Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting

So many people who had been ill these past few weeks showed up to the Sunday Evening Service to testify that they were feeling so much better and healthier. It reminded me that we had been praying continuously for those same people. So, I was inspired to remind everyone of our Wednesday Night Prayer meeting at Brenda Pitonyak's house. The hour-and-a-half session involves both contemplative and intercessory prayer, hymn singing, and scripture study. We also discuss ways we are interacting with the Outer Banks community and give each other ideas on how to best bring the Kingdom of God into our relationships and daily encounters. I think that our Weekly Prayer Meeting is directly tied to the good health that we have been seeing lately. Please join in on Wednesday nights at 7pm, and if you need directions to Brenda's house, just call me at 207-4050.

Potluck Dinner After the Service this Sunday

We will be having a potluck dinner after the Healing Service this Sunday, March 18th, downstairs in the parish hall. If you would like a suggestion on what to bring, feel free to call Mary Jeannette Moseley, but it is a potluck, so bring whatever you like! Here's to getting the level fellowship up to what we had on Shrove Tuesday!

Healing Service This Sunday

This upcoming Sunday is the third Sunday of the month, and we will, therefore, have our Healing Service, using the "A Service for Healing" liturgy from the Our Modern Services Kenyan prayerbook. This service has developed into a very spiritual event over the last few months, including using the whole service, a sermon on an aspect of healing, a clear and understandable Eucharistic prayer, and the laying on of multiple hands. Please join in this Sunday to, God willing, experience spiritual, physical, emotional, generational, and cultural healing.

The Commandment Covenant

This season of Lent we have been exploring the covenants of God with his people. We discussed the covenant with Noah and how that was a covenant of re-creation. We discussed the Abrahamic covenant and how that was a covenant of promise: a group of elect people, a place for community, a relationship with God, and a saving name. Essentially, this the promise of heaven.

Now we get to the ten commandments, which we have already gone through twice today. This is a covenant, too. It seems like a bunch of commands or rules, but it's actually a balanced treaty between the King of Kings and his people. As we read in the first verse, it begins: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the Land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery...” And then the 10 commandments begins.

Our side of the deal is the ten commandments, but God's side of the deal is pretty big, too. He delivered us out of the house of slavery in the land of Egypt—literally, figuratively, spiritually. The lopsided part of the covenant is this: God's part has ALREADY BEEN DONE, and out part is completely impossible for us to fulfill, due to our sinful nature.

The commandments themselves are a response to God's grace. He has already saved us. He has already inflated the liferaft and put it in the water. He has already lowered the ladder, so we can climb it. He has saved us. However, we don't keep the commandments. We choose not get in the liferaft. We chose not to climb the ladder. You've probably heard the joke about the old man in the house, and the floodwaters were rising. The sheriff came in a jeep and told the old man, “get in!” He turned him down, saying, “no thanks! The Lord'll save me!” When the floodwaters got to his front porch, the sheriff came in a boat. “Get in!” “No thanks! The Lord'll save me.” When the floodwaters got to his roof, the sheriff came in a helicopter, lowering a ladder. “Climb up!” “No thanks! The Lord'll save me!” Later, in heaven, the Old Man came face to face with the Lord. “Why didn't you save me?” he asked. “Are you kidding?” the Lord responded. “I sent you a jeep and a boat and a helicopter!” God has fulfilled his part of the covenant. He has provided us with a jeep and a boat and a helicopter. We have a choice” get in, grab hold and climb up, or refuse salvation. Obeying the ten commandments are our way of getting in, grabbing hold, and climbing up.

Another Good analogy is comparing God to the Mafia. Sounds weird, right? Well, what does the Mafia do? You have just opened a new store for business, and then some slick guy comes by and says, “what a beautiful place you've got here. Shame if anything happened to it.” That's a threat, and you have a choice: you pay a weekly fee or get a Molotov cocktail tossed through your front window. You're paying for protection from them!

Now, how does this compare to a covenant with God? You open up a store for business, and a guy comes in, but instead of threatening you, he says, “how do you like the store? I paid for it. I'm the one who got you the loan. I found the location to build. I gave you the passion to go into business in the first place. Your wife? I set you two up. Your kids? I chose them for you. Your life? I created it. All of this you have you owe to me. I gave it to you.” That's love. Like the Mafia, you have a choice, but it doesn't involve a Molotov cocktail. It is a choice between returning the love, and rejecting all the things that God has already done for you. When we reject God, we essentially throw a Molotov cocktail through our own plate glass window, because we'd rather destroy our own store—our own lives—than accept God's gift.

The ten commandments are our way of returning God's love to him. He has already done his part, but we fail to do our part. What happens is the King fulfills the part of the vassal, too. Jesus Christ perfectly kept the ten commandments, he shows us how to do it, and when we fail, he picks us up and carries us over the finish line. Footprints isn't just a beautiful poem. It's theologically sound.

Romans 5:6 reads, “while we were still sinners, Christ died for the ungodly.” The greatest gift of all, the incarnation, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ was given for us, while we were still sinners. The ten commandments, are showing that we accept that gift. That we understand it, that we accept it, and that we love God back.

Just yesterday there was news story out of Tampa, Florida. A woman and her daughter were driving down a windy road, and car came up erratically behind them, passed them, and the woman driving flicked them off! Well! A little ways down the road, and they found the car burning between two trees. The driver was on fire, trying to get herself and her own burning daughter out of the car. The offended woman pulled over and rescued both of them.

That is loving our neighbor, yes, even loving our enemy, but it is the ultimate expression of loving God, respecting life, even when we see someone abusing that life. This is what Jesus did for us. He rescued us from that burning car. He put out the flames with his own body, and he died in the process. And we had just been flicking him off.

Let us pray that we can love God back for all the gifts that he has given us—including the greatest gift of all, his son. Let us thank God for his saving us, while we were still sinners, for giving us ten ways to return the love, and for giving us his own son to show us how to love.

A People, A Place, A Relationship, and A Name

In this season of Lent, as we try to position ourselves out of the worldly streams and put ourselves in the direct path of God's holiness, we have been looking at God's covenants. What s the relationship that God has been seeking with his people? Last week, we looked at the covenant with Noah, and realized that it was NOT an “I'm sorry for being a jerk and killing everybody; here's a rainbow” covenant. It's an “I created everything, and now, for you, mankind, I will re-create everything” covenant. The re-creation of everything is being fulfilled through the same person the creation of everything was accomplished—Jesus Christ. He was there at the beginning—the word of God, and through him all things were made. His death on the cross and his resurrection signifies the restoration of all creation. This is a covenant not just with mankind but with animals and the earth itself: all of creation.

Now we are going to get more intimate with the Abrahamic Covenant. This is a covenant between God and his chosen people, of whom we all here are a part. Whereas the covenant with Noah was a covenant with all of creation, this covenant is one with a single man and his descendants, which number the stars, and indeed, not just Israel but all the people who have become Christians over the centuries number the stars.

There are four parts to this covenant: a people, a place, a relationship, and a name. I want to show how each part of this covenant is fulfilled in the Old Testament, but then has a new fulfillment in the New Testament that continues to this day, and then also looks forward to a future promise at the end of the age.

That is the first part of the covenant is people: God promised to make Abraham numerous. He was an old man without children, without the natural possibility of children, and here is God promising Abraham that he would not only have children, but they would so numerous that one would not be able to count them. Several places in the Old Testament reveal, through the eyes of an enemy army usually, that the nation of Israel numbered the grains of sand or the stars in the heavens. This is a visual metaphor, of course, in that even though the people do not exactly number the stars or the grains of sand, they both cannot be counted by one individual just looking at the whole group. Censuses need to be taken—a slow methodical process. The idea is that from one man, who was not able have children, a massive group of people came. As God told Abraham in our Old Testament reading, nations and kings would come from Abraham, and indeed, as we know from history, nations and kings DID come from him.

In the New Testament this group of descendants comes not from Abraham physically but spiritually, faithfully. We Christians are such because we have the faith of Abraham. We believe in the same God, we have faith in God's promises, just like Abraham. We can be called descendants of Abraham, because we have that faith of Abraham, and we are God's children. Indeed, one cannot count the number of people who follow the creator God to this day.

At the end of the age, this number of descendants will not just include the Israel of Abraham's faith, but every Christian who ever lived who had the faith of Abraham, throughout history, even before Abraham. Anyone who has ever GOTTEN IT and truly believed in a God who was present and faithful in his or her life will be counted among the numerous descendants in heaven.

The second part of the covenant is the place. A land flowing with milk and honey, like the Garden of Eden, where God and mankind can have that relationship again. In the Old Testament, the place was Canaan, which became the Kingdom of Israel, where Israel pretty much is today on the map, even though it was lost and restored. Today, many think the new place is the United States, due to its prosperity and freedom. God never does anything that mankind expects, though, so when the Holy Spirit was revealed to us as being God who actually lives in our hearts, that sounded like just the kind of place God would want to meet us on a personal level. The current place is the human heart.

However, it doesn't end there. God may live in our hearts, but that place doesn't include our neighbor, a place where all those descendants can live in harmony with God, too. Today, we can build physical communities, but they are flawed. Look at all the denominations and even then non-denomination schisms. The perfect place hasn't come yet, and when we read the end of the book of Revelation, we realize when that new heaven comes down to meet that new earth and the everlasting city is established, THAT will be where we live. THAT is the promised land.

You've heard of the Pentateuch? The first five books of the Bible? Well, how do those five books end? At the end of the book of Deuteronomy, Israel is poised to enter the promised land. They haven't gone into it yet. That is why some people call the first SIX books of the Bible the Hexateuch. Because the book of Joshua is the fulfillment of the land promise. However, there must be a reason that the Hexateuch is a rare idea, and the Pentateuch is upheld. Not just because Moses is claimed to have written the five books, but maybe BECAUSE they are open ended. We currently live in an open-ended time. If the new heaven and the new earth are the promised land, we have not seen them happen yet. We can read the Pentateuch as a complete work, as the promise of land yet unfulfilled. The anticipation of the final promised land, heaven and earth, is the final punctuation mark.

Next we have a relationship with God, and in the Old Testament that was a relationship of prophecy and epiphanies through dreams and visions. Sometimes God would speak to someone directly, or he would send a messenger to relay some details. In the New Testament, we have the greatest revelation of all time—Jesus Christ: God in the flesh. His final revelation. Now, God in the spirit is living in our hearts, guiding us toward the right paths in life, when we do not quench him and follow the wiles of the world.

As C.S. Lewis said, the whole trinity is at work when we pray. We pray to the Father, through the Son, and the Holy Spirit is what motivates us to pray—he forms the words on our lips. But once again, it is not until the end of the age, where we will be in the presence of God directly. The trinity will take us up in his lovingkindness and have a full and compete relationship with us.

Are you seeing a trend? Each of these promises of the Abrahamic covenant have been fulfilled to a point and they have yet to be fulfilled as well. This is called the already-not yet. We have all these things accessible right this second, and yet we still expect the complete fulfillment of all things, as sin is finally destroyed altogether, the enemy is destroyed altogether, there is no sorrow or sadness, and there is no death.

That's why the name part of the covenant is so important. Names are so important in the Bible. They have deep meanings, and Abraham went from being called Abram, which means “father of height” to Abraham, which means “father of multitude.” Sarah was once Sarai, which means “contentious”, and now she is Sarah, which means “princess.” The most important name in all the Bible, and most important to this day, more important than even the name of Yahweh, is Jesus, and that means “He Saves.”

Jesus is the name above all names, but there is another name: the one by which we are called: “Christians.” This is an important name, too, and one that we have to live up to. We have sullied this name so much over the centuries, that many upstanding people do not want to be called that anymore. Followers of Jesus or followers of Christ is what is preferred, but that is just another way of saying Christians, and the name itself isn't broken—we are—so why not try to live up to the name instead of changing it. It is important as a name, because it is not only what we are now, but what we will be forever. If we are a Christian on the day we die, we continue to be Christians forever. The name becomes locked in. If we stop being a Christian or stop behaving like one, we lose the name after death, and we lose the life after death, too. Being a Christian and making new Christians is the most important thing there is. It's not just a game. It's not just an annoying thing that Christians do. It's the most important thing there is: making sure that as many people as possible get the name locked on them at death—Christian—so that they can live forever.

Next week, I am going to talk about the next big covenant, which is the Ten Commandments. All of these covenants are important, but they all have one thing in common: Jesus Christ. Through the incarnation, death and resurrection of Jesus, re-creation of the world is possible, as in the covenant with Noah. Through Jesus we get a people, a place, a relationship, and a name. Through Jesus, we will see next time, we get the fulfillment of the law. Jesus is everything. He is the name above all names, and when his name is at our lips in an honest and personal way, we have everlasting life, a life that includes people, a place, a relationship, and a name.