Lectionary for 11/8/08

Today's readings are Jeremiah 20.1-18 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Jer.+20.1-18 ) and Matthew 24.29-51 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Matt.+24.29-51 ).

Let's consider briefly the example Jeremiah gives of the ready and expectant waiting Jesus is talking about in Matthew 24.  Jeremiah has obediently given prophetic words of God's coming judgment.  He has warned people to repent.  He has confronted them with the doom to come, and it is a real threat which everyone can see.  Yet Jeremiah's detractors are intent on slandering him, casting doubt on the truthfulness of his prophetic revelations.  What response does Jeremiah give?  He responds in faith, trusting that the Lord has given his word and will bring it to pass.

How are we to work in this kingdom our Lord has delivered to us?  We are to work in the way he has appointed.  Has he told us to live in faith, believing Jesus has borne our sins to his death and has risen victorious?  Then we are to live in that faith.  What of those who doubt, who say we are living a fool's religion, that we are deluding ourselves?  So be it.  We continue to walk by faith and not by sight.  What of those career aspirations?  What of the desire to have a full garage with an attached house?  If the Lord blesses us with such a lifestyle so be it.  But we walk by faith in the risen savior and consider heavenly treasure to be of the greatest value.  

Lord, may we be found faithful.  Even as we scurry about doing the things this life has thrown at us, let us be faithful to trust in you, living out our hope in the resurrection.  

Lectionary for 11/7/08

Today's readings are Jeremiah 11.1-23 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Jer.+11.1-23 ), Matthew 24.1-28 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Matt.+24.1-28 ) and Jeremiah 12.1-19.15 (http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Jer.+12.1-19.15 ).

Today's post is an article I wrote based on today's reading for inclusion in a homeschool newsletter.

It is not uncommon, especially in a major election season, to talk about the candidates and the state of our government or society using biblical metaphors.  Candidates we like tend to be protrayed almost as Christ figures while those we don't like . . . well, they aren't portrayed as the savior.  And we have seen a lot of that in recent months, weeks, and days.  Either our society will be delivered from destruction or it will most certainly crash and burn, with all but a remnant going "into the fire that never shall be quenched, where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched" (Mark 9.43-44, KVJ).  Not exactly a nice place.

This apocalyptic fervor has been bubbling in my circles, as it may have been in yours.  And to see a prime biblical example of that destruction we have to go no further than Matthew 24, where Jesus talks about the signs of the end of the age, the birth pangs of the end of the world.  I was reading this passage today and considering where the Gospel could be, where the good news might come into this passage.  If we are having birth pains for the end of the world, what is the good news our Lord has given?

In Matthew 24.13-14 we read, "...the one who endures to the end will be saved.  And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world ... " (ESV).  And what is that gospel?  This is the gospel we won't find in our society at large.  We won't learn it from our government officials.  We won't learn it from public programs.  We won't learn it from the international financial community, the banking industry, or any other organization our elected officials claim as foundational to our society.  That gospel is that Christ has died for our sins, the just for the unjust, atoning for sin once and for all by paying our penalty in his body.  Our Lord and Savior himself is the Gospel.  And he is seeing to it that this forgiveness in Christ's name is proclaimed to all the world.

What does this have to do with a home school?  What place does it have in a homeschooling newsletter?  It's intimately connected to what we are doing in our homes every day.  Through distinctively Christian homeschooling we have the opportunity to exalt Christ in our homes every day and in every way, nurturing our children in the true hope of the Gospel of Christ rather than in their own wisdom and goodness.  We have the opportunity to be used by our Lord and Savior to raise up workers for his harvest, people who will enter the broader society and bring Christ and his Gospel to light in their world.  We have the privilege of focusing on the living Savior in everything we say and do throughout the day, rather than sequestering our children from the forthright discussion of the Gospel for hours a day in a government school. 

As we move from a political season into the season of Thanksgiving, then into Advent and Christmas, let's look to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, and return thanks to him.  Let us show that he is welcome in our midst, and let us celebrate the true unadulterated humanity and deity of this Lord, the creator of the Universe, come to us in frail humanity, found as an infant in Bethlehem.  May the Lord bless us in our home schools.  May the Lord use us to minister Christ in our homes.  May the ripples of this ministry be God's tool to change the world, as the Gospel is proclaimed throughout the whole world.

Lectionary for 11/6/08

Today's readings are Jeremiah 8.18-9.12 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Jer.+8.18-9.12 ) and Matthew 23.13-39 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Matt.+23.13-39 ).

In the midst of doom and gloom scenarios, with Jerusalem reaping the rewards for her actions, ready to be exiled, broken down, crushed by the judgment of God implemented through the hands of human invaders, look how Jesus calls out to his people.  In Matthew 23.37-38 look at Jesus' call.  See that we have exactly the kind of savior who would gather those evil murderous people to himself.  See that we have the kind of savior who saves people in need of saving.  This is God's good and perfect will, to save people from the destruction they are creating as a result of their sin.  And see what the response of Jerusalem is.  The people refuse God's mercy.  They refuse to be saved from destruction, preferring to make their own way of salvation.  So our Lord, while weeping for his people, allows them to drive themselves to destruction.

Lord, turn our hearts.  Show us the folly of our sin and your grace poured out upon us through the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord and Savior.  May we believe in your name, in your way of salvation by grace through faith.  May we flee from our old works and be gathered to you.  We thank you that you have gathered a remnant of people, that not all have utterly rejected you. Keep your people by your grace. 

Lectionary for 11/5/08

Today's readings are Jeremiah 7.1-29 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Jer.+7.1-29 ) and Matthew 23.1-12 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Matt.+23.1-12 )

Yesterday the people of the United States elected many new officials, including the president.  An election day always gives us reason to pray and repent.   It's very rare that everyone is completely happy with the person who wins an election.  And we see that the people who are elected are sinners, just like we are.  As we read in Jeremiah today we see that our Lord allows nations to go their own way.  We who are his people may be faithful to his command, believing in his name.  Then again, we are not going to do it perfectly and history shows that we will fail again and again.  What does our Lord do?  He holds his righteousness up as our standard and lets us look around at our political and cultural landscape.  Does this drive us to repentance?  It should.

Regardless of what individuals are in authority in our government, we know the one Lord is in authority over heaven and earth and all that is in them.  Let us trust in the Lord together, using our surroundings as more than ample reason for repentance and trust in the One who is perfect.

Lectionary for 11/4/08

Today's readings are Jeremiah 5.1-19 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Jer.+5.1-19 ) and Matthew 22.23-46 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Matt.+22.23-46 ). 

In today's readings note how our Lord speaks his gracious truth in veiled words.  Even in the words he proclaims about the destruction of Judah there is an undercurrent which brings hope.  See that there will be a remnant saved, though all deserve destruction.   And the Lord saves a remnant in this world to show his glory and his grace.  If it were not for the mercy of the Lord, how we would all have perished.  Yet we see his mercy in every generation, creating faith in him, raising up a people who know that salvation is by grace through faith, not of works.

Let us not boast of our righteousness.  We don't have righteousness which brings anything but condemnation.  Let us not boast of our faith, but rather of the object of our faith.  

Lord have mercy.

Christ have mercy.

Lord have mercy.

Amen.

Lectionary for 11/3/08

Today's readings are Jeremiah 3.6-4.2 (http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Jer.+3.6-4.2 ) and Matthew 22.1-22 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Matt.+22.1-22 ).

In Matthew, Jesus continues the theme of the kingdom of God.  Here we see God as the master of a household who is preparing a wedding for his son.  It takes no serious imagination to think of Jesus the bridegroom and his bride, the Church.

Look again at the theme of rejection and acceptance in God's kingdom.  Who rejects God's call?  Those who were always publicly invited.  And it didn't take the Pharisees long to see Jesus was referring to national Israel, the people of God who have rejected God's call, as we read in Jeremiah 3.  Look how our Lord has populated His Church.  He calls all sorts of people.  Not just the good, not just the noble, not just the upright members of society.  He calls scoundrels, thieves, murderers.  You name the sin, the sinners are called to participate in the wedding feast.  And as we would expect, they are provided with what they need to participate.  For the idea of the wedding garment, picture a child's birthday party.  Everyone is invited, but when you enter you have to put on the party hat your host provides.  Our Lord has given his guests what they need.  Yet someone refuses to wear that righteousness, that imputation of the Holy Spirit.  What happens to that person?  He is cast out.  It is not because his past is more sinful than anyone else's.  It is because he chooses to participate in God's kingdom according to his own will and desires.

Lord, we look to you.  We pray you will take our desires and make them yours.  We pray that when you give us your Word we will receive him with joy.  And even more so, we pray that when we find ourselves in conflict with your will, our desires warring against yours, you will give us repentance and remind us of your forgiveness, which extends even to us.  Grant that we may receive your kingdom and blessings by faith and not strive to depend on our own works.

Lectionary for 11/2/08

Today's readings are Jeremiah 1.1-19 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Jer.+1.1-19 ) and Matthew 21.23-46 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Matt.+21.23-46 ).

I have the honor of proclaiming God's word publicly again this Sunday.  Maybe this sermon will be of use to someone.

 Our Lord has created a  "kingdom on earth."  He calls people to worship and serve him in this earthly life.   And that kingdom, since it belongs to our Lord, is under his authority, his rules, and subject to his will in every way. 

He has provided all we need.  In this parable he plants the vineyard, he fences it, he digs a winepress, he provides for its safety, and he engages laborers.  

 The vineyard, to Jesus' hearers, was a perfectly normal place.  They all knew what a vineyard was, what it needed, and more or less how to take care of it.  In the same way, God has revealed his will to us quite clearly.  In the Scripture we can read all about our Lord's character, his will, his good gifts, and what he requires of us.  We have only to read and understand.  The Scripture is not full of odd mumblings which are understandable only to specially trained prophetic people, mystical geniuses.  God has spoken to us clearly in his written word, and he has revealed himself in these last days in the person of his Son, Jesus Christ.

As with the setting of this parable, where the landowner provides the equipment needed to take care of the vineyard, our Lord has given means of grace to be exercised within his Church.  And in the exercise of those means of grace our Lord and Savior accomplishes something. Does he give the Scripture for nothing?  No, he gives the proclamation of Scripture to create faith in our hearts.  Does he bind people together in fellowship for nothing?  Not at all, he binds people together in fellowship so they can work as divine instruments in each others' lives.  Does he give baptism and communion for nothing?  No, we confess that somehow our Lord uses those sacraments in our lives.  God has given us means of grace, and they are real means of grace.  God is indeed active in the very things we do as we assemble together in his name.

As our Lord has equipped his people with his means of grace, he has appointed his Church to serve him.  We are to be good stewards of what he has given us.  And what has he given us, above all?  He has given us the Gospel of his Son, who died for our sin and was raised for our justification.  He has given us faith in the effectiveness of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ on our behalf.  He calls us to exercise that faith, casting down our human plans, leaving behind our schemes by which we can live an abundant life.  He calls us to trust, merely to trust, which may be the hardest thing in the world for us to do, as we have to stop trying to do something.  But this is the service our Lord has given us.  Do we believe in God the Son?  Do we believe he died for our sin?  Do we believe that he is the sufficient atonemnt for all our sin, past, present, and future?  Whether we believe or not, he has accomplished that atonement.  We no longer have to carry our sin.  We no longer have to strive with sin.  We have only to believe our Lord.  "It is finished," he cries, and it is indeed finished.

Yet as we look at this magnificent Gospel, we need to take a close look at our response to the Gospel.  Our response, the response of the "tenants" our Lord has engaged, has been to reject God's will.  We think what our Lord created and prepared for us actually belongs to us.  We take it as our own.  We try to operate it according to our designs.  We manipulate the Lord's calling so it fits our desires.  He sends us his messengers, in Moses and the prophets, in the form of the Church fathers, in the form of believing church leaders, and we reject their word. We consider that our Lord has been absent since the ascension and that he may as well be dead and gone.  Like the Israelites waiting for Moses to return from Sinai we take matters into our own hands.  We create habits of highly successful Christians, we follow the twelve steps to spiritual maturity, we try to come up with the right prayers, and we decide we have forty days in the absence of Jesus to accomplish in ourselves what the Holy Spirit did through day to day fellowship with Jesus over a three year period in the lives of Jesus' apostles.  We decide the kingdom of God belongs to us and follows our new measures.  We try to be relevant, modern, attractive.  We do violence to our Lord.  We deny the importance of Christ crucified, dead for our sins, and rising again on the third day.  We flee from the thundering judgment of our Lord against sin and thus we have a feeble savior. He isn't able to save anything.  The world didn't really need salvation anyway.

Our Lord will return in judgment against our sinful attitudes and actions.  He will confront us with our sin.  How have we beaten, shamed, and killed the servants he has sent us?  Have we even denied his very Son and put him to death because of our sinful desire to seize God's kingdom for ourselves?  Our Lord has judged the world, and his judgment is righteous.  The whole world is condemned under sin.  And our great sin, to kill God the Son, is the very instrument our Lord uses to atone for our sin.  

Let us look to the Lord.  Let us see the sinful rebellion which we have poured out on him, the pain we have inflicted on him, the death which he died at our hands.  Look to the Lord and hear the words of mercy which he proclaims.  "Father, forgive them.  This is the new covenant in my blood.  I will be with you.  I will never leave you or forsake you.  I am with you always."

In his death, our Lord has brought death to all who believe on him.  He has taken our haughty attitudes, our desire to rule the kingdom in his stead, and has borne the penalty for all of the sin we hold dear.  Our Lord has crushed the kingdom of the tenants.  He has cast out the old man. He has brought the new man to life in his resurrection.  Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is victorious over death, hell and the grave.  He has given that victory to all who believe that he has borne their sin.  And of those who believe he is building a new kingdom, replacing those crushed ruins that we have made through our selfish, sinful bungling.  Indeed we are saved by Christ's righteousness, not by our attempts at righteousness.  We are saved by Christ's righteousness alone.

Let us walk as partakers of Christ's righteousness.  Let us believe in the true Gospel,  that Jesus has condemned death, hell and the grave by his perfect life, death, and resurrection.  Thanks be to God for his wonderful gift! 

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.