Relax! You Aren't That Important.

Readings

1. Old Testament: Leviticus 16:20-34

2. Psalm 62

3. Gospel: Matt. 6:7-15

4. New Testament: 1 Thess. 5:1-11

Devotional
In strange times like this, it is totally understandable that people would talk about the end of the world. Things are so new, different, scary, uncertain... there is a sense in which it is the end of A world, at least for awhile. Our old worlds have shrunk considerably, to the house we live in and the people we live with. And we start to realize that even that house, even those people and our relationships with them, only really fit together in the context of a world where we didn't have to be there all the time. So I understand the suspicion that its the end of the world. 

You are important to God, and he loves you and knows you better than you know yourself. But. But. But part of the reason we move from "my life is changing dramatically" to "its the end of the world" is because we overestimate our importance to the world, and to God's actions within it. And we are inclined to think then that God's care for us is only expressed in the circumstances of this world. 

So many of our readings today encourage us to take a deep breath and relax: because we are just not that important. God's plans and purposes are accomplished in history despite the constant "ending of the world." His care and concern for you is not contingent on this iteration of the world lasting forever (Psalm 62:2). Being oppressed in this world doesn't change his love for you (62:10); riches have nothing to do with it. "People of low degree are just a breath, and men of high degree are a lie. They are together lighter than a breath." (WOW).

So we do what 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 encourages us to do. We keep calm, and live sober, steadfast, holy lives. Because God cares for us and loves us... His World is not ending, even when this version of it seems like it is.

Hymn
A Mighty Fortress is Our God

Prayer
Pray Psalm 61 aloud.

Jesus: An Actual King?

Margaret Wilson, A Wigtown Martyr

Readings

1. Old Testament: Leviticus 16:1-19

2. Psalm 57

3. Gospel: Matt. 6:1-6

4. New Testament: 1 Thess. 4:13-18

Devotional
Leviticus 16, at first glance, could hardly seem less relevant to the modern church. Blood sacrifices, empty thrones, burning incense... weird, amirite? Until we consider the fact that what is being described in the Tent of Meeting is just that- the place on Earth where God came down to meet with his people as their king. To sit on his throne, the throne of mercy. To rule his nation, his people. We think of Christianity as a philosophy (something to think) or a moral code (something to do). And Christianity certainly provides those things. But to be a Christian isn't to think something or do something... its to be a citizen of a different kingdom. Kingdoms have Kings, and Jesus is ours. And sometimes in modern life, this insight is lost. We think of ourselves as citizens of America, in which we are Christians. But most Christians throughout history have reversed that order: they thought of themselves as citizens of the Kingdom, incidentally living wherever they are. 

On this day in history, 1685, an 18 year old woman named Margaret Wilson was tied to a stake in a tidal river in Wigtown Scotland and drowned when the tide came in. Her crime? She was a Covenanter- someone who swore that they would accept no king over the church except Jesus Christ himself. You can read more about the Covenanters (who are in our heritage) here. We would not agree with everything a Scottish Covenanter believed. But their refusal to accept earthly kingship over the church led them to positions which (at the time) were extremely countercultural, but in retrospect were... holy. Covenanters opposed slavery on biblical grounds, for instance, from the time they came to America. They marched to a quirky rhythm, and endured persecution for it, because they were convinced that Jesus was their political authority, and they were determined to bring that it into physical existence. 

It is difficult to imagine this sort of conviction today. And we aren't often sure how to apply it. But the martyrdom of Margaret Wilson invites us to at least ask the question- what does it mean, really mean, for us to have Jesus as King- not just over our interior lives, or our ethics... but over our world?

Hymn
The Lord is King

Prayer
Almighty God, whom truly to know is everlasting life: Grant
us so perfectly to know your Son Jesus Christ to be the way,
the truth, and the life, that we may steadfastly follow his
steps in the way that leads to eternal life; through Jesus Christ
your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity
of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Anger, Sadness, Hope and Race

Readings

1. Old Testament: Exodus 34: 18-35

2. Psalm 40

3. Gospel: Matt. 5: 27-37

4. New Testament: 1 Thess. 3:1-13

Devotional
If your Newsfeed is anything like mine, then the seemingly impossible has happened: something has replaced coronavirus as the most-talked about thing on the Internet. I'm referring, of course, to news of the killing of Ahmaud Arbery, whose death at the hands of two white men in Brunswick has reignited our national conversation about race and racism

I don't know about you, but the emotions I have experienced watching the Arbery story unfold have swung from shock, to exhaustion, to despair, to cynicism, to anger, to sadness (with many steps and regressions in between). "This happened again? Another one of these killings in 2020?" And to rescue us from our uncertainty, here come all the old arguments again: systems vs. individuals, race vs. class, reactions vs. "wait for the evidence"... and to top it off, the feeling that this story requires something, some action from me. And so will the one after that, after that, after that... on into infinity. And somehow, there is the sense that most actions I can take are really performative for the sake of the Internet and building my power and following there, and that nothing I can do will really change things, will ever really matter. It feels like the Internet is a billion people banging our collective heads against the wall going "Its 2020, how can this sort of thing happen?" every three or four days... and yet racial strife remains.

The Bible will not let us sit out conversations about race. From the promise of Abraham in Genesis 12 to the redemption of the nations in Revelation 21-22, God is passionately committed to seeing all mankind united in harmony under His rule. The question is this: how is He going to do it? And what does it look like for us to participate? 

Psalm 40 brings us answers, as God's News intersects with our news. It calls us to honesty, participation, humility, and hope.

The Situation: The Psalmist is in a pit, a hole of despair (v. 1). We don't know why for the Psalmist, but the past few days have demonstrated that we know what that feels like, even today. Apparently human nature doesn't change, regardless of the year. 

The Response: The first thing the Psalmist does is cry (v. 1). This might seem pointless, but truly grieving what we have lost frees us from desperate attempts to get back what is gone forever. Some of us avoid grief by arguing and anger; some of us avoid it by despair. The Psalmist does neither. He cries. Have you allowed yourself to feel anything? Have you listened to others who feel deeply?

The Remembering: The Psalmist remembers the ways in which the Lord has saved in the past (2-6). This remembering frees the writer from the despair of the present. The Newsfeed isn't forever; God's mercy is. How has God sustained you and us as a people thus far?

The Reaction: But this remembering also compels faithful action in the present (7-11). It does not minimize the pain of the present, but empowers us to move into the pain of the present with hope. If God has not been faithful to sustain us in the past, then the best we can hope for is to gain safety by our own power in the present. This is the ethic of despair. But if God has been faithful to us, then we move into the present fearing neither man as individual nor men as system. Instead, we will do justice and love mercy and walk humbly with God. We will be righteous, come what may. Do you take your cues for response from God's Word?

The Recognition: When racism comes up in America, different groups emphasize different things. As a generalization (and here we go where angels fear to tread!) conservatives and many white people (including myself) are inclined to emphasize the individual nature of racism: it exists in the hearts of individuals. Liberals and many people of color emphasize the way that our systems themselves are racist. The Bible, sitting as it does in judgement over our discourse just like it does over everyone, refuses to submit to this false dichotomy. In the turning point of the Psalm, the Psalmist writes of sinfulness in the heart of individuals IN THE SAME VERSE as he writes about the evils which are so far beyond the scope of individuals that they threaten to overwhelm the writer. They are systemic, and experienced as such (v. 12). To live faithfully is to be at war with both our own hearts and the evil systems in which we exist. There is no sitting it out. And God's salvation must be accomplished both in our own hearts and in the systems in which we exist, or it is no salvation at all. Which of these biblical emphases are you inclined to dismiss or emphasize?

The Religion: If sinfulness is in the hearts AND systems of man, then the Psalmist knows something that we as Americans have forgotten: that our faithfulness will not be enough to transform the world. We need deliverance. The rest of the Psalm (v. 13-17) express the Psalmist's desire that God would deliver his people again. What if the exhaustion we feel at being unable to build a system that doesn't oppress is a sign that human beings cannot build that system? What if our exhaustion and despair could be, in some way, holy? What if our problem is that we haven't yet despaired of our own perfection, and turned to God and waited upon him? What if despairing of our own perfection would free us to care about what we could, and release what we couldn't to God's redemption? What if despair is the antidote to despair?

Summary: Step 1 is lament our tragedy. Step 2 is remember that God has been good: now is not forever. Step 3 is to react in righteousness. Step 4 is to recognize the individual and systemic contexts of sin. Step 5 is to get religion: turn to God for deliverance.

May God grant us peace, zeal, strength, empathy, courage and love for one another and our Lord Jesus Christ, who has bound us in love for him together with one another.

Hymn
The Lord is King

Prayer
Almighty God, whom truly to know is everlasting life: Grant
us so perfectly to know your Son Jesus Christ to be the way,
the truth, and the life, that we may steadfastly follow his
steps in the way that leads to eternal life; through Jesus Christ
your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity
of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Who Am I?

Readings

1. Old Testament: Exodus 34:1-17

2. Psalm 60

3. Gospel: Matt. 5:21-26

4. New Testament: 1 Thess. 2:13-20

Devotional
“Tell me about yourself.”  It’s a request you’ve answered at some point in your life before.  Maybe on a first date.  Perhaps a job interview.  Maybe a time you arrived in a new city filled with new people.  It’s one thing when people describe who they think you are, but something about the way you describe yourself gets right to the heart of what you think is most important for people to know about you.  It’s a revealing question to answer because it reveals what we find most essential for someone to know who we truly are.

At this point in the book of Exodus, the Israelites have been through a lot.  God has rescued them from the hands of the Egyptians, He has given them the Law, and now they are journeying towards a land God has promised them.  Yet, in spite of God’s faithfulness, Israel has turned away and worshipped through a golden calf.  Moses is so distraught that he smashes the tablets of the law, and he begins to question God.  Why has God brought us out of slavery just for everyone to turn away.  How am I supposed to lead a people that don’t want to be led?  “If I have found favor in your sight, please show me now your ways,” asks Moses to God. 

God’s response is striking, isn’t it?  He would have every right to give up this rebellious group of people to the sinful desires of their hearts, but the first thing He says is literally “I Am who I Am (translated from the Hebrew Yahweh). A God who is merciful, gracious, and slow to anger.”  And the root of this graciousness, He says, is His covenant.  The promise that He made to His people that will never fail. 

Frequently when we approach God, it can be difficult to feel like we really know the God to whom we draw near.  Rather than try to imagine, what if we simply listened to God when He tells us what He is like?  He is merciful.  He is gracious.  He is slow to anger, and He always keeps His covenant love and faithfulness.  He forgives, but He always upholds justice.  God’s introduction was enough to equip Moses to return to lead a stubborn people, and it is enough to sustain you through your own trials.

Hymn
The Lord is King

Prayer
Almighty God, whom truly to know is everlasting life: Grant
us so perfectly to know your Son Jesus Christ to be the way,
the truth, and the life, that we may steadfastly follow his
steps in the way that leads to eternal life; through Jesus Christ
your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity
of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

The King

Readings

1. Old Testament: Exodus 32:21-34

2. Psalm 47

3. Gospel: Matt. 5:11-16

4. New Testament: 1 Thess. 1:1-10

Devotional
Do you ever hear something so many times that the word starts to sound funny?  At a certain point, it’s as if the word is lost of its meaning because of the repetitive use.  Often, the phrase “Jesus is King” likely has the same effect.   It’s a phrase that we hear so often we are likely to gloss over it without really considering what it even means.  Pair that with the fact that a king hardly bears any cultural relevance for our particular context, and it becomes almost dismissive.  Psalm 47 is here to make sure that doesn’t happen.

This Psalm is known as a kingship psalm, and, not surprisingly, it’s aim is to proclaim the kingship of God.  As God’s story of redemption unfolds, we find out exactly what that means.  Jesus is the true and better king that all of God’s people have been longing for.  Even the best kings of Israel stumbled and proved to be imperfect leaders.  But the king described in Psalm 47 exceeds whatever expectations we could have formulated for a worthy king.  This king subdues all nations, including his enemies (v. 3).  He sits on a holy throne (v. 9).  And it isn’t just that a particular land belongs to him, but the entire world is his (v. 7).  This is a king, as the psalmist exclaims, who is worthy to be praised! 

If those descriptions sound familiar, it’s because Jesus reveals himself to be the king this psalm had in mind.  He conquers his enemies while protecting his people.  He is enthroned in the heavenly court, surrounded by cherubim praising his name.  And he upholds the entire universe by the word of his power.  With so much uncertainty surrounding us, we long not just for a king who is aware of our needs, but we yearn for a king who has control over all circumstances.  Yes, Kanye got it correct.  Jesus is that king.  And what would people do in response to a good king?  They would submit to his rule.  Not because they were afraid of him.  But because they loved him, and they knew they could trust him to care for their concerns.  Despite our persistent attempts to gain control in our own lives, we have the freedom to rejoice that God doesn’t give us what we want.  He gives us what we need.  A king we can count on.  

Hymn
The Lord is King

Prayer
O God, the King of glory, you have exalted your only Son
Jesus Christ with great triumph to your kingdom in heaven:
Do not leave us comfortless, but send us your Holy Spirit to
strengthen us, and exalt us to that place where our Savior
Christ has gone before; who lives and reigns with you and
the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.

Does He Remember?

Announcement
Join us for "drive thru communion" this Sunday! We will worship together via Zoom at 5 pm. During our worship service, I (Soren) will let you know where I will be from 6-7 pm, and we will serve communion at that location. Jesus is with you spiritually, he remembers you, as you remember him in the bread and the wine, even now. 

Readings

1. Old Testament: Job 23:1-12

2. Psalm 139

3. Gospel: John 12:20-26

Devotional
I wonder if you had an experience that so many seem to have had at some point during your youth.  You are in a public place invested in whatever endeavor occupied your young mind.  All of a sudden, you look up, and, to your horror, your parents are nowhere in sight.  As you scrambled to try to find them, your sense of desperation and panic only gets worse. Granted, young kids aren’t the most capable of rational thought, especially in panicked situations, and it is highly unlikely that your parents completely forgot, never to return, but the fear in the moment is overwhelming.   It isn’t just that your parents seemed to have forgotten you, but they seemed to have forgotten you when you needed them most.  In your sense of despair, they are nowhere to be found.  “Will they ever remember me?” you think to yourself.

In so many words, Job is asking the same question of God.  “Will He remember me?”  Job has lost almost everything he has, and his friends are of little help.  Rather than simply being a loving presence suffering alongside Job, they try to offer airtight explanations and theological elucidation.  But Job is less concerned with why things have happened as he is with the pressing question of what will happen.  Will God remember me?

Does it strike you as odd that this honest confession is in our God-inspired Scripture?  It should.  Because it means that faithfulness it not synonymous with a certainty of having all of the answers of your trust in God worked out.  There is room within faithfulness to confess to God your inadequate understanding of His will.  However, Job’s questions don’t lead him away from following God, as ours tend to do.  It can be easy to look elsewhere for comfort when it feels like God is distant, but Job does the opposite.  His reasoning is just as astounding as his original confession.  “When He has tried me, I shall come out as gold.  My foot has held fast to his steps; I have kept his way and have not turned aside.”  The pursuit of trust in the midst of uncertainty is the catalyst whereby Job’s faith is elevated.  If we strove to make that our pandemic prayer, is it possible that God could do the same for us?  That in the fire of these present trials, we could come out on the other side with a “golden” faith?  God’s Word sure gives us reason to believe so.   

Hymn
Nothing But the Blood

Prayer
O God, whose Son Jesus is the good shepherd of your people;
Grant that when we hear his voice we may know him who
calls us each by name, and follow where he leads; who, with
you and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God, for ever
and ever. Amen.

What is God Like?

Readings

1. Old Testament: Exodus 19:16-25

2. Psalm 38

3. Gospel: Matt. 3:13-17

4. Epistle: Col. 1:15:23

Devotional
What is God like? That is a question we have to be careful answering: careful because God has told us in His word what He is like, so that some answers are better than others, but also careful because we must make sure that our answers say something about God and not just something about ourselves. It is so tempting to reduce God down to a simple maxim: God is love, God is holy, God is you fill in the blank. And those things are true: God is those things. But reducing him down to just those things is dangerous...

Some of us focus on the love and goodness of God. Creating a good world, saving his people from Egypt, the blessings of grace given to us in Jesus Christ, even the benediction of kindness pronounced when God comes down in Matthew 3:13-17... all these events demonstrate the quality of God's goodness. We cling to these truths, because we know that we desperately need God to be good, and we delight to find that he is!

Some of us focus on the holiness and otherness of God. Examples abound in the Old Testament: his treatment of the Egyptians, the Psalmist writing that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, even the way that God appears to his people in Exodus 19:16-25, in a cloud of thunder and the danger of death. And this sense of the awesome otherness isn't confined just to the Old Testament... when the disciples encounter Jesus in his authority and power, their response is usually wonder and fear (cf. Mark 4:41).

The reality is, God as revealed to us in Jesus is both fearfully loving and graciously other. He is both of those things, and the life we live before him must acknowledge both. We must fear him; we must trust him. We must delight in him; we must obey him. These different character traits seem to be in tension, but the tension resolves when Jesus walks into the room. How can God be both just and merciful? Other and with us? When the person Jesus walks into the room, a light bulb goes on: "Ohhhhhh. That's how."

What does the fact that God is both of these things mean for us? Simply that we cannot use Him (or maxims about him) to control him or domesticate him. Rather, we must worship him. Perhaps St. Augustine said it best: "A thief was saved: do not despair. A thief was damned: do not presume."

Or with the old hymn:
O tell of his might, o sing of his grace,
whose robe is the light, whose canopy space
whose chariots of wrath the deep thunderclouds form
and dark is his path on the wings of the storm.

Hymn
O Worship the King

Prayer
Almighty God, whom truly to know is everlasting life: Grant
us so perfectly to know your Son Jesus Christ to be the way,
the truth, and the life, that we may steadfastly follow his
steps in the way that leads to eternal life; through Jesus Christ
your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity
of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Prove Yourself

Readings

1. Old Testament: Exodus 19:1-16

2. Psalm 26

3. Gospel: Matt. 3:7-12

4. Epistle: Col. 1:1-14 

Devotional
The tryouts were exhaustive. What is your bench press? Your squat max? Your 40 yard dash time? Height? Weight? Can you catch? Can you throw? Prove it. Prove yourself. And the emotional stress of the tryout increased in proportion to its exhaustiveness. Will I be accepted? Am I good enough? Have I earned a spot on the team? 

Tryouts are stressful. Yet for some reason (perhaps we are worried a tryout is always ongoing?) we insist on living all of life as a tryout. Build the resume, show off your best qualities, hunt for likes on social media. Even our relationships become a tryout- lets prove ourselves to one another, then perhaps we can trust one another. 

God is different. Always has been, always will be. Exodus 19 makes it clear: "You yourself have seen what I did to the Egyptians, how I bore you up on eagle's wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore be holy, as I am holy." God's order is the opposite of ours. He bestows grace, mercy, and salvation, and then calls us to respond to it. He doesn't ask us to prove ourselves; he proves himself to us! Whether you are an ancient Israelite wandering in the desert saved from Egypt by the exodus, or a modern day Christian saved from death by the resurrection of Jesus, you have this in common- the God of the Universe has proven his love for you, over and over. So our motivation to holiness, our motivation to seek justice, our motivation to grow as people is very different: we strive not out of fear but out of gratefulness, we strive not out of anxiousness but out of rest.


Hymn
Nothing But the Blood

Prayer
We thank you, heavenly Father, that you have delivered us
from the dominion of sin and death and brought us into the
kingdom of your Son; and we pray that, as by his death he
has recalled us to life, so by his love he may raise us to eternal
joys; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy
Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Where Are You From

Readings

1. Old Testament: Exodus 18:13-27

2. Psalm 15

3. Gospel: Matt. 1:1-17

4. Epistle: 1 Pet. 5:1-14

Devotional
What's the first question you ask somebody when you meet them? The question right after "What's your name?" A peculiar pattern holds in cultures throughout the world. In a large, cosmopolitan city, the first question is "What do you do?" In a smaller city or town, the question is "Who are your parents?" In either case, these questions come first because they give us what we believe is the most information about somebody that can be gained from one question: we learn something about their social status, something about history and background, something about their character, and maybe even something about their intentions.

When Matthew gives us a list of Jesus' parentage, he is not attempting to give us an exhaustive one. Instead, he is attempting to give a bunch of information to his first readers about who Jesus is in one fell swoop. Consider:

1. the word for the "genealogy" of Jesus is "Genesis," which would have been familiar to first-century Jewish readers as "beginnings." It is in many ways the beginning of the title of Matthew's whole book: the new beginning.

2. "Jesus" was the every day name of the person, but "Christ" meant annointed, and points back to David, the highest and holiest example in Israel of a righteous king. 

3. Abraham sits at the headwaters of the Jewish people, and mediated the presence of God to the world.

4. The names in the list are not uniform: there are men, women, Jews, Gentiles, heroes and prostitutes, and hero-prostitutes. The story of Jesus and God's New Beginning involves everyone. 

Do you see what Matthew is saying? Here, in the person of Jesus, is the New Beginning. God's Kingdom is coming, all things are being made new, as Jesus mediates God's presence to the world! And there is no one who is excluded from this new beginning. Not even us. 

Hymn
Nothing But the Blood

Prayer
O God, whose Son Jesus is the good shepherd of your people;
Grant that when we hear his voice we may know him who
calls us each by name, and follow where he leads; who, with
you and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God, for ever
and ever. Amen.

You Are Not Helpless, Because You Are Not Alone

Readings

1. Old Testament: Exodus 16:23-36

2. Psalm 16

3. Gospel: John 16:1-15

4. Epistle: 1 Pet. 3:13-4:6

Devotional
There’s a reason the “buddy movie” is such a popular genre in Hollywood.  Countless permutations of it have been made, and each has a common theme.  You know what the “buddy movie” is.  It’s the misfit duo off on a collective journey to secure some task or goal for one or both of them.  You also know that the formula doesn’t quite work if both characters are the same.  Because at some point throughout their journey, one of them will encounter some hurdle that they are insufficiently equipped to solve on their own, which creates the perfect circumstance for the buddy to lend his particular contribution to solve the dilemma and send the duo continuing on their way.  The formula is so familiar that you know it’s coming, yet in spite of its unsurprising emergence, we still flock to them.  Why?

It must reveal something about our nature and our desires.  Instead of denying our weakness, we long to acknowledge it and seek the help of a companion to aid us where we are helpless on our own.  Is it any wonder, then, that in Jesus’s final hours, He makes a promise to His people that they would never be without a helper?  Jesus is preparing to go to the cross and leave the world, but He isn’t leaving His people alone.  The promise of His Holy Spirit’s presence was true for the disciples, and it is true for us.  I wonder how much we would be transformed if we considered that reality:  for every believer, God dwells within you wherever you go.  And this Helper doesn’t just pick up the slack of an otherwise pretty good attempt at life.  This Spirit equips for every good endeavor.  All that is good in us is good because of the Holy Spirit, and it is the same Spirit upon which Jesus relied when He was tempted in the wilderness by Satan (Matt. 4). 

The purpose of this Spirit dwelling with us, Jesus explains, is simple.  He is to convict us of sin, and lead us to righteousness.  That isn’t how we often think about the Holy Spirit.  Frequently, our requests of the Spirit revolve around decisions of vocation, relationships, or calling.  But the liberating news of Jesus’s description is that it takes the guess work out of following God’s will for our lives.  Not only that, but He also empowers us to do it!  The same Spirit upon which Jesus relied for obedience is the Spirit that dwells in us.  Sin doesn’t have the final say in your life no matter how helpless you feel.  In the best buddy movies, you realize that the opposition was no match for the buddy all along.  So it is with our Helper. 


Hymn
O Christ Our King Creator Lord

Prayer
Pray Psalm 16 aloud.