christ and sometimes on no foundation at all.  But we try to identify truth and falsehood in those people we hear, in the books we read, in the conversations we have.

All our leaders, though the Lord has appointed them for us, are sinful men.  We all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.  If we were to be justified by our works we would be hopeless indeed.  If we were to speak only truth we would need to have our mouths stopped forever, for even in reading Scripture we use it wrongly, as Satan did in the temptation of Christ.   There is only one Man, the Man of God's own choosing, the Lord our mighty fortress, the Lord of Hosts, God with us, who speaks rightly.  He is the prophet God has raised up who sees God face to face and who speaks his words.    We need to hear from this prophet, Christ the Lord.

Verses 18-19 serve as the climax of God's command here.  "And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him.  And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him." The Father has given to the Son the words of life.  He speaks them to all to whom the Father has commanded.  And he speaks them to us here today.  He speaks them in the words of Scripture which we have read.  He speaks them in the Gospel which is proclaimed, the forgiveness of sins in the name of and for the sake of Christ.  See the frightful statement God makes.  If we do not listen to his words he will require his comands from us.  And what has God just commanded us?  Many things, things we do not and can not accomplish.  We stand condemned.  Our Lord has spoken.  We can hear and believe his words of forgiveness or we can try to work out forgiveness ourselves, with our own human cunning, with our deceitful schemes, creating new winds of doctrine.

Let us not leave off there.  Let us turn to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  We confess that Jesus, fully man and fully God, unconfused in his natures, lived a sinless life in his human nature on our behalf, then took our sins upon us and paid the penalty for them all.  Having lived in our place he also died in our place.  He received the condemnation of the Father for our sin and was raised to newness of life.  He was raised from the dead to be the firstfruits of the resurrection, the firstborn among many brothers, and will make us who believe to be brothers with him.  Jesus Christ speaks the words of forgiveness, saying on the cross that it is accomplished, that the penalty for sin has been paid in his body, and that he is in fact the resurrection and the life.  Put to death for our sins, he is raised for our justification, and is able to redeem both soul and body for eternity.  This is our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!  We stand forgiven because he has proclaimed us forgiven.  We do not have to prove our faith.  We do not have to earn righteousness before his throne.  We have nothing but our filthy rags to stand in, but our Lord has placed a royal robe of his righteousness on us.  And we receive it as we hear and receive his words, words of forgiveness.

Lectionary for 10/15/08

Today's readings are Deuteronomy 13.1-18 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Deut.+13.1-18 ) and Matthew 13.1-23 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Matt.+13.1-23 ).

The Lord your God is one.  He is a jealous God, guarding his people against all sorts of evil, not sharing power, authority, or glory with anyone else.  On the other hand, we are an unstable people.  And there are teachers, popular teachers, in our world today who would try to draw God's people away from him.  Some of them even have the audacity to do it claiming the name of Christian.  Our reading today in Deuteronomy points to this very situation.  What do we do when someone makes prophetic statements, they come to pass, and then claims someone other than the true and living God?  We are to reject that person out of hand.  What is our proper response even if that false teacher is our friend, neighbor, or family member?  Reject him out of hand.  Protect God's people from evil.  What do we do when someone comes in the name of our Lord and perverts his gospel, making it something about man earning a righteousness before God?  Reject him out of hand.  Our world is full of people reinventing Christianity, "doing" church a whole new way, looking at the journey and not the destination, looking for a conversation rather than the one who has revealed himself in his inspired word.  After having the secret revealed to us, after praying like one person or another, after walking through a forty day exploratory journey in radical Christianity, what are we to do on day 41? Do we go to a shack and look for our heavenly mother? Or is that just another conversation?  In a world where everything must change truly we are driven and tossed like the waves of the sea.  We are an evil people, unstable in all our ways.  But the Lord is one.

Jesus points to our sinful attitudes in Matthew 13.10-17.  We have deceived ourselves.  Saying we want to know the truth we have closed our eyes tightly, covered our eyes, and plugged our ears.  We affirm we want to know the truth and we do everything we can to avoid it.  How God mourns when he looks at his people who try to be as far as possible from him while claiming his name.

Thanks be to God, he has sown his Gospel in this world.  Look at the parable of the sower, the seed, the soils.  Find a place where the Gospel is not planted.  Find a place where the Gospel is not active.  Find a place where the mighty Word of God doesn't accomplish his purpose.  That is the place where the soil and its accessories choke it.  And even there it is implanted and grows.  Even the birds as they take the seed away from the hard ground spread it to other places.  God's word is living and active.  He is powerful.  He accomplishes his will.

Why do we flee?  We are sinners in need of a savior.  Sin has blinded us (and we have cooperated) to our need for repentance and forgiveness.  Yet our Lord calls us to repent and be forgiven anyway.  Let us cling to the true Gospel which our Lord has given us, not the latest fads or fancies.  The proof isn't in the results any more than it was in the time of Moses.  The proof is in the Lord we claim. 

This is one of the reasons I have found it so helpful lately to confess the Apostles' Creed frequently.  Remember just what kind of Lord we have.

I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.  

And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried.  He descended into hell.  The third day He rose again from the dead.  He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty.  From thence He will come to judge the living and the dead.  

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.  Amen.

Lectionary for 10/14/08

Today's readings are Deuteronomy 12.13-32 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Deut.+12.13-32 ) and Matthew 12.38-50 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Matt.+12.38-50 ).

In today's reading God draws distinctions between his people and those who are not his people.  We see the priorities of the unbelievers set over against the priorities of the believers.  And one of the primary marks of God's people is that they care for one another. See how the sacrificial system was a means of feeding the Levites who were consecrated for God's service.  The people of Israel were welcome to eat their food wherever they wanted to but they were commanded to bring certain things and not only give them to the Levites but also to eat with them.  What is our motivation in creating fellowship and support within the body of Christ?  Jesus tells us in the last few verses of our Matthew 12 reading.  Christians are his own family.

May we gather together with other believers today, sitting at your table, Lord, the table you have spread for us, rejoicing in you, our head.

Lectionary for 10/12/08

Today's readings are Deuteronomy 11.26-12.12 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Deut.+11.26-12.12 ) and Matthew 12.22-37 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Matt.+12.22-37 ).

We know the tree by its fruit.  A man speaks from the heart.  And our speech, including nonverbal speech, our actions, serves as evidence to justify or condemn us.  Here in Matthew 12.33-37 Jesus confronts us with our evil.  For what have we done or said which does not have a self-serving motive underlying it?  What have we done which is pure in the sight of our Lord?  One man I have heard on the radio challenges people to take a blank sheet of paper and a pencil.  They are to spend ten minutes writing down the most recent things they have done entirely with a right and unmixed motive, and which they would have done even if no person, including the person of God himself, were watching.  By the end of ten minutes, the sheet of paper should be blank and the person should have several things to pray about.

All our actions are rooted in the attitude of our heart.  And our heart is deceitful, sinful.  Knowing what our Lord has commanded, knowing what he has made the world to be like, we follow the way of sin instead.  We try to protect ourselves.  We seek our own glory and good.  We will do whatever it takes to come out with a result pleasing to us, though we won't do whatever it takes to be pleasing to God.  We are sinful and we act like it.  The tree is known by its fruit.

There is another tree we look to today, and that is the tree on which Christ our Savior died to show himself the victor of sin, over death, over our hearts.  And that tree is known by its fruit as well.  What is the fruit of Christ's tree?  It is a mighty river of grace, flowing through this world, washing our hearts, feeding them with his grace.  It is a river of the love of Christ, which resulted in his body being broken and his blood being shed for us.  This is the true tree of life, the fruit of which we are now commanded to eat.

May the Lord change our hearts, creating the good fruit, the fruit of the Spirit in our lives.

 

Lectionary for 10/10/08

Today's readings are Deuteronomy 9.1-22 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Deut.+9.1-22 ) and Matthew 11.1-19 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Matt.+11.1-19 ). 

Our Lord, we confess we are a stubborn people.  We are quick to defend ourselves.  We are quick to see our own wisdom.  We are quick to make our plans which lead to our own self gratification.  We are sold to momentary pleasure and not to eternal truth.  We are unstable and changeable in all our ways.  We are quick to anger, slow to forgive, and abounding in selfishness.  Hearing your Word we do not receive it because in our inmost being we think we are wiser than you.

We thank you that you came and took on humanity but without sin.  Thank you for showing yourself a a companion of tax collectors and sinners such as us.  Thank you for being the Lord who gives sight, soundness, cleansing, hearing, true life, and the good news of your kingdom.  As you grant us repentance, proclaim your forgiveness and the adoption you have prepared for us through your perfect life, death, and resurrection in our place.

Amen.

Lectionary for 10/9/08

Today's readings are  Deuteronomy 8.1-20 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Deut.+8.1-20 ) and Matthew 10.24-42 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Matt.+10.24-42 ).

Moses continues to address the Israelites in Deuteronomy 8.  And he points out what we all need to hear.  The Lord our God works good.  He brings his people into the land of promise.  He provides what they need.  All that we have, our houses, our fabulous kitchens, our wardrobe, our food - it all comes from our Lord.  It is not ultimately what we have provided but what God has provided. He showed that in a miraculous way among the Israelites who went for forty years without their clothes wearing out.  But he shows it to the rest of us on a daily basis in less dramatic ways.

What does Jesus say about that?  He says everything we need comes from the heavenly father.  Our Lord is concerned about all we need.  He knows our need and he knows exactly how he is going to provide for our need.

God's provision for his people is not according to man's wisdom.  He didn't keep the Israelites in shoes for forty years in the wilderness by providing shoe stores.  He didn't use any means which made sense to the Israelites.  He simply took care of them.  Likewise, our Lord and Savior has come in the flesh, taking on the nature of a human but not a fallen human.  He told people to follow him, to believe him, and then he conquered death by dying in a painful and degrading way.  In man's wisdom we try to cling to this life and the things of this life.  In God's wisdom we go willingly to our death, following Christ, knowing that he will continue to provide everything we need.  And our Lord has risen from the dead.  Surely he will bring his people to the realization of their eternal provision through resurrection.  What do we have to fear?  Only that we will try to do all we need on our own terms, rather than on God's terms.

Let us rejoice in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who has risen from the dead.  He will surely put our mortal bodies to death and raise us again to newness of life.

Lectionary for 10/08/08

Today's readings are Deuteronomy 7.1-19 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Deut.+7.1-19 ) and Matthew 10.1-23 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Matt.+10.1-23 ).

God has chosen his people.  There is no doubt about that from Scripture.  We did not choose him but he chose us.  And he has chosen to use his people in ways that go far beyond their understanding or ability.  Indeed, salvation is of the Lord, as is all the Christian walk which follows.  All our steps are ordained of God.  He knew every one of them before we were born.

Today's reading is one of encouragement.  God's people, walking in faith, do all sorts of marvelous things.  They overcome nations which are mightier than they.  They are blessed with food, children, and housing.  They are protected from all harm, at least all ultimate harm.  Even though they may die in battle and persecution God's people know their destiny and their Father's hand of protection upon them.  They find they can accomplish whatever their Lord and Savior sends them to do, even if it includes raising the dead.  They can bless people by their presence and proclaim God's curse on those who do not listen to his word.  And all that God's people do they do in hope of the coming of the Son of Man.

These are amazing promises.  In fact, each one of us can look at what God says his followers will do and we can all deny that we would be able to do it.  But our Lord says in a very matter-of-fact way that he will bring all this to happen according to his divine choice, not according to our will.  Surely we are the ones who are incapable but our Lord and Savior is able to do all things.

Let us turn to our Lord in trust today with a living hope in his promises and his ability to bring them about.  What kind of struggles are we going to face today?  What life stresses will come upon us?  Are any of those able to separate God's people from his divine power?  Not at all.  We can put all our confidence in our Lord's ability and desire to accomplish his will in and through us.

Lectionary for 10/7/08

Today's readings are Deuteronomy 6.10-25 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Deut.+6.10-25 ) and Matthew 9.18-38 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Matt.+9.18-38 ).

When we don't know what to say or do, why not pray?  Bible quotations are from Deuteronomy 6 in the ESV.

10 "And when the Lord your God brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you—with great and good cities that you did not build, 11 and houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant—and when you eat and are full,"

Lord, we thank you for your deliverance.  Thank you for making a promise and keeping it, a promise to redeem a people to yourself, to save and deliver your people.  Thank you for preparing a home for your people, a home in your presence.  Thank you for reminding us that we cannot earn our salvation in any way but that we depend on what you have done.  We do not build the house, we do not provide the goods, we do not collect the sustenance, yet we are filled with all we need.

 12 "then take care lest you forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery."

Thank you for your deliverance.  While we were yet bound to sin Christ died for us.  While we were yet offensive to you our Savior came to die in our place, to conquer death, hell, and the grave by going through them on our behalf.  Thank you for removing us from the death sentence proclaimed to Adam and for redeeming us into the new Adam.

 13 "It is the Lord your God you shall fear. Him you shall serve and by his name you shall swear. 14 You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are around you— 15 for the Lord your God in your midst is a jealous God—lest the anger of the Lord your God be kindled against you, and he destroy you from off the face of the earth."

Lord, how quickly we bring shame to you.  How quickly we reject the claim that you are the one true and mighty God.  Thank you for proclaiming your might and your jealousy.  Our rejection of you day after day earns nothing but your wrath, poured out on your own son.  We confess that we are quick to pursue other gods.  We are quick to place our ideas, our values, our desires on the throne.  Turn our hearts and bind them to you.  Create faithfulness in us.

16 "You shall not put the Lord your God to the test, as you tested him at Massah. 17 You shall diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God, and his testimonies and his statutes, which he has commanded you. 18 And you shall do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord, that it may go well with you, and that you may go in and take possession of the good land that the Lord swore to give to your fathers 19 by thrusting out all your enemies from before you, as the Lord has promised."

As we see your commands how much more do we see our sin.  Yet we see also that you have provided a Savior who has kept the demands of your Law perfectly on our behalf.  Lord, give us a desire to pursue righteousness.  And we pray that you will draw us along in this Christian walk, that we will make our feeble efforts at obedience and that when we fall we will turn to you in love and trust.  We thank you for making Christ our forerunner, entering into the good land you have given to us.  And we thank you that he will bring us into that heavenly realm as the children adopted by your good pleasure.

20 "When your son asks you in time to come, 'What is the meaning of the testimonies and the statutes and the rules that the Lord our God has commanded you?' 21 then you shall say to your son, 'We were Pharaoh's slaves in Egypt. And the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand.22 And the Lord showed signs and wonders, great and grievous, against Egypt and against Pharaoh and all his household, before our eyes. 23 And he brought us out from there, that he might bring us in and give us the land that he swore to give to our fathers. 24 And the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as we are this day. 25 And it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to do all this commandment before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us.'

Lord, let us trust in you and proclaim your name to future generations.  Salvation is of the Lord, Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Lectionary for 10/6/08

Today's readings are Deuteronomy 5.22-6.9 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Deut.+5.22-6.9 ) and Matthew 9.1-17 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Matt.+9.1-17 ).

 

See today how God's word is transmitted to people.  Because of sin's work separating man from God, because of mankind's quite correct fear of hearing from God in person, our Lord has used mediators to receive his word and pass it on to man.  He mediated the message of the ten commandments through Moses, but then the people of Israel are to pass them on to future generations, father to son.  We have a responsibility to pass God's commands to the next generation as well as to those in our own generation.

 

See that this passing on of God's word is not dependent on the willingness of the future generation to receive it.  Our obligation is to be sure that we live by God's word and that we pass it on whenever we are able.  And being God's word it is right and good.  We can trust that God has spoken truly.

 

Lord, let us depend on your word.  Thank you that you were willing to bring your word through a mediator when we were covered with sin and feared you.  Thank you for our Lord and Savior being the mediator between God and man.  May we receive and transmit the true and living Word, Jesus Christ, to future generations.  May we trust and depend on you.