Now every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the festival of the Passover. And when he was twelve years old, they went up as usual for the festival. When the festival was ended and they started to return, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it. Assuming that he was in the group of travelers, they went a day's journey. Then they started to look for him among their relatives and friends. When they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem to search for him. After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. When his parents saw him they were astonished; and his mother said to him, "Child, why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety." He said to them, "Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?" But they did not understand what he said to them. Then he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them. His mother treasured all these things in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favor. (Luke 2:41-52)
This unique glimpse into the childhood of Jesus is also a double-edged sword. In our fallen states, we tend to want to speculate as to what the "lost" years of Jesus entailed. Many theories abound. Prior to this scene, we have gnostic writings that show Jesus bestowing life on clay animals and allowing them to run and fly off. We also have a scene in which a disgruntled teacher argues with little Jesus, because our Lord is not allowing himself to be taught. Instead, he is doing the teaching. Disgusted with the teacher's argumentative nature, Jesus finally ends his life with a wave of his hand. Sounds like a brat, doesn't it?
On the other side of this passage, there was a theory going around that Jesus spent the eighteen years before his ministry in India and/or studying at the feet of Buddha. This is, of course, roundly rejected today, but it shows where our imaginations take us when we are given the ammunition. The point is, when we don't know who Jesus is, we come up with all kinds of nonsense.
So, who is Jesus? We know he is the savior of the world. That was the reason for the incarnation. But if we understand what roles he played in our world, we will learn to reject false teachings and embrace the truth. What are the roles he played? Jesus tells us himself in John 13, after washing the disciples' feet. He tells them, "you call me Teacher and Lord--and you are right, for that is what I am." In the healing of blind Bartimaeus, the blind man calls out to Jesus, "Son of David, have mercy on me!" This appeals to Jesus' role as Lord, the only one who is able to have mercy. When Jesus asks Bartimaeus what he wants from him, the blind man responds, "My teacher, let me see again."
We tend to think of Jesus as a miracle man, but his miracles were only the supporting proof that what he taught was true. All of the healings and miracles in the gospels are connected with some teaching. The miracles give the teaching strength. Many people died in the three years of Jesus' ministry. He didn't heal everyone. It was not his purpose. His reason for coming was to have mercy on us, fulfilling his role as Lord, and his purpose for coming was teaching, fulfilling his role as Teacher. The miracles told us that he was not lying.
What does this mean for us? Two things. First, it puts Jesus into our minds in his rightful place. We know that he is Lord and Teacher. If we think of him outside those two roles, we are believing in a false god and we remain lost in our sins. John 3:16 reads, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life." If we are thinking that Jesus bestowed life on clay animals or learned at the feet of Buddha, we are not putting him in those two roles, and we are not believing in him. So, by keeping Jesus in his two roles, we are believing the truth about him.
Secondly, how we treat our neighbors is affected. Today, we get in our heads that the miracles and the healings are the important parts of Jesus' ministry, and so we try to perform our little miracles each day. We clothe the poor and feed the hungry, and those are good things, but we forget that Jesus never did these things without the use of his primary role--teaching. Even the Apostles continued in this vein after Jesus left earth.
In Acts 3, Peter heals the paralytic at the Beautiful gate. The man is begging for alms, and Peter tells him, "Silver and Gold I have none, but what I do have, I give you in the name of Jesus Christ." The man is healed, and he gets up and walks. What we forget is that the crowd who knew that man come forward and crowd around Peter who then gives A SERMON. The healing is associated with teaching, and the teaching is the most important part.
Today, we go to the poor who ask for gold and silver and we say, "gold and silver? Sure! Here you go!" We shelter them and then allow them to watch Scarface. We set up the cable TV ourselves! We allow them to remain dead in the culture, lost in their sins. We don't open the Bible and teach them from the scriptures. Even I am afraid to do such, for that may drive them out into the cold, for I think they would rather be there than to hear the word of God. So we let them return to their own vomit, with no change in their hearts, but at least we have given them the silver and gold. We've given them food, shelter, and clothing. We can feel good about ourselves.
Lord, help us keep the roles of Jesus Christ ever present in our minds, so that we can have the correct relationship with Jesus, believing in him, and the correct relationship with our neighbors, helping AND teaching them. AMEN.
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
Friday, December 28, 2012
The Reason for the Season
You may have heard the phrase bandied about or even on the sign when you entered this building: "Jesus is the Reason for the Season." This is usually a statement in response to the overcommercialization of Christmas by the culture, and this is true, but the solution to this problem is not just remembering Jesus at this time of the year. We can remember that he is the reason for the season, we can stop ruining his birthday, but do we understand WHY he is the reason for the season?
The reason is in the words Jesus spoke to Philip in John 14: "I am the way, the truth, and the life." Before the incarnation of Christ, we were dead in our sins. There was nothing for us beyond death. We hit it like a wall, and that was it--the end. Now, with Jesus' incarnation, his death and resurrection, he has punched a hole through this wall of death to the other side, where there lay a new form of life for his children. This is an imperishable, everlasting life. Now, the hole is small, and none of us can find it. It takes God's guidance to lead us to the pinhole in death and through to the other side.
Christ was with God from the beginning. He has always been from the beginning. But it took the incarnation, it took the human form, for the God-Man to do the thing that none of us could do, and that God the Father could not do as the first person--the mind--of the trinity. It took the second person of the trinity--the Word--to become flesh and take upon himself the sins of the whole world, to distract death, to impute his righteousness to us, and to smuggle his children--the ones who believe in him--through that hole to the other side of death--to everlasting life.
This Christmas season don't just remember that Jesus is the Reason for the Season, also remember that the reason is a single and amazing way for God to save his children from destruction. We had no way, and now we have a way. Thank God that we have a way.
The reason is in the words Jesus spoke to Philip in John 14: "I am the way, the truth, and the life." Before the incarnation of Christ, we were dead in our sins. There was nothing for us beyond death. We hit it like a wall, and that was it--the end. Now, with Jesus' incarnation, his death and resurrection, he has punched a hole through this wall of death to the other side, where there lay a new form of life for his children. This is an imperishable, everlasting life. Now, the hole is small, and none of us can find it. It takes God's guidance to lead us to the pinhole in death and through to the other side.
Christ was with God from the beginning. He has always been from the beginning. But it took the incarnation, it took the human form, for the God-Man to do the thing that none of us could do, and that God the Father could not do as the first person--the mind--of the trinity. It took the second person of the trinity--the Word--to become flesh and take upon himself the sins of the whole world, to distract death, to impute his righteousness to us, and to smuggle his children--the ones who believe in him--through that hole to the other side of death--to everlasting life.
This Christmas season don't just remember that Jesus is the Reason for the Season, also remember that the reason is a single and amazing way for God to save his children from destruction. We had no way, and now we have a way. Thank God that we have a way.
Understanding
In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord." And Mary said, "My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name. His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever." (Luke 1:39-55)
Let's look for the Holy Spirit in this passage. Often we overlook what the Holy Spirit has done to Elizabeth, because we are too busy focusing on what it does to John the Baptist in his mother's womb. Look! The unborn child leaped for joy in the presence of his Lord! How neat! But look at Elizabeth now. "When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting!" Luke makes a point that it is upon hearing Mary's greeting that she is filled with the Holy Spirit. And Mary's greeting didn't contain, "It is I, Mary, who has been told by an Angel that I will carry our Lord and I believed the angel!" Mary didn't send a messenger ahead of her.
No, the Holy Spirit has given Elizabeth the understanding of things beyond her human capacity. All Mary has to do is share a greeting and Elizabeth is aware of who the baby is in her cousin's womb. Elizabeth also knows that Mary believed the conversation between herself and the angel. Elizabeth has an acute understanding of reality beyond what is capable by a human being unaided by the supernatural.
There are three kinds of understanding--three levels, so to speak. There's purely human understanding, which involves research and study of books. Usually, purely human understanding ignores the supernatural, doesn't believe in God, and therefore ignores over half of reality. There is more heaven than earth, so the lack of understanding when we take out the supernatural is way over half. Sir Isaac Newton is probably the greatest scientist who ever lived, and I believe it was because he was a true believer and took into account the Godly realm when he engaged in science.
Think about a painter who only fills half the canvas and then says he's done. Try reading a novel and only going through the first chapter before putting it down and saying that you're finished. We're getting less than half of the whole picture. Strictly human understanding is inadequate at best.
Then there's the understanding of the externally supernatural. If we look at the passage before this gospel passage, when Mary is receiving her information from an angel, we see that he fills her in on what is happening on Elizabeth's end. Mary has not received the Holy Spirit yet. She is getting her information from external means, but here is the angel filling in Mary on what is happening in Elizabeth's life. Elizabeth hadn't sent out a Christmas letter to her family--this is new news for Mary, just like the information that Elizabeth gleaned through the Holy Spirit.
Likewise in the gospel of Matthew, Joseph is intent on quietly divorcing Mary, but an angel of the Lord comes to him in a dream. This is the second level of understanding at work again. Think of your own dreams. Have you ever done a repetitive job or activity, like data entry, and then it started infiltrating your dreams? Think about how much of the worldly culture we intake from day to day. Then we wonder why we keep having dreams about our favorite sitcoms and don't get messages from the Lord.
Now there's the third and highest level of understanding, which is what Elizabeth exhibits. The Holy Spirit is so powerful in Mary now that John leaps for joy and Elizabeth is filled. The Holy Spirit provides perfect understanding of a subject. We will never see the whole picture that God himself sees, but on a particular subject we can have a more complete understanding by not only accepting the supernatural aspect of it, but by being open to the Holy Spirit's prompting. When reading scripture, these stories about other people in other times and places become relevant to us, because the Holy Spirit pulls the meaning and message out of the text for us to apply to our lives.
What does being filled with the Holy Spirit look like? Just one part of Mary's song informs us: My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior. What does a soul magnifying the Lord look like? Well, it is one that rejoices in God as the savior. We may have assurance of our salvation, but do we find ourselves rejoicing at this knowledge? And not just our external human selves but our inner souls. Do our deepest selves rejoice at the knowledge that the creator of the universe has saved us from destruction? Or are we so numbed by the culture that we can't move ourselves to feel anything anymore?
Let us pray that God continues to fill us with Holy Spirit, so that we may have the fullest understanding possible, and that our souls may magnify the Lord and rejoice in our salvation.
Let's look for the Holy Spirit in this passage. Often we overlook what the Holy Spirit has done to Elizabeth, because we are too busy focusing on what it does to John the Baptist in his mother's womb. Look! The unborn child leaped for joy in the presence of his Lord! How neat! But look at Elizabeth now. "When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting!" Luke makes a point that it is upon hearing Mary's greeting that she is filled with the Holy Spirit. And Mary's greeting didn't contain, "It is I, Mary, who has been told by an Angel that I will carry our Lord and I believed the angel!" Mary didn't send a messenger ahead of her.
No, the Holy Spirit has given Elizabeth the understanding of things beyond her human capacity. All Mary has to do is share a greeting and Elizabeth is aware of who the baby is in her cousin's womb. Elizabeth also knows that Mary believed the conversation between herself and the angel. Elizabeth has an acute understanding of reality beyond what is capable by a human being unaided by the supernatural.
There are three kinds of understanding--three levels, so to speak. There's purely human understanding, which involves research and study of books. Usually, purely human understanding ignores the supernatural, doesn't believe in God, and therefore ignores over half of reality. There is more heaven than earth, so the lack of understanding when we take out the supernatural is way over half. Sir Isaac Newton is probably the greatest scientist who ever lived, and I believe it was because he was a true believer and took into account the Godly realm when he engaged in science.
Think about a painter who only fills half the canvas and then says he's done. Try reading a novel and only going through the first chapter before putting it down and saying that you're finished. We're getting less than half of the whole picture. Strictly human understanding is inadequate at best.
Then there's the understanding of the externally supernatural. If we look at the passage before this gospel passage, when Mary is receiving her information from an angel, we see that he fills her in on what is happening on Elizabeth's end. Mary has not received the Holy Spirit yet. She is getting her information from external means, but here is the angel filling in Mary on what is happening in Elizabeth's life. Elizabeth hadn't sent out a Christmas letter to her family--this is new news for Mary, just like the information that Elizabeth gleaned through the Holy Spirit.
Likewise in the gospel of Matthew, Joseph is intent on quietly divorcing Mary, but an angel of the Lord comes to him in a dream. This is the second level of understanding at work again. Think of your own dreams. Have you ever done a repetitive job or activity, like data entry, and then it started infiltrating your dreams? Think about how much of the worldly culture we intake from day to day. Then we wonder why we keep having dreams about our favorite sitcoms and don't get messages from the Lord.
Now there's the third and highest level of understanding, which is what Elizabeth exhibits. The Holy Spirit is so powerful in Mary now that John leaps for joy and Elizabeth is filled. The Holy Spirit provides perfect understanding of a subject. We will never see the whole picture that God himself sees, but on a particular subject we can have a more complete understanding by not only accepting the supernatural aspect of it, but by being open to the Holy Spirit's prompting. When reading scripture, these stories about other people in other times and places become relevant to us, because the Holy Spirit pulls the meaning and message out of the text for us to apply to our lives.
What does being filled with the Holy Spirit look like? Just one part of Mary's song informs us: My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior. What does a soul magnifying the Lord look like? Well, it is one that rejoices in God as the savior. We may have assurance of our salvation, but do we find ourselves rejoicing at this knowledge? And not just our external human selves but our inner souls. Do our deepest selves rejoice at the knowledge that the creator of the universe has saved us from destruction? Or are we so numbed by the culture that we can't move ourselves to feel anything anymore?
Let us pray that God continues to fill us with Holy Spirit, so that we may have the fullest understanding possible, and that our souls may magnify the Lord and rejoice in our salvation.
Friday, December 21, 2012
Eucharist and Evening Prayer
Every Sunday Morning at 11am the church meets at 205 E Baltic St in Nags Head for Holy Eucharist. Our music is quiet and contemplative with flute and/or violin. We sing in unison. The service is traditional and liturgical, with reverence for our Lord. We move through the liturgy of the Word, with scripture readings, a bible-based sermon, and prayers; we provide words of encouragement and testimony; and finally we come to the table together for Holy Communion. The service lasts about an hour and 15 minutes. Usually there is coffee and conversation afterward.
Each Wednesday we meet at the Johnson's residence (please call the church for directions) at 7pm for Evening Prayer and Small Groups. We sing together a few Hymns from the 1982 Hymnal and use the Evening Prayer Rite II service from the 1979 Book of Common Prayer. After Evening Prayer, which takes no more than 30 minutes, we split into small groups that are engaged in scripture or book study. These groups meet for about an hour.
Each Wednesday we meet at the Johnson's residence (please call the church for directions) at 7pm for Evening Prayer and Small Groups. We sing together a few Hymns from the 1982 Hymnal and use the Evening Prayer Rite II service from the 1979 Book of Common Prayer. After Evening Prayer, which takes no more than 30 minutes, we split into small groups that are engaged in scripture or book study. These groups meet for about an hour.
Monday, December 17, 2012
The Pilgrim's Progress
Christiana: There are strange opinions in the world. I know one that said, it was time enough to repent when we come to die.
Mr. Great-Heart: Such are not overwise; that man would have been loth, might he have had a week to run twenty miles in his life, to defer his journey to the last hour of that week.
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