December 28, 2009
Monday—Pray for David and Lisa Frisbie, Family Ministries coordinators. Pray for them as they provide resources and train leaders for this vital ministry.
Tuesday—Pray for Larry Morris, Adult Ministries director as he and the Adult Ministries staff continues to plan for the Branson Prime Time Retreat, March 23-26, 2010. Pray for God’s blessings as the event details are finalized.
Wednesday—Pray for John Comstock, CLT (Continuing Lay Training) coordinator, as he creates resources, interfaces with constituents, and designs and updates the CLT website for online users.
Thursday—Pray for Nazarenes around the world as we begin a new year. Pray we will catch the vision of “making Christlike disciples in the nations.”
Friday—Pray for Nazarene Christians as they return to work after the holidays. Pray they will be sensitive to opportunities to witness and minister to their coworkers.
Saturday—Pray for Linda Hardin, Single Adult, Young Adult, and Women’s Ministries coordinator, as she faces the challenges of her diverse responsibilities.
Sunday—Pray for Marshall Duke, Men’s Ministries coordinator, as he affirms, teaches, and inspires men to be sensitive to all God has planned for them.
"Prayer does not fit us for the greater work, prayer is the greater work." Oswald Chambers
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Reflecting God for Thursday, December 24, 2009--Christmas Eve
Today’s Question
How do you define the word “grace?”
Weekly Prayer:
Lord Jesus, you were born in a Bethlehem jammed with so many out-of-town guests that your mother couldn’t find a room. It was probably a lot like December 21 through 24 at the mall! But to the listening shepherds, angels sang the joyous, awe-inspiring news that a Savior was born. Give me inward stillness this week to welcome your love into my heart. Help me, like you, to love all. Amen
DAILY OFFICE FOR THURSDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2009--CHRISTMAS EVE
Psalm 45
A Wedding Song of the Sons of Korah
1 My heart bursts its banks, spilling beauty and goodness.
I pour it out in a poem to the king,
shaping the river into words:
2-4 "You're the handsomest of men;
every word from your lips is sheer grace,
and God has blessed you, blessed you so much.
Strap your sword to your side, warrior!
Accept praise! Accept due honor!
Ride majestically! Ride triumphantly!
Ride on the side of truth!
Ride for the righteous meek!
4-5 "Your instructions are glow-in-the-dark;
you shoot sharp arrows
Into enemy hearts; the king's
foes lie down in the dust, beaten.
6-7 "Your throne is God's throne,
ever and always;
The scepter of your royal rule
measures right living.
You love the right
and hate the wrong.
And that is why God, your very own God,
poured fragrant oil on your head,
Marking you out as king
from among your dear companions.
8-9 "Your ozone-drenched garments
are fragrant with mountain breeze.
Chamber music—from the throne room—
makes you want to dance.
Kings' daughters are maids in your court,
the Bride glittering with golden jewelry.
10-12 "Now listen, daughter, don't miss a word:
forget your country, put your home behind you.
Be here—the king is wild for you.
Since he's your lord, adore him.
Wedding gifts pour in from Tyre;
rich guests shower you with presents."
13-15 (Her wedding dress is dazzling,
lined with gold by the weavers;
All her dresses and robes
are woven with gold.
She is led to the king,
followed by her virgin companions.
A procession of joy and laughter!
a grand entrance to the king's palace!)
16-17 "Set your mind now on sons—
don't dote on father and grandfather.
You'll set your sons up as princes
all over the earth.
I'll make you famous for generations;
you'll be the talk of the town
for a long, long time."--The Message
Psalm 46
A Song of the Sons of Korah
1-3 God is a safe place to hide, ready to help when we need him.
We stand fearless at the cliff-edge of doom,
courageous in seastorm and earthquake,
Before the rush and roar of oceans,
the tremors that shift mountains.
Jacob-wrestling God fights for us,
God-of-Angel-Armies protects us.
4-6 River fountains splash joy, cooling God's city,
this sacred haunt of the Most High.
God lives here, the streets are safe,
God at your service from crack of dawn.
Godless nations rant and rave, kings and kingdoms threaten,
but Earth does anything he says.
7 Jacob-wrestling God fights for us,
God-of-Angel-Armies protects us.
8-10 Attention, all! See the marvels of God!
He plants flowers and trees all over the earth,
Bans war from pole to pole,
breaks all the weapons across his knee.
"Step out of the traffic! Take a long,
loving look at me, your High God,
above politics, above everything."
11 Jacob-wrestling God fights for us,
God-of-Angel-Armies protects us.--The Message
Baruch 4:36-5:9
36Look towards the east, O Jerusalem,
and see the joy that is coming to you from God.
37Look, your children are coming, whom you sent away;
they are coming, gathered from east and west,
at the word of the Holy One,
rejoicing in the glory of God.
5Take off the garment of your sorrow and affliction, O Jerusalem,
and put on for ever the beauty of the glory from God.
2Put on the robe of the righteousness that comes from God;
put on your head the diadem of the glory of the Everlasting;
3for God will show your splendour everywhere under heaven.
4For God will give you evermore the name,
‘Righteous Peace, Godly Glory’.
5Arise, O Jerusalem, stand upon the height;
look towards the east,
and see your children gathered from west and east
at the word of the Holy One,
rejoicing that God has remembered them.
6For they went out from you on foot,
led away by their enemies;
but God will bring them back to you,
carried in glory, as on a royal throne.
7For God has ordered that every high mountain and the everlasting hills be made low
and the valleys filled up, to make level ground,
so that Israel may walk safely in the glory of God.
8The woods and every fragrant tree
have shaded Israel at God’s command.
9For God will lead Israel with joy,
in the light of his glory,
with the mercy and righteousness that come from him.--New American Bible
Galatians 3:23-4:7
23-24Until the time when we were mature enough to respond freely in faith to the living God, we were carefully surrounded and protected by the Mosaic law. The law was like those Greek tutors, with which you are familiar, who escort children to school and protect them from danger or distraction, making sure the children will really get to the place they set out for.
25-27But now you have arrived at your destination: By faith in Christ you are in direct relationship with God. Your baptism in Christ was not just washing you up for a fresh start. It also involved dressing you in an adult faith wardrobe—Christ's life, the fulfillment of God's original promise.
In Christ's Family
28-29In Christ's family there can be no division into Jew and non-Jew, slave and free, male and female. Among us you are all equal. That is, we are all in a common relationship with Jesus Christ. Also, since you are Christ's family, then you are Abraham's famous "descendant," heirs according to the covenant promises.
1-3Let me show you the implications of this. As long as the heir is a minor, he has no advantage over the slave. Though legally he owns the entire inheritance, he is subject to tutors and administrators until whatever date the father has set for emancipation. That is the way it is with us: When we were minors, we were just like slaves ordered around by simple instructions (the tutors and administrators of this world), with no say in the conduct of our own lives.
4-7But when the time arrived that was set by God the Father, God sent his Son, born among us of a woman, born under the conditions of the law so that he might redeem those of us who have been kidnapped by the law. Thus we have been set free to experience our rightful heritage. You can tell for sure that you are now fully adopted as his own children because God sent the Spirit of his Son into our lives crying out, "Papa! Father!" Doesn't that privilege of intimate conversation with God make it plain that you are not a slave, but a child? And if you are a child, you're also an heir, with complete access to the inheritance.--The Message
Matthew 1:18-25
The Birth of Jesus
18-19The birth of Jesus took place like this. His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. Before they came to the marriage bed, Joseph discovered she was pregnant. (It was by the Holy Spirit, but he didn't know that.) Joseph, chagrined but noble, determined to take care of things quietly so Mary would not be disgraced.
20-23While he was trying to figure a way out, he had a dream. God's angel spoke in the dream: "Joseph, son of David, don't hesitate to get married. Mary's pregnancy is Spirit-conceived. God's Holy Spirit has made her pregnant. She will bring a son to birth, and when she does, you, Joseph, will name him Jesus—'God saves'—because he will save his people from their sins." This would bring the prophet's embryonic sermon to full term:
Watch for this—a virgin will get pregnant and bear a son;
They will name him Immanuel (Hebrew for "God is with us").
24-25Then Joseph woke up. He did exactly what God's angel commanded in the dream: He married Mary. But he did not consummate the marriage until she had the baby. He named the baby Jesus.--The Message
Christmas Eve:
Psalm 89:1-29
An Ethan Prayer
1-4 Your love, God, is my song, and I'll sing it! I'm forever telling everyone how faithful you are.
I'll never quit telling the story of your love—
how you built the cosmos
and guaranteed everything in it.
Your love has always been our lives' foundation,
your fidelity has been the roof over our world.
You once said, "I joined forces with my chosen leader,
I pledged my word to my servant, David, saying,
'Everyone descending from you is guaranteed life;
I'll make your rule as solid and lasting as rock.'"
5-18 God! Let the cosmos praise your wonderful ways,
the choir of holy angels sing anthems to your faithful ways!
Search high and low, scan skies and land,
you'll find nothing and no one quite like God.
The holy angels are in awe before him;
he looms immense and august over everyone around him.
God-of-the-Angel-Armies, who is like you,
powerful and faithful from every angle?
You put the arrogant ocean in its place
and calm its waves when they turn unruly.
You gave that old hag Egypt the back of your hand,
you brushed off your enemies with a flick of your wrist.
You own the cosmos—you made everything in it,
everything from atom to archangel.
You positioned the North and South Poles;
the mountains Tabor and Hermon sing duets to you.
With your well-muscled arm and your grip of steel—
nobody trifles with you!
The Right and Justice are the roots of your rule;
Love and Truth are its fruits.
Blessed are the people who know the passwords of praise,
who shout on parade in the bright presence of God.
Delighted, they dance all day long; they know
who you are, what you do—they can't keep it quiet!
Your vibrant beauty has gotten inside us—
you've been so good to us! We're walking on air!
All we are and have we owe to God,
Holy God of Israel, our King!
19-37 A long time ago you spoke in a vision,
you spoke to your faithful beloved:
"I've crowned a hero,
I chose the best I could find;
I found David, my servant,
poured holy oil on his head,
And I'll keep my hand steadily on him,
yes, I'll stick with him through thick and thin.
No enemy will get the best of him,
no scoundrel will do him in.
I'll weed out all who oppose him,
I'll clean out all who hate him.
I'm with him for good and I'll love him forever;
I've set him on high—he's riding high!
I've put Ocean in his one hand, River in the other;
he'll call out, 'Oh, my Father—my God, my Rock of Salvation!'
Yes, I'm setting him apart as the First of the royal line,
High King over all of earth's kings.
I'll preserve him eternally in my love,
I'll faithfully do all I so solemnly promised.
I'll guarantee his family tree
and underwrite his rule.
If his children refuse to do what I tell them,
if they refuse to walk in the way I show them,
If they spit on the directions I give them
and tear up the rules I post for them—
I'll rub their faces in the dirt of their rebellion
and make them face the music.
But I'll never throw them out,
never abandon or disown them.
Do you think I'd withdraw my holy promise?
or take back words I'd already spoken?
I've given my word, my whole and holy word;
do you think I would lie to David?
His family tree is here for good,
his sovereignty as sure as the sun,
Dependable as the phases of the moon,
inescapable as weather."--The Message
Isaiah 59:15b-21
12-15Our wrongdoings pile up before you, God,
our sins stand up and accuse us.
Our wrongdoings stare us down;
we know in detail what we've done:
Mocking and denying God,
not following our God,
Spreading false rumors, inciting sedition,
pregnant with lies, muttering malice.
Justice is beaten back,
Righteousness is banished to the sidelines,
Truth staggers down the street,
Honesty is nowhere to be found,
Good is missing in action.
Anyone renouncing evil is beaten and robbed.
15-19God looked and saw evil looming on the horizon—
so much evil and no sign of Justice.
He couldn't believe what he saw:
not a soul around to correct this awful situation.
So he did it himself, took on the work of Salvation,
fueled by his own Righteousness.
He dressed in Righteousness, put it on like a suit of armor,
with Salvation on his head like a helmet,
Put on Judgment like an overcoat,
and threw a cloak of Passion across his shoulders.
He'll make everyone pay for what they've done:
fury for his foes, just deserts for his enemies.
Even the far-off islands will get paid off in full.
In the west they'll fear the name of God,
in the east they'll fear the glory of God,
For he'll arrive like a river in flood stage,
whipped to a torrent by the wind of God.
20"I'll arrive in Zion as Redeemer,
to those in Jacob who leave their sins."
God's Decree.
21"As for me," God says, "this is my covenant with them: My Spirit that I've placed upon you and the words that I've given you to speak, they're not going to leave your mouths nor the mouths of your children nor the mouths of your grandchildren. You will keep repeating these words and won't ever stop." God's orders.--The Message
Philippians 2:5-11
5-8Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn't think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn't claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion.
9-11Because of that obedience, God lifted him high and honored him far beyond anyone or anything, ever, so that all created beings in heaven and on earth—even those long ago dead and buried—will bow in worship before this Jesus Christ, and call out in praise that he is the Master of all, to the glorious honor of God the Father.--The Message
:Psalm 89:1-4,19-29
An Ethan Prayer
1-4 Your love, God, is my song, and I'll sing it! I'm forever telling everyone how faithful you are.
I'll never quit telling the story of your love—
how you built the cosmos
and guaranteed everything in it.
Your love has always been our lives' foundation,
your fidelity has been the roof over our world.
You once said, "I joined forces with my chosen leader,
I pledged my word to my servant, David, saying,
'Everyone descending from you is guaranteed life;
I'll make your rule as solid and lasting as rock.'"
19-37 A long time ago you spoke in a vision,
you spoke to your faithful beloved:
"I've crowned a hero,
I chose the best I could find;
I found David, my servant,
poured holy oil on his head,
And I'll keep my hand steadily on him,
yes, I'll stick with him through thick and thin.
No enemy will get the best of him,
no scoundrel will do him in.
I'll weed out all who oppose him,
I'll clean out all who hate him.
I'm with him for good and I'll love him forever;
I've set him on high—he's riding high!
I've put Ocean in his one hand, River in the other;
he'll call out, 'Oh, my Father—my God, my Rock of Salvation!'
Yes, I'm setting him apart as the First of the royal line,
High King over all of earth's kings.
I'll preserve him eternally in my love,
I'll faithfully do all I so solemnly promised.
I'll guarantee his family tree
and underwrite his rule.
If his children refuse to do what I tell them,
if they refuse to walk in the way I show them,
If they spit on the directions I give them
and tear up the rules I post for them—
I'll rub their faces in the dirt of their rebellion
and make them face the music.
But I'll never throw them out,
never abandon or disown them.
Do you think I'd withdraw my holy promise?
or take back words I'd already spoken?
I've given my word, my whole and holy word;
do you think I would lie to David?
His family tree is here for good,
his sovereignty as sure as the sun,
Dependable as the phases of the moon,
inescapable as weather."--The Message
2 Samuel 7:1-16
God's Covenant with David
1-2 Before long, the king made himself at home and God gave him peace from all his enemies. Then one day King David said to Nathan the prophet, "Look at this: Here I am, comfortable in a luxurious house of cedar, and the Chest of God sits in a plain tent."
3 Nathan told the king, "Whatever is on your heart, go and do it. God is with you."
4-7 But that night, the word of God came to Nathan saying, "Go and tell my servant David: This is God's word on the matter: You're going to build a 'house' for me to live in? Why, I haven't lived in a 'house' from the time I brought the children of Israel up from Egypt till now. All that time I've moved about with nothing but a tent. And in all my travels with Israel, did I ever say to any of the leaders I commanded to shepherd Israel, 'Why haven't you built me a house of cedar?'
8-11 "So here is what you are to tell my servant David: The God-of-the-Angel-Armies has this word for you: I took you from the pasture, tagging along after sheep, and made you prince over my people Israel. I was with you everywhere you went and mowed your enemies down before you. Now I'm making you famous, to be ranked with the great names on earth. And I'm going to set aside a place for my people Israel and plant them there so they'll have their own home and not be knocked around any more. Nor will evil men afflict you as they always have, even during the days I set judges over my people Israel. Finally, I'm going to give you peace from all your enemies.
11-16 "Furthermore, God has this message for you: God himself will build you a house! When your life is complete and you're buried with your ancestors, then I'll raise up your child, your own flesh and blood, to succeed you, and I'll firmly establish his rule. He will build a house to honor me, and I will guarantee his kingdom's rule permanently. I'll be a father to him, and he'll be a son to me. When he does wrong, I'll discipline him in the usual ways, the pitfalls and obstacles of this mortal life. But I'll never remove my gracious love from him, as I removed it from Saul, who preceded you and whom I most certainly did remove. Your family and your kingdom are permanently secured. I'm keeping my eye on them! And your royal throne will always be there, rock solid."--The Message
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Advent Weekday
First Reading: 2 Samuel 7:1-5, 8-12, 14, 16
God's Covenant with David
1-2 Before long, the king made himself at home and God gave him peace from all his enemies. Then one day King David said to Nathan the prophet, "Look at this: Here I am, comfortable in a luxurious house of cedar, and the Chest of God sits in a plain tent."
3 Nathan told the king, "Whatever is on your heart, go and do it. God is with you."
4-7 But that night, the word of God came to Nathan saying, "Go and tell my servant David: This is God's word on the matter: You're going to build a 'house' for me to live in? Why, I haven't lived in a 'house' from the time I brought the children of Israel up from Egypt till now. All that time I've moved about with nothing but a tent. And in all my travels with Israel, did I ever say to any of the leaders I commanded to shepherd Israel, 'Why haven't you built me a house of cedar?'
8-11 "So here is what you are to tell my servant David: The God-of-the-Angel-Armies has this word for you: I took you from the pasture, tagging along after sheep, and made you prince over my people Israel. I was with you everywhere you went and mowed your enemies down before you. Now I'm making you famous, to be ranked with the great names on earth. And I'm going to set aside a place for my people Israel and plant them there so they'll have their own home and not be knocked around any more. Nor will evil men afflict you as they always have, even during the days I set judges over my people Israel. Finally, I'm going to give you peace from all your enemies.
11-16 "Furthermore, God has this message for you: God himself will build you a house! When your life is complete and you're buried with your ancestors, then I'll raise up your child, your own flesh and blood, to succeed you, and I'll firmly establish his rule. He will build a house to honor me, and I will guarantee his kingdom's rule permanently. I'll be a father to him, and he'll be a son to me. When he does wrong, I'll discipline him in the usual ways, the pitfalls and obstacles of this mortal life. But I'll never remove my gracious love from him, as I removed it from Saul, who preceded you and whom I most certainly did remove. Your family and your kingdom are permanently secured. I'm keeping my eye on them! And your royal throne will always be there, rock solid."--The Message
Psalm: Psalm 89:2-5, 27, 29
An Ethan Prayer
1-4 Your love, God, is my song, and I'll sing it! I'm forever telling everyone how faithful you are.
I'll never quit telling the story of your love—
how you built the cosmos
and guaranteed everything in it.
Your love has always been our lives' foundation,
your fidelity has been the roof over our world.
You once said, "I joined forces with my chosen leader,
I pledged my word to my servant, David, saying,
'Everyone descending from you is guaranteed life;
I'll make your rule as solid and lasting as rock.'"
5-18 God! Let the cosmos praise your wonderful ways,
the choir of holy angels sing anthems to your faithful ways!
Search high and low, scan skies and land,
you'll find nothing and no one quite like God.
The holy angels are in awe before him;
he looms immense and august over everyone around him.
God-of-the-Angel-Armies, who is like you,
powerful and faithful from every angle?
You put the arrogant ocean in its place
and calm its waves when they turn unruly.
You gave that old hag Egypt the back of your hand,
you brushed off your enemies with a flick of your wrist.
You own the cosmos—you made everything in it,
everything from atom to archangel.
You positioned the North and South Poles;
the mountains Tabor and Hermon sing duets to you.
With your well-muscled arm and your grip of steel—
nobody trifles with you!
The Right and Justice are the roots of your rule;
Love and Truth are its fruits.
Blessed are the people who know the passwords of praise,
who shout on parade in the bright presence of God.
Delighted, they dance all day long; they know
who you are, what you do—they can't keep it quiet!
Your vibrant beauty has gotten inside us—
you've been so good to us! We're walking on air!
All we are and have we owe to God,
Holy God of Israel, our King!
19-37 A long time ago you spoke in a vision,
you spoke to your faithful beloved:
"I've crowned a hero,
I chose the best I could find;
I found David, my servant,
poured holy oil on his head,
And I'll keep my hand steadily on him,
yes, I'll stick with him through thick and thin.
No enemy will get the best of him,
no scoundrel will do him in.
I'll weed out all who oppose him,
I'll clean out all who hate him.
I'm with him for good and I'll love him forever;
I've set him on high—he's riding high!
I've put Ocean in his one hand, River in the other;
he'll call out, 'Oh, my Father—my God, my Rock of Salvation!'
Yes, I'm setting him apart as the First of the royal line,
High King over all of earth's kings.
I'll preserve him eternally in my love,
I'll faithfully do all I so solemnly promised.
I'll guarantee his family tree
and underwrite his rule.
If his children refuse to do what I tell them,
if they refuse to walk in the way I show them,
If they spit on the directions I give them
and tear up the rules I post for them—
I'll rub their faces in the dirt of their rebellion
and make them face the music.
But I'll never throw them out,
never abandon or disown them.
Do you think I'd withdraw my holy promise?
or take back words I'd already spoken?
I've given my word, my whole and holy word;
do you think I would lie to David?
His family tree is here for good,
his sovereignty as sure as the sun,
Dependable as the phases of the moon,
inescapable as weather."--The Message
Gospel: Luke 1:67-79
67-79Then Zachariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied,
Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel;
he came and set his people free.
He set the power of salvation in the center of our lives,
and in the very house of David his servant,
Just as he promised long ago
through the preaching of his holy prophets:
Deliverance from our enemies
and every hateful hand;
Mercy to our fathers,
as he remembers to do what he said he'd do,
What he swore to our father Abraham—
a clean rescue from the enemy camp,
So we can worship him without a care in the world,
made holy before him as long as we live.
And you, my child, "Prophet of the Highest,"
will go ahead of the Master to prepare his ways,
Present the offer of salvation to his people,
the forgiveness of their sins.
Through the heartfelt mercies of our God,
God's Sunrise will break in upon us,
Shining on those in the darkness,
those sitting in the shadow of death,
Then showing us the way, one foot at a time,
down the path of peace.--The Message
Christ came to cure our wounds; but since all do not search for the remedy, therefore, He cures those who are willing; He does not force the unwilling. God, for His part, really wills us to be save; otherwise, it would be impossible for us to obtain health and eternal life.-- St. Alphonsus Liguori
SCRIPTURE READING: Daniel 1:11-14
11-13 But Daniel appealed to a steward who had been assigned by the head of the palace staff to be in charge of Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah: "Try us out for ten days on a simple diet of vegetables and water. Then compare us with the young men who eat from the royal menu. Make your decision on the basis of what you see."
14-16 The steward agreed to do it and fed them vegetables and water for ten days. At the end of the ten days they looked better and more robust than all the others who had been eating from the royal menu. So the steward continued to exempt them from the royal menu of food and drink and served them only vegetables.--The Message
KEY VERSE: Daniel then said to the guard . . . , "Please test your servants" (Dan 1:11-12).
Illuminating God's Faithfulness
WWJD (What Would Jesus Do)? This acronym was a trend people followed and a slogan which gained national attention a few years ago. Pieces of jewelry displayed the popular initials, serving as a constant reminder to make decisions based on what you believe Jesus would do in the same situation. The popularity of this slogan became the center of many sarcastic jokes and jesters. Despite the criticism, asking what Jesus would do is a very important question. When we know what God wants us to do, the easier obedience becomes.
Throughout the Book of Daniel, God grants His servants wisdom. Daniel's belief that God would prevail in their captivity was displayed when Daniel tested the guard. He wisely challenged the Babylonian officials in order to keep God's laws. When we sincerely pray and listen to the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we, too, will be given wisdom to know how to act. When we surrender to the ways of society and the ways of humanity, God's glory is concealed. On the contrary, standing firm in our belief when it requires us to be counter-cultural illuminates our faithfulness to a Supreme God, allowing others to see His light in our lives.--Brooke Pointer
SING TO THE LORD
O, for a faith that will not shrink,
Though pressed by every foe,
That will not tremble on the brink
Of any earthly woe!
That will not murmur nor complain
Beneath the chastening rod,
But, in the hour of grief or pain,
Will lean upon its God.
A faith that shines more bright and clear
When tempests rage without;
That when in danger knows no fear,
In darkness feels no doubt.
That bears, unmoved, the world’s dread frown
Nor heeds its scornful smile;
That seas of trouble cannot drown,
Nor Satan’s arts beguile.
A faith that keeps the narrow way
Till life’s last hour is fled,
And with a pure and heavenly ray
Lights up a dying bed.
Lord, give me such a faith as this,
And then, whate’er may come,
I’ll taste, e’en here, the hallowed bliss
Of an eternal home.
"O for a Faith That Will Not Shrink" by William H. Bathurst
REACH OUT IN PRAYER
Developing Christian leaders in Croatia.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
This is a wise, sane Christian faith: that a man commit himself, his life, and his hopes to God; that God undertakes the special protection of that man; that therefore that man ought not to be afraid of anything (G. MacDonald).
SECOND THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
December 24th.
THE HIDDEN LIFE BY OSWALD CHAMBERS
"Your life is hid with Christ in God." Colossians 3:3
The Spirit of God witnesses to the simple almighty security of the life hid with Christ in God and this is continually brought out in the Epistles. We talk as if it were the most precarious thing to live the sanctified life; it is the most secure thing, because it has Almighty God in and behind it. The most precarious thing is to try and live without God. If we are born again it is the easiest thing to live in right relationship to God and the most difficult thing to go wrong, if only we will heed God's warnings and keep in the light.
When we think of being delivered from sin, of being filled with the Spirit, and of walking in the light, we picture the peak of a great mountain, very high and wonderful, and we say - "Oh, but I could never live up there!" But when we do get there by God's grace, we find it is not a mountain peak, but a plateau where there is ample room to live and to grow. "Thou hast enlarged my steps under me."
When you really see Jesus, I defy you to doubt Him. When He says - "Let not your heart be troubled," if you see Him I defy you to trouble your mind, it is a moral impossibility to doubt when He is there. Every time you get into personal contact with Jesus, His words are real. "My peace I give unto you," it is a peace all over from the crown of the head to the sole of the feet, an irrepressible confidence. "Your life is hid with Christ in God," and the imperturbable peace of Jesus Christ is imparted to you.
THIRD THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
Love
When we no longer have the heart of a child who seeks to be an instrument of peace and unity, we either become discouraged or want to prove ourselves. How can we nourish this child's heart? Love can only feed on love. The only way to learn how to love is to love. When the love that is sacrifice begins to grow, words, gestures and flesh itself are permeated with gift and communion.-- Jean Vanier, Community and Growth, p. 193
FOURTH THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
Holding On to the Christ
Life is unpredictable. We can be happy one day and sad the next, healthy one day and sick the next, rich one day and poor the next, alive one day and dead the next. So who is there to hold on to? Who is there to feel secure with? Who is there to trust at all times?
Only Jesus, the Christ. He is our Lord, our shepherd, our rock, our stronghold, our refuge, our brother, our guide, and our friend. He came from God to be with us. He died for us, he was raised from the dead to open for us the way to God, and he is seated at God's right hand to welcome us home. With Paul, we must be certain that "neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nothing already in existence and nothing still to come, nor any power, nor the heights nor the depths, nor any created thing whatever, will be able to come between us and the love of God, known to us in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:38-39).--Henri J. M. Nouwen
THROUGH THE BIBLE IN A YEAR
2 John; 3 John; Jude
1-2My dear congregation, I, your pastor, love you in very truth. And I'm not alone—everyone who knows the Truth that has taken up permanent residence in us loves you.
3Let grace, mercy, and peace be with us in truth and love from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, Son of the Father!
4-6I can't tell you how happy I am to learn that many members of your congregation are diligent in living out the Truth, exactly as commanded by the Father. But permit me a reminder, friends, and this is not a new commandment but simply a repetition of our original and basic charter: that we love each other. Love means following his commandments, and his unifying commandment is that you conduct your lives in love. This is the first thing you heard, and nothing has changed.
Don't Walk Out on God
7There are a lot of smooth-talking charlatans loose in the world who refuse to believe that Jesus Christ was truly human, a flesh-and-blood human being. Give them their true title: Deceiver! Antichrist!
8-9And be very careful around them so you don't lose out on what we've worked so diligently in together; I want you to get every reward you have coming to you. Anyone who gets so progressive in his thinking that he walks out on the teaching of Christ, walks out on God. But whoever stays with the teaching, stays faithful to both the Father and the Son.
10-11If anyone shows up who doesn't hold to this teaching, don't invite him in and give him the run of the place. That would just give him a platform to perpetuate his evil ways, making you his partner.
12-13I have a lot more things to tell you, but I'd rather not use paper and ink. I hope to be there soon in person and have a heart-to-heart talk. That will be far more satisfying to both you and me. Everyone here in your sister congregation sends greetings.
1-4The Pastor, to my good friend Gaius: How truly I love you! We're the best of friends, and I pray for good fortune in everything you do, and for your good health—that your everyday affairs prosper, as well as your soul! I was most happy when some friends arrived and brought the news that you persist in following the way of Truth. Nothing could make me happier than getting reports that my children continue diligently in the way of Truth!
Model the Good
5-8Dear friend, when you extend hospitality to Christian brothers and sisters, even when they are strangers, you make the faith visible. They've made a full report back to the church here, a message about your love. It's good work you're doing, helping these travelers on their way, hospitality worthy of God himself! They set out under the banner of the Name, and get no help from unbelievers. So they deserve any support we can give them. In providing meals and a bed, we become their companions in spreading the Truth.
9-10Earlier I wrote something along this line to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves being in charge, denigrates my counsel. If I come, you can be sure I'll hold him to account for spreading vicious rumors about us.
As if that weren't bad enough, he not only refuses hospitality to traveling Christians but tries to stop others from welcoming them. Worse yet, instead of inviting them in he throws them out.
11Friend, don't go along with evil. Model the good. The person who does good does God's work. The person who does evil falsifies God, doesn't know the first thing about God.
12Everyone has a good word for Demetrius—the Truth itself stands up for Demetrius! We concur, and you know we don't hand out endorsements lightly.
13-14I have a lot more things to tell you, but I'd rather not use pen and ink. I hope to be there soon in person and have a heart-to-heart talk.
Peace to you. The friends here say hello. Greet our friends there by name.
1-2I, Jude, am a slave to Jesus Christ and brother to James, writing to those loved by God the Father, called and kept safe by Jesus Christ. Relax, everything's going to be all right; rest, everything's coming together; open your hearts, love is on the way!
Fight with All You Have in You
3-4Dear friends, I've dropped everything to write you about this life of salvation that we have in common. I have to write insisting—begging!—that you fight with everything you have in you for this faith entrusted to us as a gift to guard and cherish. What has happened is that some people have infiltrated our ranks (our Scriptures warned us this would happen), who beneath their pious skin are shameless scoundrels. Their design is to replace the sheer grace of our God with sheer license—which means doing away with Jesus Christ, our one and only Master.
Lost Stars in Outer Space
5-7I'm laying this out as clearly as I can, even though you once knew all this well enough and shouldn't need reminding. Here it is in brief: The Master saved a people out of the land of Egypt. Later he destroyed those who defected. And you know the story of the angels who didn't stick to their post, abandoning it for other, darker missions. But they are now chained and jailed in a black hole until the great Judgment Day. Sodom and Gomorrah, which went to sexual rack and ruin along with the surrounding cities that acted just like them, are another example. Burning and burning and never burning up, they serve still as a stock warning.
8This is exactly the same program of these latest infiltrators: dirty sex, rule and rulers thrown out, glory dragged in the mud.
9-11The Archangel Michael, who went to the mat with the Devil as they fought over the body of Moses, wouldn't have dared level him with a blasphemous curse, but said simply, "No you don't. God will take care of you!" But these people sneer at anything they can't understand, and by doing whatever they feel like doing—living by animal instinct only—they participate in their own destruction. I'm fed up with them! They've gone down Cain's road; they've been sucked into Balaam's error by greed; they're canceled out in Korah's rebellion.
12-13These people are warts on your love feasts as you worship and eat together. They're giving you a black eye—carousing shamelessly, grabbing anything that isn't nailed down. They're—
Puffs of smoke pushed by gusts of wind;
late autumn trees stripped clean of leaf and fruit,
Doubly dead, pulled up by the roots;
wild ocean waves leaving nothing on the beach
but the foam of their shame;
Lost stars in outer space
on their way to the black hole.
14-16Enoch, the seventh after Adam, prophesied of them: "Look! The Master comes with thousands of holy angels to bring judgment against them all, convicting each person of every defiling act of shameless sacrilege, of every dirty word they have spewed of their pious filth." These are the "grumpers," the bellyachers, grabbing for the biggest piece of the pie, talking big, saying anything they think will get them ahead.
17-19But remember, dear friends, that the apostles of our Master, Jesus Christ, told us this would happen: "In the last days there will be people who don't take these things seriously anymore. They'll treat them like a joke, and make a religion of their own whims and lusts." These are the ones who split churches, thinking only of themselves. There's nothing to them, no sign of the Spirit!
20-21But you, dear friends, carefully build yourselves up in this most holy faith by praying in the Holy Spirit, staying right at the center of God's love, keeping your arms open and outstretched, ready for the mercy of our Master, Jesus Christ. This is the unending life, the real life!
22-23Go easy on those who hesitate in the faith. Go after those who take the wrong way. Be tender with sinners, but not soft on sin. The sin itself stinks to high heaven.
24-25And now to him who can keep you on your feet, standing tall in his bright presence, fresh and celebrating—to our one God, our only Savior, through Jesus Christ, our Master, be glory, majesty, strength, and rule before all time, and now, and to the end of all time. Yes.--The Message
All Scripture quotations not otherwise designated are from the Holy Bible, New International Version® (NIV®). Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.
All hymn texts are taken from the hymnal Sing to the Lord. Copyright © 1993 by Lillenas Publishing Company.
Copyright © 2009 by WordAction Publishing Company. All rights reserved. Http://www.WordAction.com
Commentary of the day :
Saint Alphonsus Liguori (1696-1787), Bishop and Doctor of the Church
Address for the ninth day of Christmas, no. 10
"I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people"
«I proclaim to you news of great joy.» These were the angel's words to the shepherds of Bethlehem. I will repeat them to you today, my faithful friends: I am bringing you news that should give you great joy. For poor exiles, condemned to death, could there be happier news than that of their Savior's appearing, who came not just to deliver them from death but to win for them their return to their homeland? Yet this is precisely what I am proclaiming to you: «A Savior is born to you»...
When a king first makes his entry into one of the towns in his kingdom, the greatest honors are showered on him: what decorations! what triumphal arches! Make yourself ready, then, to receive your King worthily, O happy Bethlehem... Know, the prophet says to you, that of all the cities of the earth you are the most favored, for the heavenly King has chosen you as his birthplace here below that he may later reign, not only over Judah, but over men's hearts everwhere... What will the angels have said on seeing the Mother of God enter a cave to give birth to the King of kings! Princely infants come into the world in bedchambers glittering with gold. They are surrounded by the highest dignitaries in the kingdom. But the King of heaven wished to be born in a cold, unheated stable; for covering he had only poor sheepskin; to rest his limbs only a wretched manger with a little straw...
Ah! Simply to think of the birth of Jesus Christ and the circumstances that accompanied it should enflame us with love. And for us, the mere words 'cave', 'manger', 'straw', 'milk', 'cry', representing the Child of Bethlehem before our eyes as they do, should be so many burning arrows wounding all our hearts with love. O blessed cave, manger and straw! But even more blessed still those souls who fervently and tenderly cherish this loveworthy Lord and who, enflamed with burning charity, receive him in holy communion. With what alacrity and joy does Jesus come to rest in the soul who truly loves him!
How do you define the word “grace?”
Weekly Prayer:
Lord Jesus, you were born in a Bethlehem jammed with so many out-of-town guests that your mother couldn’t find a room. It was probably a lot like December 21 through 24 at the mall! But to the listening shepherds, angels sang the joyous, awe-inspiring news that a Savior was born. Give me inward stillness this week to welcome your love into my heart. Help me, like you, to love all. Amen
DAILY OFFICE FOR THURSDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2009--CHRISTMAS EVE
Psalm 45
A Wedding Song of the Sons of Korah
1 My heart bursts its banks, spilling beauty and goodness.
I pour it out in a poem to the king,
shaping the river into words:
2-4 "You're the handsomest of men;
every word from your lips is sheer grace,
and God has blessed you, blessed you so much.
Strap your sword to your side, warrior!
Accept praise! Accept due honor!
Ride majestically! Ride triumphantly!
Ride on the side of truth!
Ride for the righteous meek!
4-5 "Your instructions are glow-in-the-dark;
you shoot sharp arrows
Into enemy hearts; the king's
foes lie down in the dust, beaten.
6-7 "Your throne is God's throne,
ever and always;
The scepter of your royal rule
measures right living.
You love the right
and hate the wrong.
And that is why God, your very own God,
poured fragrant oil on your head,
Marking you out as king
from among your dear companions.
8-9 "Your ozone-drenched garments
are fragrant with mountain breeze.
Chamber music—from the throne room—
makes you want to dance.
Kings' daughters are maids in your court,
the Bride glittering with golden jewelry.
10-12 "Now listen, daughter, don't miss a word:
forget your country, put your home behind you.
Be here—the king is wild for you.
Since he's your lord, adore him.
Wedding gifts pour in from Tyre;
rich guests shower you with presents."
13-15 (Her wedding dress is dazzling,
lined with gold by the weavers;
All her dresses and robes
are woven with gold.
She is led to the king,
followed by her virgin companions.
A procession of joy and laughter!
a grand entrance to the king's palace!)
16-17 "Set your mind now on sons—
don't dote on father and grandfather.
You'll set your sons up as princes
all over the earth.
I'll make you famous for generations;
you'll be the talk of the town
for a long, long time."--The Message
Psalm 46
A Song of the Sons of Korah
1-3 God is a safe place to hide, ready to help when we need him.
We stand fearless at the cliff-edge of doom,
courageous in seastorm and earthquake,
Before the rush and roar of oceans,
the tremors that shift mountains.
Jacob-wrestling God fights for us,
God-of-Angel-Armies protects us.
4-6 River fountains splash joy, cooling God's city,
this sacred haunt of the Most High.
God lives here, the streets are safe,
God at your service from crack of dawn.
Godless nations rant and rave, kings and kingdoms threaten,
but Earth does anything he says.
7 Jacob-wrestling God fights for us,
God-of-Angel-Armies protects us.
8-10 Attention, all! See the marvels of God!
He plants flowers and trees all over the earth,
Bans war from pole to pole,
breaks all the weapons across his knee.
"Step out of the traffic! Take a long,
loving look at me, your High God,
above politics, above everything."
11 Jacob-wrestling God fights for us,
God-of-Angel-Armies protects us.--The Message
Baruch 4:36-5:9
36Look towards the east, O Jerusalem,
and see the joy that is coming to you from God.
37Look, your children are coming, whom you sent away;
they are coming, gathered from east and west,
at the word of the Holy One,
rejoicing in the glory of God.
5Take off the garment of your sorrow and affliction, O Jerusalem,
and put on for ever the beauty of the glory from God.
2Put on the robe of the righteousness that comes from God;
put on your head the diadem of the glory of the Everlasting;
3for God will show your splendour everywhere under heaven.
4For God will give you evermore the name,
‘Righteous Peace, Godly Glory’.
5Arise, O Jerusalem, stand upon the height;
look towards the east,
and see your children gathered from west and east
at the word of the Holy One,
rejoicing that God has remembered them.
6For they went out from you on foot,
led away by their enemies;
but God will bring them back to you,
carried in glory, as on a royal throne.
7For God has ordered that every high mountain and the everlasting hills be made low
and the valleys filled up, to make level ground,
so that Israel may walk safely in the glory of God.
8The woods and every fragrant tree
have shaded Israel at God’s command.
9For God will lead Israel with joy,
in the light of his glory,
with the mercy and righteousness that come from him.--New American Bible
Galatians 3:23-4:7
23-24Until the time when we were mature enough to respond freely in faith to the living God, we were carefully surrounded and protected by the Mosaic law. The law was like those Greek tutors, with which you are familiar, who escort children to school and protect them from danger or distraction, making sure the children will really get to the place they set out for.
25-27But now you have arrived at your destination: By faith in Christ you are in direct relationship with God. Your baptism in Christ was not just washing you up for a fresh start. It also involved dressing you in an adult faith wardrobe—Christ's life, the fulfillment of God's original promise.
In Christ's Family
28-29In Christ's family there can be no division into Jew and non-Jew, slave and free, male and female. Among us you are all equal. That is, we are all in a common relationship with Jesus Christ. Also, since you are Christ's family, then you are Abraham's famous "descendant," heirs according to the covenant promises.
1-3Let me show you the implications of this. As long as the heir is a minor, he has no advantage over the slave. Though legally he owns the entire inheritance, he is subject to tutors and administrators until whatever date the father has set for emancipation. That is the way it is with us: When we were minors, we were just like slaves ordered around by simple instructions (the tutors and administrators of this world), with no say in the conduct of our own lives.
4-7But when the time arrived that was set by God the Father, God sent his Son, born among us of a woman, born under the conditions of the law so that he might redeem those of us who have been kidnapped by the law. Thus we have been set free to experience our rightful heritage. You can tell for sure that you are now fully adopted as his own children because God sent the Spirit of his Son into our lives crying out, "Papa! Father!" Doesn't that privilege of intimate conversation with God make it plain that you are not a slave, but a child? And if you are a child, you're also an heir, with complete access to the inheritance.--The Message
Matthew 1:18-25
The Birth of Jesus
18-19The birth of Jesus took place like this. His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. Before they came to the marriage bed, Joseph discovered she was pregnant. (It was by the Holy Spirit, but he didn't know that.) Joseph, chagrined but noble, determined to take care of things quietly so Mary would not be disgraced.
20-23While he was trying to figure a way out, he had a dream. God's angel spoke in the dream: "Joseph, son of David, don't hesitate to get married. Mary's pregnancy is Spirit-conceived. God's Holy Spirit has made her pregnant. She will bring a son to birth, and when she does, you, Joseph, will name him Jesus—'God saves'—because he will save his people from their sins." This would bring the prophet's embryonic sermon to full term:
Watch for this—a virgin will get pregnant and bear a son;
They will name him Immanuel (Hebrew for "God is with us").
24-25Then Joseph woke up. He did exactly what God's angel commanded in the dream: He married Mary. But he did not consummate the marriage until she had the baby. He named the baby Jesus.--The Message
Christmas Eve:
Psalm 89:1-29
An Ethan Prayer
1-4 Your love, God, is my song, and I'll sing it! I'm forever telling everyone how faithful you are.
I'll never quit telling the story of your love—
how you built the cosmos
and guaranteed everything in it.
Your love has always been our lives' foundation,
your fidelity has been the roof over our world.
You once said, "I joined forces with my chosen leader,
I pledged my word to my servant, David, saying,
'Everyone descending from you is guaranteed life;
I'll make your rule as solid and lasting as rock.'"
5-18 God! Let the cosmos praise your wonderful ways,
the choir of holy angels sing anthems to your faithful ways!
Search high and low, scan skies and land,
you'll find nothing and no one quite like God.
The holy angels are in awe before him;
he looms immense and august over everyone around him.
God-of-the-Angel-Armies, who is like you,
powerful and faithful from every angle?
You put the arrogant ocean in its place
and calm its waves when they turn unruly.
You gave that old hag Egypt the back of your hand,
you brushed off your enemies with a flick of your wrist.
You own the cosmos—you made everything in it,
everything from atom to archangel.
You positioned the North and South Poles;
the mountains Tabor and Hermon sing duets to you.
With your well-muscled arm and your grip of steel—
nobody trifles with you!
The Right and Justice are the roots of your rule;
Love and Truth are its fruits.
Blessed are the people who know the passwords of praise,
who shout on parade in the bright presence of God.
Delighted, they dance all day long; they know
who you are, what you do—they can't keep it quiet!
Your vibrant beauty has gotten inside us—
you've been so good to us! We're walking on air!
All we are and have we owe to God,
Holy God of Israel, our King!
19-37 A long time ago you spoke in a vision,
you spoke to your faithful beloved:
"I've crowned a hero,
I chose the best I could find;
I found David, my servant,
poured holy oil on his head,
And I'll keep my hand steadily on him,
yes, I'll stick with him through thick and thin.
No enemy will get the best of him,
no scoundrel will do him in.
I'll weed out all who oppose him,
I'll clean out all who hate him.
I'm with him for good and I'll love him forever;
I've set him on high—he's riding high!
I've put Ocean in his one hand, River in the other;
he'll call out, 'Oh, my Father—my God, my Rock of Salvation!'
Yes, I'm setting him apart as the First of the royal line,
High King over all of earth's kings.
I'll preserve him eternally in my love,
I'll faithfully do all I so solemnly promised.
I'll guarantee his family tree
and underwrite his rule.
If his children refuse to do what I tell them,
if they refuse to walk in the way I show them,
If they spit on the directions I give them
and tear up the rules I post for them—
I'll rub their faces in the dirt of their rebellion
and make them face the music.
But I'll never throw them out,
never abandon or disown them.
Do you think I'd withdraw my holy promise?
or take back words I'd already spoken?
I've given my word, my whole and holy word;
do you think I would lie to David?
His family tree is here for good,
his sovereignty as sure as the sun,
Dependable as the phases of the moon,
inescapable as weather."--The Message
Isaiah 59:15b-21
12-15Our wrongdoings pile up before you, God,
our sins stand up and accuse us.
Our wrongdoings stare us down;
we know in detail what we've done:
Mocking and denying God,
not following our God,
Spreading false rumors, inciting sedition,
pregnant with lies, muttering malice.
Justice is beaten back,
Righteousness is banished to the sidelines,
Truth staggers down the street,
Honesty is nowhere to be found,
Good is missing in action.
Anyone renouncing evil is beaten and robbed.
15-19God looked and saw evil looming on the horizon—
so much evil and no sign of Justice.
He couldn't believe what he saw:
not a soul around to correct this awful situation.
So he did it himself, took on the work of Salvation,
fueled by his own Righteousness.
He dressed in Righteousness, put it on like a suit of armor,
with Salvation on his head like a helmet,
Put on Judgment like an overcoat,
and threw a cloak of Passion across his shoulders.
He'll make everyone pay for what they've done:
fury for his foes, just deserts for his enemies.
Even the far-off islands will get paid off in full.
In the west they'll fear the name of God,
in the east they'll fear the glory of God,
For he'll arrive like a river in flood stage,
whipped to a torrent by the wind of God.
20"I'll arrive in Zion as Redeemer,
to those in Jacob who leave their sins."
God's Decree.
21"As for me," God says, "this is my covenant with them: My Spirit that I've placed upon you and the words that I've given you to speak, they're not going to leave your mouths nor the mouths of your children nor the mouths of your grandchildren. You will keep repeating these words and won't ever stop." God's orders.--The Message
Philippians 2:5-11
5-8Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn't think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn't claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion.
9-11Because of that obedience, God lifted him high and honored him far beyond anyone or anything, ever, so that all created beings in heaven and on earth—even those long ago dead and buried—will bow in worship before this Jesus Christ, and call out in praise that he is the Master of all, to the glorious honor of God the Father.--The Message
:Psalm 89:1-4,19-29
An Ethan Prayer
1-4 Your love, God, is my song, and I'll sing it! I'm forever telling everyone how faithful you are.
I'll never quit telling the story of your love—
how you built the cosmos
and guaranteed everything in it.
Your love has always been our lives' foundation,
your fidelity has been the roof over our world.
You once said, "I joined forces with my chosen leader,
I pledged my word to my servant, David, saying,
'Everyone descending from you is guaranteed life;
I'll make your rule as solid and lasting as rock.'"
19-37 A long time ago you spoke in a vision,
you spoke to your faithful beloved:
"I've crowned a hero,
I chose the best I could find;
I found David, my servant,
poured holy oil on his head,
And I'll keep my hand steadily on him,
yes, I'll stick with him through thick and thin.
No enemy will get the best of him,
no scoundrel will do him in.
I'll weed out all who oppose him,
I'll clean out all who hate him.
I'm with him for good and I'll love him forever;
I've set him on high—he's riding high!
I've put Ocean in his one hand, River in the other;
he'll call out, 'Oh, my Father—my God, my Rock of Salvation!'
Yes, I'm setting him apart as the First of the royal line,
High King over all of earth's kings.
I'll preserve him eternally in my love,
I'll faithfully do all I so solemnly promised.
I'll guarantee his family tree
and underwrite his rule.
If his children refuse to do what I tell them,
if they refuse to walk in the way I show them,
If they spit on the directions I give them
and tear up the rules I post for them—
I'll rub their faces in the dirt of their rebellion
and make them face the music.
But I'll never throw them out,
never abandon or disown them.
Do you think I'd withdraw my holy promise?
or take back words I'd already spoken?
I've given my word, my whole and holy word;
do you think I would lie to David?
His family tree is here for good,
his sovereignty as sure as the sun,
Dependable as the phases of the moon,
inescapable as weather."--The Message
2 Samuel 7:1-16
God's Covenant with David
1-2 Before long, the king made himself at home and God gave him peace from all his enemies. Then one day King David said to Nathan the prophet, "Look at this: Here I am, comfortable in a luxurious house of cedar, and the Chest of God sits in a plain tent."
3 Nathan told the king, "Whatever is on your heart, go and do it. God is with you."
4-7 But that night, the word of God came to Nathan saying, "Go and tell my servant David: This is God's word on the matter: You're going to build a 'house' for me to live in? Why, I haven't lived in a 'house' from the time I brought the children of Israel up from Egypt till now. All that time I've moved about with nothing but a tent. And in all my travels with Israel, did I ever say to any of the leaders I commanded to shepherd Israel, 'Why haven't you built me a house of cedar?'
8-11 "So here is what you are to tell my servant David: The God-of-the-Angel-Armies has this word for you: I took you from the pasture, tagging along after sheep, and made you prince over my people Israel. I was with you everywhere you went and mowed your enemies down before you. Now I'm making you famous, to be ranked with the great names on earth. And I'm going to set aside a place for my people Israel and plant them there so they'll have their own home and not be knocked around any more. Nor will evil men afflict you as they always have, even during the days I set judges over my people Israel. Finally, I'm going to give you peace from all your enemies.
11-16 "Furthermore, God has this message for you: God himself will build you a house! When your life is complete and you're buried with your ancestors, then I'll raise up your child, your own flesh and blood, to succeed you, and I'll firmly establish his rule. He will build a house to honor me, and I will guarantee his kingdom's rule permanently. I'll be a father to him, and he'll be a son to me. When he does wrong, I'll discipline him in the usual ways, the pitfalls and obstacles of this mortal life. But I'll never remove my gracious love from him, as I removed it from Saul, who preceded you and whom I most certainly did remove. Your family and your kingdom are permanently secured. I'm keeping my eye on them! And your royal throne will always be there, rock solid."--The Message
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Advent Weekday
First Reading: 2 Samuel 7:1-5, 8-12, 14, 16
God's Covenant with David
1-2 Before long, the king made himself at home and God gave him peace from all his enemies. Then one day King David said to Nathan the prophet, "Look at this: Here I am, comfortable in a luxurious house of cedar, and the Chest of God sits in a plain tent."
3 Nathan told the king, "Whatever is on your heart, go and do it. God is with you."
4-7 But that night, the word of God came to Nathan saying, "Go and tell my servant David: This is God's word on the matter: You're going to build a 'house' for me to live in? Why, I haven't lived in a 'house' from the time I brought the children of Israel up from Egypt till now. All that time I've moved about with nothing but a tent. And in all my travels with Israel, did I ever say to any of the leaders I commanded to shepherd Israel, 'Why haven't you built me a house of cedar?'
8-11 "So here is what you are to tell my servant David: The God-of-the-Angel-Armies has this word for you: I took you from the pasture, tagging along after sheep, and made you prince over my people Israel. I was with you everywhere you went and mowed your enemies down before you. Now I'm making you famous, to be ranked with the great names on earth. And I'm going to set aside a place for my people Israel and plant them there so they'll have their own home and not be knocked around any more. Nor will evil men afflict you as they always have, even during the days I set judges over my people Israel. Finally, I'm going to give you peace from all your enemies.
11-16 "Furthermore, God has this message for you: God himself will build you a house! When your life is complete and you're buried with your ancestors, then I'll raise up your child, your own flesh and blood, to succeed you, and I'll firmly establish his rule. He will build a house to honor me, and I will guarantee his kingdom's rule permanently. I'll be a father to him, and he'll be a son to me. When he does wrong, I'll discipline him in the usual ways, the pitfalls and obstacles of this mortal life. But I'll never remove my gracious love from him, as I removed it from Saul, who preceded you and whom I most certainly did remove. Your family and your kingdom are permanently secured. I'm keeping my eye on them! And your royal throne will always be there, rock solid."--The Message
Psalm: Psalm 89:2-5, 27, 29
An Ethan Prayer
1-4 Your love, God, is my song, and I'll sing it! I'm forever telling everyone how faithful you are.
I'll never quit telling the story of your love—
how you built the cosmos
and guaranteed everything in it.
Your love has always been our lives' foundation,
your fidelity has been the roof over our world.
You once said, "I joined forces with my chosen leader,
I pledged my word to my servant, David, saying,
'Everyone descending from you is guaranteed life;
I'll make your rule as solid and lasting as rock.'"
5-18 God! Let the cosmos praise your wonderful ways,
the choir of holy angels sing anthems to your faithful ways!
Search high and low, scan skies and land,
you'll find nothing and no one quite like God.
The holy angels are in awe before him;
he looms immense and august over everyone around him.
God-of-the-Angel-Armies, who is like you,
powerful and faithful from every angle?
You put the arrogant ocean in its place
and calm its waves when they turn unruly.
You gave that old hag Egypt the back of your hand,
you brushed off your enemies with a flick of your wrist.
You own the cosmos—you made everything in it,
everything from atom to archangel.
You positioned the North and South Poles;
the mountains Tabor and Hermon sing duets to you.
With your well-muscled arm and your grip of steel—
nobody trifles with you!
The Right and Justice are the roots of your rule;
Love and Truth are its fruits.
Blessed are the people who know the passwords of praise,
who shout on parade in the bright presence of God.
Delighted, they dance all day long; they know
who you are, what you do—they can't keep it quiet!
Your vibrant beauty has gotten inside us—
you've been so good to us! We're walking on air!
All we are and have we owe to God,
Holy God of Israel, our King!
19-37 A long time ago you spoke in a vision,
you spoke to your faithful beloved:
"I've crowned a hero,
I chose the best I could find;
I found David, my servant,
poured holy oil on his head,
And I'll keep my hand steadily on him,
yes, I'll stick with him through thick and thin.
No enemy will get the best of him,
no scoundrel will do him in.
I'll weed out all who oppose him,
I'll clean out all who hate him.
I'm with him for good and I'll love him forever;
I've set him on high—he's riding high!
I've put Ocean in his one hand, River in the other;
he'll call out, 'Oh, my Father—my God, my Rock of Salvation!'
Yes, I'm setting him apart as the First of the royal line,
High King over all of earth's kings.
I'll preserve him eternally in my love,
I'll faithfully do all I so solemnly promised.
I'll guarantee his family tree
and underwrite his rule.
If his children refuse to do what I tell them,
if they refuse to walk in the way I show them,
If they spit on the directions I give them
and tear up the rules I post for them—
I'll rub their faces in the dirt of their rebellion
and make them face the music.
But I'll never throw them out,
never abandon or disown them.
Do you think I'd withdraw my holy promise?
or take back words I'd already spoken?
I've given my word, my whole and holy word;
do you think I would lie to David?
His family tree is here for good,
his sovereignty as sure as the sun,
Dependable as the phases of the moon,
inescapable as weather."--The Message
Gospel: Luke 1:67-79
67-79Then Zachariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied,
Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel;
he came and set his people free.
He set the power of salvation in the center of our lives,
and in the very house of David his servant,
Just as he promised long ago
through the preaching of his holy prophets:
Deliverance from our enemies
and every hateful hand;
Mercy to our fathers,
as he remembers to do what he said he'd do,
What he swore to our father Abraham—
a clean rescue from the enemy camp,
So we can worship him without a care in the world,
made holy before him as long as we live.
And you, my child, "Prophet of the Highest,"
will go ahead of the Master to prepare his ways,
Present the offer of salvation to his people,
the forgiveness of their sins.
Through the heartfelt mercies of our God,
God's Sunrise will break in upon us,
Shining on those in the darkness,
those sitting in the shadow of death,
Then showing us the way, one foot at a time,
down the path of peace.--The Message
Christ came to cure our wounds; but since all do not search for the remedy, therefore, He cures those who are willing; He does not force the unwilling. God, for His part, really wills us to be save; otherwise, it would be impossible for us to obtain health and eternal life.-- St. Alphonsus Liguori
SCRIPTURE READING: Daniel 1:11-14
11-13 But Daniel appealed to a steward who had been assigned by the head of the palace staff to be in charge of Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah: "Try us out for ten days on a simple diet of vegetables and water. Then compare us with the young men who eat from the royal menu. Make your decision on the basis of what you see."
14-16 The steward agreed to do it and fed them vegetables and water for ten days. At the end of the ten days they looked better and more robust than all the others who had been eating from the royal menu. So the steward continued to exempt them from the royal menu of food and drink and served them only vegetables.--The Message
KEY VERSE: Daniel then said to the guard . . . , "Please test your servants" (Dan 1:11-12).
Illuminating God's Faithfulness
WWJD (What Would Jesus Do)? This acronym was a trend people followed and a slogan which gained national attention a few years ago. Pieces of jewelry displayed the popular initials, serving as a constant reminder to make decisions based on what you believe Jesus would do in the same situation. The popularity of this slogan became the center of many sarcastic jokes and jesters. Despite the criticism, asking what Jesus would do is a very important question. When we know what God wants us to do, the easier obedience becomes.
Throughout the Book of Daniel, God grants His servants wisdom. Daniel's belief that God would prevail in their captivity was displayed when Daniel tested the guard. He wisely challenged the Babylonian officials in order to keep God's laws. When we sincerely pray and listen to the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we, too, will be given wisdom to know how to act. When we surrender to the ways of society and the ways of humanity, God's glory is concealed. On the contrary, standing firm in our belief when it requires us to be counter-cultural illuminates our faithfulness to a Supreme God, allowing others to see His light in our lives.--Brooke Pointer
SING TO THE LORD
O, for a faith that will not shrink,
Though pressed by every foe,
That will not tremble on the brink
Of any earthly woe!
That will not murmur nor complain
Beneath the chastening rod,
But, in the hour of grief or pain,
Will lean upon its God.
A faith that shines more bright and clear
When tempests rage without;
That when in danger knows no fear,
In darkness feels no doubt.
That bears, unmoved, the world’s dread frown
Nor heeds its scornful smile;
That seas of trouble cannot drown,
Nor Satan’s arts beguile.
A faith that keeps the narrow way
Till life’s last hour is fled,
And with a pure and heavenly ray
Lights up a dying bed.
Lord, give me such a faith as this,
And then, whate’er may come,
I’ll taste, e’en here, the hallowed bliss
Of an eternal home.
"O for a Faith That Will Not Shrink" by William H. Bathurst
REACH OUT IN PRAYER
Developing Christian leaders in Croatia.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
This is a wise, sane Christian faith: that a man commit himself, his life, and his hopes to God; that God undertakes the special protection of that man; that therefore that man ought not to be afraid of anything (G. MacDonald).
SECOND THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
December 24th.
THE HIDDEN LIFE BY OSWALD CHAMBERS
"Your life is hid with Christ in God." Colossians 3:3
The Spirit of God witnesses to the simple almighty security of the life hid with Christ in God and this is continually brought out in the Epistles. We talk as if it were the most precarious thing to live the sanctified life; it is the most secure thing, because it has Almighty God in and behind it. The most precarious thing is to try and live without God. If we are born again it is the easiest thing to live in right relationship to God and the most difficult thing to go wrong, if only we will heed God's warnings and keep in the light.
When we think of being delivered from sin, of being filled with the Spirit, and of walking in the light, we picture the peak of a great mountain, very high and wonderful, and we say - "Oh, but I could never live up there!" But when we do get there by God's grace, we find it is not a mountain peak, but a plateau where there is ample room to live and to grow. "Thou hast enlarged my steps under me."
When you really see Jesus, I defy you to doubt Him. When He says - "Let not your heart be troubled," if you see Him I defy you to trouble your mind, it is a moral impossibility to doubt when He is there. Every time you get into personal contact with Jesus, His words are real. "My peace I give unto you," it is a peace all over from the crown of the head to the sole of the feet, an irrepressible confidence. "Your life is hid with Christ in God," and the imperturbable peace of Jesus Christ is imparted to you.
THIRD THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
Love
When we no longer have the heart of a child who seeks to be an instrument of peace and unity, we either become discouraged or want to prove ourselves. How can we nourish this child's heart? Love can only feed on love. The only way to learn how to love is to love. When the love that is sacrifice begins to grow, words, gestures and flesh itself are permeated with gift and communion.-- Jean Vanier, Community and Growth, p. 193
FOURTH THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
Holding On to the Christ
Life is unpredictable. We can be happy one day and sad the next, healthy one day and sick the next, rich one day and poor the next, alive one day and dead the next. So who is there to hold on to? Who is there to feel secure with? Who is there to trust at all times?
Only Jesus, the Christ. He is our Lord, our shepherd, our rock, our stronghold, our refuge, our brother, our guide, and our friend. He came from God to be with us. He died for us, he was raised from the dead to open for us the way to God, and he is seated at God's right hand to welcome us home. With Paul, we must be certain that "neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nothing already in existence and nothing still to come, nor any power, nor the heights nor the depths, nor any created thing whatever, will be able to come between us and the love of God, known to us in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:38-39).--Henri J. M. Nouwen
THROUGH THE BIBLE IN A YEAR
2 John; 3 John; Jude
1-2My dear congregation, I, your pastor, love you in very truth. And I'm not alone—everyone who knows the Truth that has taken up permanent residence in us loves you.
3Let grace, mercy, and peace be with us in truth and love from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, Son of the Father!
4-6I can't tell you how happy I am to learn that many members of your congregation are diligent in living out the Truth, exactly as commanded by the Father. But permit me a reminder, friends, and this is not a new commandment but simply a repetition of our original and basic charter: that we love each other. Love means following his commandments, and his unifying commandment is that you conduct your lives in love. This is the first thing you heard, and nothing has changed.
Don't Walk Out on God
7There are a lot of smooth-talking charlatans loose in the world who refuse to believe that Jesus Christ was truly human, a flesh-and-blood human being. Give them their true title: Deceiver! Antichrist!
8-9And be very careful around them so you don't lose out on what we've worked so diligently in together; I want you to get every reward you have coming to you. Anyone who gets so progressive in his thinking that he walks out on the teaching of Christ, walks out on God. But whoever stays with the teaching, stays faithful to both the Father and the Son.
10-11If anyone shows up who doesn't hold to this teaching, don't invite him in and give him the run of the place. That would just give him a platform to perpetuate his evil ways, making you his partner.
12-13I have a lot more things to tell you, but I'd rather not use paper and ink. I hope to be there soon in person and have a heart-to-heart talk. That will be far more satisfying to both you and me. Everyone here in your sister congregation sends greetings.
1-4The Pastor, to my good friend Gaius: How truly I love you! We're the best of friends, and I pray for good fortune in everything you do, and for your good health—that your everyday affairs prosper, as well as your soul! I was most happy when some friends arrived and brought the news that you persist in following the way of Truth. Nothing could make me happier than getting reports that my children continue diligently in the way of Truth!
Model the Good
5-8Dear friend, when you extend hospitality to Christian brothers and sisters, even when they are strangers, you make the faith visible. They've made a full report back to the church here, a message about your love. It's good work you're doing, helping these travelers on their way, hospitality worthy of God himself! They set out under the banner of the Name, and get no help from unbelievers. So they deserve any support we can give them. In providing meals and a bed, we become their companions in spreading the Truth.
9-10Earlier I wrote something along this line to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves being in charge, denigrates my counsel. If I come, you can be sure I'll hold him to account for spreading vicious rumors about us.
As if that weren't bad enough, he not only refuses hospitality to traveling Christians but tries to stop others from welcoming them. Worse yet, instead of inviting them in he throws them out.
11Friend, don't go along with evil. Model the good. The person who does good does God's work. The person who does evil falsifies God, doesn't know the first thing about God.
12Everyone has a good word for Demetrius—the Truth itself stands up for Demetrius! We concur, and you know we don't hand out endorsements lightly.
13-14I have a lot more things to tell you, but I'd rather not use pen and ink. I hope to be there soon in person and have a heart-to-heart talk.
Peace to you. The friends here say hello. Greet our friends there by name.
1-2I, Jude, am a slave to Jesus Christ and brother to James, writing to those loved by God the Father, called and kept safe by Jesus Christ. Relax, everything's going to be all right; rest, everything's coming together; open your hearts, love is on the way!
Fight with All You Have in You
3-4Dear friends, I've dropped everything to write you about this life of salvation that we have in common. I have to write insisting—begging!—that you fight with everything you have in you for this faith entrusted to us as a gift to guard and cherish. What has happened is that some people have infiltrated our ranks (our Scriptures warned us this would happen), who beneath their pious skin are shameless scoundrels. Their design is to replace the sheer grace of our God with sheer license—which means doing away with Jesus Christ, our one and only Master.
Lost Stars in Outer Space
5-7I'm laying this out as clearly as I can, even though you once knew all this well enough and shouldn't need reminding. Here it is in brief: The Master saved a people out of the land of Egypt. Later he destroyed those who defected. And you know the story of the angels who didn't stick to their post, abandoning it for other, darker missions. But they are now chained and jailed in a black hole until the great Judgment Day. Sodom and Gomorrah, which went to sexual rack and ruin along with the surrounding cities that acted just like them, are another example. Burning and burning and never burning up, they serve still as a stock warning.
8This is exactly the same program of these latest infiltrators: dirty sex, rule and rulers thrown out, glory dragged in the mud.
9-11The Archangel Michael, who went to the mat with the Devil as they fought over the body of Moses, wouldn't have dared level him with a blasphemous curse, but said simply, "No you don't. God will take care of you!" But these people sneer at anything they can't understand, and by doing whatever they feel like doing—living by animal instinct only—they participate in their own destruction. I'm fed up with them! They've gone down Cain's road; they've been sucked into Balaam's error by greed; they're canceled out in Korah's rebellion.
12-13These people are warts on your love feasts as you worship and eat together. They're giving you a black eye—carousing shamelessly, grabbing anything that isn't nailed down. They're—
Puffs of smoke pushed by gusts of wind;
late autumn trees stripped clean of leaf and fruit,
Doubly dead, pulled up by the roots;
wild ocean waves leaving nothing on the beach
but the foam of their shame;
Lost stars in outer space
on their way to the black hole.
14-16Enoch, the seventh after Adam, prophesied of them: "Look! The Master comes with thousands of holy angels to bring judgment against them all, convicting each person of every defiling act of shameless sacrilege, of every dirty word they have spewed of their pious filth." These are the "grumpers," the bellyachers, grabbing for the biggest piece of the pie, talking big, saying anything they think will get them ahead.
17-19But remember, dear friends, that the apostles of our Master, Jesus Christ, told us this would happen: "In the last days there will be people who don't take these things seriously anymore. They'll treat them like a joke, and make a religion of their own whims and lusts." These are the ones who split churches, thinking only of themselves. There's nothing to them, no sign of the Spirit!
20-21But you, dear friends, carefully build yourselves up in this most holy faith by praying in the Holy Spirit, staying right at the center of God's love, keeping your arms open and outstretched, ready for the mercy of our Master, Jesus Christ. This is the unending life, the real life!
22-23Go easy on those who hesitate in the faith. Go after those who take the wrong way. Be tender with sinners, but not soft on sin. The sin itself stinks to high heaven.
24-25And now to him who can keep you on your feet, standing tall in his bright presence, fresh and celebrating—to our one God, our only Savior, through Jesus Christ, our Master, be glory, majesty, strength, and rule before all time, and now, and to the end of all time. Yes.--The Message
All Scripture quotations not otherwise designated are from the Holy Bible, New International Version® (NIV®). Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.
All hymn texts are taken from the hymnal Sing to the Lord. Copyright © 1993 by Lillenas Publishing Company.
Copyright © 2009 by WordAction Publishing Company. All rights reserved. Http://www.WordAction.com
Commentary of the day :
Saint Alphonsus Liguori (1696-1787), Bishop and Doctor of the Church
Address for the ninth day of Christmas, no. 10
"I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people"
«I proclaim to you news of great joy.» These were the angel's words to the shepherds of Bethlehem. I will repeat them to you today, my faithful friends: I am bringing you news that should give you great joy. For poor exiles, condemned to death, could there be happier news than that of their Savior's appearing, who came not just to deliver them from death but to win for them their return to their homeland? Yet this is precisely what I am proclaiming to you: «A Savior is born to you»...
When a king first makes his entry into one of the towns in his kingdom, the greatest honors are showered on him: what decorations! what triumphal arches! Make yourself ready, then, to receive your King worthily, O happy Bethlehem... Know, the prophet says to you, that of all the cities of the earth you are the most favored, for the heavenly King has chosen you as his birthplace here below that he may later reign, not only over Judah, but over men's hearts everwhere... What will the angels have said on seeing the Mother of God enter a cave to give birth to the King of kings! Princely infants come into the world in bedchambers glittering with gold. They are surrounded by the highest dignitaries in the kingdom. But the King of heaven wished to be born in a cold, unheated stable; for covering he had only poor sheepskin; to rest his limbs only a wretched manger with a little straw...
Ah! Simply to think of the birth of Jesus Christ and the circumstances that accompanied it should enflame us with love. And for us, the mere words 'cave', 'manger', 'straw', 'milk', 'cry', representing the Child of Bethlehem before our eyes as they do, should be so many burning arrows wounding all our hearts with love. O blessed cave, manger and straw! But even more blessed still those souls who fervently and tenderly cherish this loveworthy Lord and who, enflamed with burning charity, receive him in holy communion. With what alacrity and joy does Jesus come to rest in the soul who truly loves him!
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Scriptures and Sermons for Monday, December 28, 2009, Thursday, December 31, 2009, The Wesleyan Covenant Service, and Friday, January1, 2010
The Holy Innocents, Martyrs
December 28, 2009
Prayer of the Day: We remember today, O God, the slaughter of the innocent children of Bethlehem by order of King Herod. Receive into the arms of your mercy all innocent victims. By your great might frustrate the designs of evil tyrants and establish your rule of justice, love, and peace, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
PSALM
Psalm 124
A Pilgrim Song of David
1-5 If God hadn't been for us —all together now, Israel, sing out!—
If God hadn't been for us
when everyone went against us,
We would have been swallowed alive
by their violent anger,
Swept away by the flood of rage,
drowned in the torrent;
We would have lost our lives
in the wild, raging water.
6 Oh, blessed be God!
He didn't go off and leave us.
He didn't abandon us defenseless,
helpless as a rabbit in a pack of snarling dogs.
7 We've flown free from their fangs,
free of their traps, free as a bird.
Their grip is broken;
we're free as a bird in flight.
8 God's strong name is our help,
the same God who made heaven and earth.--The Message
LESSON 1
Jeremiah 31:15-17
15-17Again, God's Message:
"Listen to this! Laments coming out of Ramah, wild and bitter weeping. It's Rachel weeping for her children, Rachel refusing all solace. Her children are gone, gone—long gone into exile." But God says, "Stop your incessant weeping, hold back your tears. Collect wages from your grief work." God's Decree. "They'll be coming back home! There's hope for your children." God's Decree.--The Message
LESSON 2
1 Peter 4:12-19
Glory Just Around the Corner
12-13Friends, when life gets really difficult, don't jump to the conclusion that God isn't on the job. Instead, be glad that you are in the very thick of what Christ experienced. This is a spiritual refining process, with glory just around the corner.
14-16If you're abused because of Christ, count yourself fortunate. It's the Spirit of God and his glory in you that brought you to the notice of others. If they're on you because you broke the law or disturbed the peace, that's a different matter. But if it's because you're a Christian, don't give it a second thought. Be proud of the distinguished status reflected in that name!
17-19It's judgment time for God's own family. We're first in line. If it starts with us, think what it's going to be like for those who refuse God's Message! If good people barely make it, What's in store for the bad? So if you find life difficult because you're doing what God said, take it in stride. Trust him. He knows what he's doing, and he'll keep on doing it.--The Message
Gospel Acclamation: Alleluia. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Alleluia.
GOSPEL
Matthew 2:13-18
13After the scholars were gone, God's angel showed up again in Joseph's dream and commanded, "Get up. Take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt. Stay until further notice. Herod is on the hunt for this child, and wants to kill him."
14-15Joseph obeyed. He got up, took the child and his mother under cover of darkness. They were out of town and well on their way by daylight. They lived in Egypt until Herod's death. This Egyptian exile fulfilled what Hosea had preached: "I called my son out of Egypt."
16-18Herod, when he realized that the scholars had tricked him, flew into a rage. He commanded the murder of every little boy two years old and under who lived in Bethlehem and its surrounding hills. (He determined that age from information he'd gotten from the scholars.) That's when Jeremiah's sermon was fulfilled: A sound was heard in Ramah, weeping and much lament. Rachel weeping for her children, Rachel refusing all solace, Her children gone, dead and buried.--The Message
SERMON OUTLINE
WRITTEN FOR: Monday, December 28, 2009
Title: Persecution in the Midst of Celebration
Scriptures: Matthew 2:13-18
Proposition or Theme Sentence: An earthly king had children killed because he was jealous for his own position as king of the Jews.
Purposes: The realization that even when the promises of God are fulfilled there is pain and suffering in this world.
Introduction: How do you relate to persecution of Christians? How do you relate to Christians who are not always healthy, wealthy, and wise? During this time of celebration of the birth of Jesus, we sometimes forget that at the first Christmas there were a large number of children who were killed in Bethlehem who were two years old and younger. We sometimes ask why God did not prevent the death of these many children as He He saved His own Son from being killed as a baby? In the world of American materialism and consumerism, we sometimes have the impression and thinking that God only blesses through material prosperity. Here we are reminded that even in the celebration of the birth of the promised Messiah, there was weeping because other people’s children were being killed. Even today, we here of children being killed, not just through abortion, but after they have been born because they are treated as objects rather than as people created in the Image of God. Too often, we fight for the right of our unborn babies while remaining silent at the death of children because of war, disease, and ethnic cleansing. This brings me to the idea that true pro-life will be seeking ways to eliminate death of children due to war, disease, and poverty. Yes, I must admit that God was being weeping at the unborn babies being killed by abortion, but how much more must God be weeping over the children who are being overlooked because of disease, impairments, poverty, and war? What are you doing to alleviate the deaths and destruction of children because they have lost parents due to disease or starvation as well as children starving and dying of thirst because of lack of clean water and enough food? What happens if God allowed this global economic crisis to happen because we need to begin to love all people with unconditional love as God loves us and to get our priorities straight concerning our responsibilities for the dying children because of disease, war, and environmental abuse?
I. After the wise men or scholars received a dream to go home by a different route, Joseph received a God-dream to take Mary and Jesus to Egypt.
A. The celebration of the birth of the promised Messiah brought tragedy to other families with young children.
B. The king of Jews approved by the Roman government did not want any rivalries to his throne and position of authority.
C. The non-Jewish scholars loved the Jewish God enough to listen and obey Him.
II. The weeping of families at the death of their children two years old and younger by their king.
A. The king discovered that the wise men or scholars failed to return to him to tell him where the new born king of the Jews resided.
B. The king ordered or commanded that all children that were two years old and younger to kill the new born King of the Jews.
C. Jesus escaped this mass murder of other children by Joseph’s obedience to God.
III. The lessons from this mass killings in Bethlehem to the 21st century people.
A. God is calling on His people to find ways to alleviate the pain and death of children due to war, disease, and poverty.
B. God knows that if were truly practiced the two greatest commandments to love God with our whole heart, mind, body, spirit, and soul as well as to love our neighbor unconditionally as God loves us there would be less suffering.
C. God does know that there will one day be no more suffering, but until that day we are to partner with HIm to love and be loved towards all people.
Conclusion: We come to the time to allow God’s Holy Spirit to search our hearts, minds, and lives to see that we are consistent in living out His love to all His creation. Where we need to repent of our sins, we come and seek God’s forgiveness in our actions as well as our words to love Him and other people unconditionally.
Invitation: We come seeking more of God’s love to live in His love as we take and eat the Body of Jesus and drink His Blood through the Holy Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. We come singing from the Praise and Worship hymn#287 “Hark! the Voice of Jesus Calling” or from the Worship in Song hymn#190 “A Charge to Keep I Have” or from the Sing to the Lord hymn#531 “Because I Have Been Given Much.”
Closing Prayer and Benediction: Holy Father, we come and realize that we have fallen short of loving your with our whole being and loving others unconditionally as You love us. We realize that even in the prayer you taught your disciples, we pray for your will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. Let us pray together:
Our Father, Who art in heaven Hallowed be Thy Name; Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. In the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace.
New Year's Eve
December 31, 2009
Prayer of the Day: Eternal God, you have placed us in a world of space and time, and through the events of our lives you bless us with your love. Grant that in the new year we may know your presence, see your love at work, and live in the light of the event that gives us joy forever – the coming of your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
PSALM
Psalm 8
A David Psalm
1 God, brilliant Lord, yours is a household name.
2 Nursing infants gurgle choruses about you;
toddlers shout the songs
That drown out enemy talk,
and silence atheist babble.
3-4 I look up at your macro-skies, dark and enormous,
your handmade sky-jewelry,
Moon and stars mounted in their settings.
Then I look at my micro-self and wonder,
Why do you bother with us?
Why take a second look our way?
5-8 Yet we've so narrowly missed being gods,
bright with Eden's dawn light.
You put us in charge of your handcrafted world,
repeated to us your Genesis-charge,
Made us lords of sheep and cattle,
even animals out in the wild,
Birds flying and fish swimming,
whales singing in the ocean deeps.
9 God, brilliant Lord,
your name echoes around the world.--The Message
LESSON 1
Ecclesiastes 3:1-13
There's a Right Time for Everything
1 There's an opportune time to do things, a right time for everything on the earth:
2-8 A right time for birth and another for death,
A right time to plant and another to reap,
A right time to kill and another to heal,
A right time to destroy and another to construct,
A right time to cry and another to laugh,
A right time to lament and another to cheer,
A right time to make love and another to abstain,
A right time to embrace and another to part,
A right time to search and another to count your losses,
A right time to hold on and another to let go,
A right time to rip out and another to mend,
A right time to shut up and another to speak up,
A right time to love and another to hate,
A right time to wage war and another to make peace.
9-13 But in the end, does it really make a difference what anyone does? I've had a good look at what God has given us to do—busywork, mostly. True, God made everything beautiful in itself and in its time—but he's left us in the dark, so we can never know what God is up to, whether he's coming or going. I've decided that there's nothing better to do than go ahead and have a good time and get the most we can out of life. That's it—eat, drink, and make the most of your job. It's God's gift.--The Message
LESSON 2
Revelation 21:1-6a
Everything New
1I saw Heaven and earth new-created. Gone the first Heaven, gone the first earth, gone the sea. 2I saw Holy Jerusalem, new-created, descending resplendent out of Heaven, as ready for God as a bride for her husband. 3-5I heard a voice thunder from the Throne: "Look! Look! God has moved into the neighborhood, making his home with men and women! They're his people, he's their God. He'll wipe every tear from their eyes. Death is gone for good—tears gone, crying gone, pain gone—all the first order of things gone." The Enthroned continued, "Look! I'm making everything new. Write it all down—each word dependable and accurate."
6-8Then he said, "It's happened. I'm A to Z. I'm the Beginning, I'm the Conclusion. From Water-of-Life Well I give freely to the thirsty. Conquerors inherit all this. I'll be God to them, they'll be sons and daughters to me. But for the rest—the feckless and faithless, degenerates and murderers, sex peddlers and sorcerers, idolaters and all liars—for them it's Lake Fire and Brimstone. Second death!"--The Message
Gospel Acclamation: Alleluia. O God, you have been our refuge from one generation to another. Alleluia.
GOSPEL
Matthew 25:31-46
The Sheep and the Goats
31-33"When he finally arrives, blazing in beauty and all his angels with him, the Son of Man will take his place on his glorious throne. Then all the nations will be arranged before him and he will sort the people out, much as a shepherd sorts out sheep and goats, putting sheep to his right and goats to his left.
34-36"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Enter, you who are blessed by my Father! Take what's coming to you in this kingdom. It's been ready for you since the world's foundation. And here's why: I was hungry and you fed me, I was thirsty and you gave me a drink, I was homeless and you gave me a room, I was shivering and you gave me clothes, I was sick and you stopped to visit, I was in prison and you came to me.'
37-40"Then those 'sheep' are going to say, 'Master, what are you talking about? When did we ever see you hungry and feed you, thirsty and give you a drink? And when did we ever see you sick or in prison and come to you?' Then the King will say, 'I'm telling the solemn truth: Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me—you did it to me.'
41-43"Then he will turn to the 'goats,' the ones on his left, and say, 'Get out, worthless goats! You're good for nothing but the fires of hell. And why? Because— I was hungry and you gave me no meal, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was homeless and you gave me no bed, I was shivering and you gave me no clothes, Sick and in prison, and you never visited.'
44"Then those 'goats' are going to say, 'Master, what are you talking about? When did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or homeless or shivering or sick or in prison and didn't help?'
45"He will answer them, 'I'm telling the solemn truth: Whenever you failed to do one of these things to someone who was being overlooked or ignored, that was me—you failed to do it to me.'
46"Then those 'goats' will be herded to their eternal doom, but the 'sheep' to their eternal reward."--The Message
SERMON OUTLINE
WRITTEN FOR: New Year’s Eve, Thursday, December 31, 2009
Title: Remembering the past to reorient our future
Scriptures: Matthew 25:31-46
Proposition or Theme Sentence: The closing of the old year to enter the new year bring us to a time to search our lives for our priorities in line with God’s priorities.
Purposes: The coming to God to renew our covenant with Him to be His hands and feet in this world.
Introduction: How do you really look at the past years failures and accomplishments? We look back at our past year to see where we have been consistent to be living as the sheep rather than as the goats. The way this year began was with a global economic crisis with many people being hurt by the way certain people have sought to seek their riches at the expenses of other people. Yes, even these people have meant well in giving some compassion to people that is more out of guilt rather than out of love. We look at this parable by Jesus about when He comes and divides His human creation according to what they have done or not done with the grace and love that Hs been given to them. I am always reminded of Keith Green’s rendition of this passage of Scripture, so I read to you his rendition as:
And when the Son of Man comes, and all the Holy Angels with Him,
Then shall He sit on His Glorious throne,
And He will divide the nations before Him, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
And He shall put the sheep on His right and the goats on His left,
And He shall say to the sheep; come ye, blessed of My Father,
inherit the Kingdom I have prepared for you from the foundation of the world,
For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat,
I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink,
I was naked, and you clothed Me,
I was a stranger, and you invited Me in,
I was sick, and I was in prison, and you came to Me.
Thank you! Enter into your rest.
And they shall answer Him, yes, they shall answer Him,
And they'll say, Lord, when?
When were You hungry Lord, and we gave You something to eat?
Lord, when were You thirsty? I can't remember. And we gave You drink?
Huh, when were You naked Lord, and we clothed You?
And Lord, when were You a stranger and we invited You in?
I mean, we invited lots of people in Lord. I could never forget that face.
And Lord, when were You sick and we visited You?
Or in prison, and we came to You? Lord, tell us?
In as much as you did it to the least of My bretheren, you've done it unto Me.
Oh yes, as much as you've done it to the very least of My bretheren, you've done it,
you've done it unto Me. Enter into your rest.
Then He shall turn to those on His left, the goats.
Depart from Me, you cursed ones, into everlasting fire,
prepared for the devil and his angels.
For I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat,
I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink,
I was naked, out in the cold, in exposure, and you sent me away,
I was a stranger, and I knocked at your door,
But you didn't open, you told Me to go away,
I was sick, racked in pain upon My bed,
And I begged, and prayed, and pleaded that you'd come, but you didn't,
I was in prison, and I rotted there,
I'd prayed that you'd come.
I heard your programs on the radio, I read your magazines, but you never came.
Depart from Me!!!
Lord, there must be some mistake, when?
Lord, I mean, when were You hungry Lord and we didn't give You something to eat?
And Lord, when were You thirsty, and we didn't give You drink?
I mean, that's not fair, well, would You like something now?
Would one of the Angels like to go out and get the Lord a hamburger and a coke?
Oh, You're not hungry, yeah, I lost my appetite too.
Uh Lord uh, Lord, when were You naked,
I mean Lord, that's not fair either Lord,
We didn't know what size You wear.
Oh Lord, when were You a stranger Lord,
You weren't one of those creepy people who used to come to the door, were you?
Oh Lord, that wasn't our ministry Lord. We just didn't feel led, you know?
Lord, when were You sick? What did You have, anyway?
Well, at least it wasn't fatal; oh, it was?
I'm sorry Lord, I would have sent You a card.
Lord, just one last thing we want to know,
When were You in prison Lord? What were You in for anyway?
I had a friend in Levenworth..
ENOUGH!
In as much as you've not done it unto the least of My bretheren,
You've not done it unto Me.
In as much as you've not done it unto the least of My bretheren,
You've not done it unto Me. Depart from Me.
And these shall go away into everlasting fire.
But the righteous into eternal life!
And my friends, the only difference between the sheep and the goats, according to this scripture,
is what they did, and didn't do!!
How do you react to these of Jesus in relationship to what you have done and not done this past year and how you want God to lead you into His full ways this coming year?
I. The way Jesus shared about the rewards in the time He returns.
A. Jesus first addresses the sheep who have been obedient.
B. Jesus shares what they have done for the least of these our brothers and sisters.
C. Jesus shares their reward for the actions.
II. The way Jesus shared about the punishment in the time He returns.
A. Jesus lastly addresses the goats for their disobedience.
B. Jesus shares what they have not done to the least of these brothers and sisters.
C. Jesus shares their punishment for their lack of action of God’s love towards them.
III. The lessons for us as we move from the year 2009 into the new year of 2010.
A. Allow God to search our lives, hearts, and minds to see where we have been disobedient or obedient to His commands to us.
B. We come to realize that we have a chance to confess to repent of our sins against what He has called us to do.
C. Through the Wesleyan Covenant Service, we begin the new year 2010 with renewed hope in following Him fully in our lives.
Conclusion: We take this time to follow the Wesleyan Covenant confess our sins and renew our vows to follow Jesus in His ways and love.
The John Wesley Covenant Service
"In those days, at that time"—God's Decree— "the people of Israel will come, And the people of Judah with them. Walking and weeping, they'll seek me, their God. They'll ask directions to Zion and set their faces toward Zion. They'll come and hold tight to God, bound in a covenant eternal they'll never forget.
Jeremiah 50:4-5--The Message
PREFACE
In his journal entry for August 6, 1755, Wesley wrote: I mentioned to the congregation another means of increasing serious religion, which has been frequently practiced by our forefathers and attended with eminent blessing; namely, the joining in a covenant to serve God with all our heart and with all our soul.
Wesley’s first formal Covenant Service was held in the French Church at Spitalfields on August 11, 1755, when he recited the words of that blessed man, Richard Alleine. At the close of that service all the people stood up, in testimony of assent, to the number of about 1800 persons. Such a night I scarce ever saw before. Surely the fruit of it shall remain forever.
The Covenant Service was published as a pamphlet by Wesley in 1780 and was used without alteration for nearly a century. The repeated revisions made later have left but the smallest remnants of the original. It is believed that the restoration of large portions of Wesley’s service will bring deeper meaning to the renewing of our covenant with God. It has been abridged and edited especially to this hymnal [Hymns of Faith and Life, published by Light and Life Press and Wesley Press, 1976] to provide for greater congregational participation. With few exceptions the dignity and the striking phraseology of Wesley’s language, including his numerous scriptural allusions, have been preserved.
The service should be a reminder of our condition as sinners, our solemn obligation to reaffirm our covenant relationship with God, and an opportunity for a fresh experience of the reality of Gods promises and presence.
A Covenant Service, following John Wesley’s traditional practice, is especially appropriate for watch night or for the first Sunday of the new year and is designed THE SERVICE
HYMN #95: O God, Our Help in Ages Past
Text: Isaac Watts, 1674-1748
Music: Attr. to William Croft; harm. by W.H. Monk
Tune: ST. ANNE, Meter: CM
1. O God, our help in ages past,
our hope for years to come,
our shelter from the stormy blast,
and our eternal home.
2. Under the shadow of thy throne,
still may we dwell secure;
sufficient is thine arm alone,
and our defense is sure.
3. Before the hills in order stood,
or earth received her frame,
from everlasting, thou art God,
to endless years the same.
4. A thousand ages, in thy sight,
are like an evening gone;
short as the watch that ends the night,
before the rising sun.
5. Time, like an ever rolling stream,
bears all who breathe away;
they fly forgotten, as a dream
dies at the opening day.
6. O God, our help in ages past,
our hope for years to come;
be thou our guide while life shall last,
and our eternal home.
Pastor:
Let us pray.
Almighty God, unto whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid: Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of Thy Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love Thee and worthily magnify Thy holy name; through Christ our Lord. Amen.
THE LORDS PRAYER
Our Father in heaven, Reveal who you are. Set the world right; Do what's best— as above, so below. Keep us alive with three square meals. Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others. Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil. You're in charge! You can do anything you want! You're ablaze in beauty! Yes. Yes. Yes.--The Message
Pastor:
My dear friends: Get these three principles fixed in your hearts: that things eternal are much more substantial than things temporal; that things not seen are as certain as the things that are seen; that upon your present choice depends your eternal lot. Choose Christ and His ways, and you are blessed forever; refuse, and you are undone forever.
And then, beloved, make your choice. Turn either to the right hand or to the left; Christ with His yoke, His cross, and His crown; or the devil with his wealth, his pleasure, and curse. Then ask yourselves, Soul, you see what is before you; what will you do? Which will you have, either the crown or the curse? If you choose the crown, remember that the day you take this, you must be content to submit to the cross and yoke, the service and sufferings of Christ, which are linked to it. What do you say? Had you rather take the gains and pleasures of sin and risk the curse? Or will you yield yourself a servant to Christ and so make sure the crown?
Do not delay the matter. If you are unresolved, you are resolved: if you remain undetermined for Christ, you are determined for the devil. Therefore follow your hearts from day to day; let them not rest till the matter be brought to an issue, and see that you make a good choice.
Next, embark with Christ. Adventure yourselves with Him. Cast yourselves upon His righteousness. You are exiles from the presence of God and fallen into a land of robbers and murderers. Your sins are robbers, your pleasures are robbers, your companions in sin are robbers and thieves. If you stay where you are, you perish. Christ offers, if you will venture with Him, to bring you to God. Will you say now to Him, Lord Jesus, wilt Thou undertake for me? Wilt Thou bring me to God and bring me into the land of promise? With Thee I will venture myself. I cast myself upon thee, upon Thy blood, upon thy righteousness.
This is coming to Christ as your priest. And by this you now renounce your own righteousness.
Do you deeply sense your sins and misery without Christ?
CONFESSION
Congregation:
We acknowledge a deep sense of sin and misery. We see our- selves as sinners in need of a Savior. The spirit of God has awakened us; a kind of awakening, as it were, in hell. We cry,
Lord, what am I! What mean these legions round about me? These chains and fetters that are upon me?
Lord, where am I! Is there no hope of escaping out of this wretched state? I am but dead, if I continue as I am. What may I do to be saved?
Pastor:
Being made sensible of his sin and his danger, a sinner will look for help and deliverance, but he will look everywhere else before he looks unto Christ. Nothing will bring a sinner to Christ but absolute necessity. He will try to forsake his sins. He will go to prayers, and sermons, and sacraments and search out if there be salvation in them. But all these, though they be useful in their places, are of no help. His duties cannot help him; these may be reckoned among his sins. Ordinances cannot help; these are but empty cisterns. They all tell him, You knock at a wrong door; salvation is not in us.
Do you now utterly despair of your own goodness, or do you trust in anything but Christ?
SUPPLICATION
Congregation:
Lord, be merciful to me. What shall I do?
Abide as I am I dare not, and how to help myself I know not. My praying will not help me. My hearing will not help me. If I give all my goods to the poor, if I should give my body to be burned, all this would not save my soul. Woe is me. What shall I do?
Pastor:
You must let your sins go. You must let your righteousness go. Christ came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. He came to seek and to save them that are lost.
Friends, will you now adventure on Christ? You have this threefold assurance:
First, Gods ordination. Christ is He whom God the Father hath appointed and sent into the world to save sinners. This is He whom God the Father has sealed as the Savior who is redeeming and reconciling the world to himself. Second, Gods command. This is His commandment, that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ. Third, the promise of God. Behold, I lay in Zion a chief corner stone, elect, precious; and he that believeth on him, shall not be confounded.
Now, having this threefold assurance of God’s ordination, command, and promise, you may now be bold to adventure on Christ and to apply yourselves to Him.
Pastor and Congregation:
Lord, Jesus, here I am, a lost creature, an enemy to God, under His wrath and curse. Wilt Thou, Lord, undertake for me, reconcile me to God, and save my soul? Do not, Lord, refuse me, for if Thou refuse me, to whom then shall I go?
If I had come in my own name, Thou mightest well have put me back; but since I come as the command of the Father, reject me not. Lord, help me. Lord, save me.
I come, Lord. I believe, Lord. I throw myself upon Thy grace and mercy. I cast myself upon Thy blood. Do not refuse me. I have not whither else to go. Here I will stay. On Thee I will trust, and rest, and venture myself. On Thee I lay my hope for pardon, for life, for salvation. If I perish, I perish on Thy shoulders. If I sink, I sink in Thy vessel. If I die, I die at Thy door. Bid me not go away, for I will not go.
COMMITMENT
Pastor:
Yield yourselves now to the Lord. As his servants, give up the dominion and government of yourselves to Christ. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves to God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. To whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey. Yield yourselves so to the Lord that you may henceforth be the Lords.
Those that yield themselves to sin and the world, their hearts say, Sin, I am yours; World, I am yours; Riches, I am yours; Pleasures, I am yours.
Rather, with the psalmist, we say to the Lord:
Pastor and Congregation:
I am Thine, I reverence Thee. I dedicate myself to Thy service.
Pastor:
In so giving yourselves to the Lord, you affirm that you will be heartily contented that He appoint you to your work.
Let Him appoint you to your work. Christ has many services to be done; some are more easy and honorable, others more difficult and menial.
Some are suitable to our inclinations and interests; others are contrary to both. In some we may please Christ and please ourselves, as when he requires us to feed and clothe ourselves. Indeed, there are some spiritual duties that are more pleasing than others; as to rejoice in the Lord, to be blessing and praising of God. These are the sweet works of a Christian. But then there are other works, wherein we cannot please Christ but by denying ourselves, as in bearing and forbearing, reproving men for their sins, withdrawing from their company; witnessing against their wickedness; confessing Christ and His name, when it will cost us shame and reproach; sailing against the wind, swimming against the tide, parting with our liberties and accommodations for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
See what it is that Christ expects and then yield yourselves to His whole will. Do not think of making your own terms with Christ; that will never be allowed you. Let us now approach Christ in prayer.
Pastor and Congregation:
Lord Jesus, if Thou wilt receive me into Thy house, if Thou wilt but own me as Thy servant, I will not stand upon terms. Impose on me what condition Thou pleasest; write down Thy own articles; command me what Thou wilt; let me be Thy servant.
Make me what Thou wilt, Lord, and set me where Thou wilt. Let me be a vessel of silver or gold, or a vessel of wood or stone; so I be a vessel of honor, I am content. If I be not the head, or the eye, or the ear, one of the nobler and more honorable instruments Thou wilt employ, let me be the hand, or the foot, as one of the lowest and least esteemed of all the servants of my Lord.
Lord, put me to what Thou wilt; rank me with whom Thou wilt.
Put me to doing; put me to suffering.
Let me be employed for Thee, or laid aside for Thee, exalted for Thee, or trodden underfoot for Thee.
Let me be full; let me be empty.
Let me have all things; let me have nothing.
I freely and heartily resign all to Thy pleasure and disposal.
HYMN #455:
Take My Life and Let It Be Consecrated
Frances R. Havergal
1874
Take my life and let it be Consecrated, Lord, to Thee; Take my hands and let them move At the impulse of Thy love.
Take my feet and let them be Swift and beautiful for Thee; Take my voice and let me sing, Always, only for my King.
Take my lips and let them be Filled with messages from Thee; Take my silver and my gold, Not a mite would I withhold.
Take my moments and my days, Let them flow in endless praise; Take my intellect and use Every pow’r as Thou shalt choose.
Take my will and make it Thine, It shall be no longer mine; Take my heart, it is Thine own, It shall be Thy royal throne.
Take my love, my Lord, I pour At Thy feet its treasure store; Take myself and I will be Ever, only, all for Thee.
CONFESSION
Pastor:
Beloved, such a commitment to Christ as you have now made is that wherein the essence of Christianity lies. When you have chosen God to be your portion and happiness; when you have laid all your hopes upon Christ, casting yourself wholly upon the merits of His righteousness; when you have understandingly and heartily resigned and given up yourselves to Him; then you are Christians indeed, and never till then. Christ will be the Savior of none but of His servants. He is the Author of eternal salvation to those who obey Him. Christ will have no servants but by consent. His people are a willing people, and Christ will accept of no consent but in full to all that He requires. He will be all in all, or He will be nothing.
THE COVENANT
And now, let us confirm our commitment by a solemn covenant, beginning with the singing of a covenant hymn.
(The congregation will join in singing the following hymn, published by Charles Wesley in 1762 and based on Jeremiah 50:5. Among early Methodists it became popularly known as the Covenant Hymn. It should be sung to the tune of Hymn #147, O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing.)
1 COME, let us use the grace divine, And all, with one accord, In a perpetual covenant join Ourselves to CHRIST the LORD:
2 Give up ourselves, through Jesu's power, His name to glorify; And promise, in this sacred hour, For GOD to live and die.
3 The covenant we this moment make Be ever kept in mind: We will no more our God forsake, Or cast his words behind.
4 We never will throw off his fear Who hears our solemn vow: And if thou art well-pleased to hear, Come down, and meet us now!
5 Thee, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, Let all our hearts receive; Present with the Celestial host, The peaceful answer give!
6 To each the covenant blood apply, Which takes our sins away; And register our names on high, And keep us to that day!
Congregation:
We acknowledge a deep sense of sin and misery. We see ourselves as sinners in need of a Savior. The spirit of God has awakened us; a kind of awakening, as it were, in hell. We cry,
Lord, what am I! What mean these legions round about me? These chains and fetters that are upon me?
Lord, where am I! Is there no hope of escaping out of this wretched state? I am but dead, if I continue as I am. What may I do to be saved?
Pastor:
Being made sensible of his sin and his danger, a sinner will look for help and deliverance, but he will look everywhere else before he looks unto Christ. Nothing will bring a sinner to Christ but absolute necessity. He will try to forsake his sins. He will go to prayers, and sermons, and sacraments and search out if there be salvation in them. But all these, though they be useful in their places, are of no help. His duties cannot help him; these may be reckoned among his sins. Ordinances cannot help; these are but empty cisterns. They all tell him, You knock at a wrong door; salvation is not in us.
Do you now utterly despair of your own goodness, or do you trust in anything but Christ?
SUPPLICATION
Congregation:
Lord, be merciful to me. What shall I do?
Abide as I am I dare not, and how to help myself I know not. My praying will not help me. My hearing will not help me. If I give all my goods to the poor, if I should give my body to be burned, all this would not save my soul. Woe is me. What shall I do?
Pastor:
You must let your sins go. You must let your righteousness go. Christ came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. He came to seek and to save them that are lost.
Friends, will you now adventure on Christ? You have this threefold assurance:
First, Gods ordination. Christ is He whom God the Father hath appointed and sent into the world to save sinners. This is He whom God the Father has sealed as the Savior who is redeeming and reconciling the world
Come, let us use the grace divine, And all, with one accord,
In a perpetual covenant join Ourselves to Christ the Lord.
Give up ourselves, through Jesus power,
His name to glorify; And promise, in this sacred hour,
For God to live and die.
The covenant we this moment make Be ever kept in mind:
We will no more our God forsake, Or cast His words behind.
We never will throw off His fear Who hears our solemn vow;
And if Thou art well pleased to hear, Come down, and meet us now.
Pastor:
To each the covenant blood apply, which takes our sins away;
And register our names on high, and keep us to that day.
Search your hearts whether you either have already, or can now freely, make this commitment to God in Christ. First, consider what your sins are and examine whether you can resolve to forego them all. Consider what the laws of Christ are, how holy, strict, and spiritual, and whether you can, upon deliberation, make choice of them all as the rule of your whole life.
Second, compose your spirits into the most serious frame possible, suitable to a transaction of so high importance.
Third, lay hold on the covenant of God and rely upon His promise of giving grace and strength, whereby you may be enabled to perform your promise. Trust not to your own strength but take hold on His strength.
Fourth, resolve to be faithful. Having engaged your hearts, opened your mouths, and subscribed with your hands to the Lord, resolve in His strength never to go back.
Last, being thus prepared, in the most solemn manner possible, as if the Lord were visibly present before your eyes, bow and open your hearts to the Lord.
Pastor and Congregation:
O most holy God, I beseech Thee accept the poor prodigal now prostrating himself at Thy door. I have fallen from Thee by my iniquity and am by nature a son of death and a thousandfold more the child of hell by my wicked practice. But of Thy infinite grace Thou hast promised mercy to me in Christ if I will but turn to Thee with all my heart. Therefore upon the call of Thy gospel, I am now come and, throwing down my weapons, submit myself to Thy mercy.
And because Thou requirest, as the condition of my peace with Thee, that I should put away my idols and be at defiance with all Thy enemies, I here from the bottom of my heart renounce them all. I firmly covenant with Thee not to allow myself in any known sin, but conscientiously to use all the means that I know Thou hast prescribed, for the death and utter destruction of all my corruptions. I humbly affirm before Thy glorious majesty that it is the firm resolution of my heart to forsake all that is dear unto me in this world, rather than to turn from Thee to the ways of sin. I will watch against all its temptations whether of prosperity or adversity, lest they should withdraw my heart from Thee.
And since Thou hast, of Thy boundless mercy, offered graciously to me to be my God through Christ, I call heaven and earth to record this day, that I do here solemnly avouch Thee for the Lord my God. I do here take Thee, the Lord Jehovah, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, for my portion and do give up myself, body and soul, for Thy servant, promising and vowing to serve Thee in holiness and righteousness all the days of my life.
And since Thou has appointed the Lord Jesus Christ the only means of coming unto Thee, I do here upon the bended knees of my soul solemnly join myself in a marriage-covenant to Him. O blessed Jesus, I come to Thee hungry, wretched, miserable,blind, and naked, unworthy to wash the feet of the servants of my Lord, much less to be solemnly married to the King of Glory. But since such is Thy unparalleled love, I do here with all my power accept Thee and take Thee for my Head and Husband, to love, honor, and obey Thee before all others, and this to the death. I renounce my own worthiness and do here avow Thee for the Lord my righteousness. I renounce my own wisdom and do here take Thee for my only guide. I renounce my own will and take Thy will for my law.
And since Thou hast told me I must suffer if I will reign, I do here covenant with Thee to take my lot, as it falls, with Thee and by Thy grace to run all hazards with Thee, purposing that neither life nor death shall part between Thee and me.
Now, Almighty God, Searcher of Hearts, Thou knowest that I make this covenant with Thee this day, without any known guile or reservation, beseeching Thee that if Thou seest any flaw or falsehood therein, Thou wouldst reveal it to me and help me to put it right.
HYMN #298:
Spirit of God, Descend Upon My Heart
Text: George Croly, 1780-1860
Music: Frederick C. Atkinson, 1841-1897
Tune: MORECAMBE, Meter: 10 10.10 10
1. Spirit of God, descend upon my heart;
wean it from earth; through all its pulses move;
stoop to my weakness, mighty as thou art,
and make me love thee as I ought to love.
2. I ask no dream, no prophet ecstasies,
no sudden rending of the veil of clay,
no angel visitant, no opening skies;
but take the dimness of my soul away.
3. Has thou not bid me love thee, God and King?
All, all thine own, soul, heart and strength and mind.
I see thy cross; there teach my heart to cling.
O let me seek thee, and O let me find.
4. Teach me to feel that thou art always nigh;
teach me the struggles of the soul to bear.
To check the rising doubt, the rebel sigh,
teach me the patience of unanswered prayer.
5. Teach me to love thee as thine angels love,
one holy passion filling all my frame;
the kindling of the heaven-descended Dove,
my heart an altar, and thy love the flame.
Pastor and Congregation (standing):
And now, glory be to thee, O God the Father, whom I shall be bold from this day forward to look upon as my God and Father. Glory be to Thee, O God the Son, who hast loved me and washed me from my sins in Thy own blood and art now become my Savior and Redeemer. Glory be to Thee, O God the Holy Ghost, who by Thy almighty power hast turned my heart from sin to God.
O eternal Jehovah, the Lord God Omnipotent, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, Thou art now become my Covenant-Friend, and I, through Thy infinite grace, am become Thy Covenant-Servant. And the Covenant which I have made on earth, let it be ratified in heaven. Amen.
Invitation: Let us follow the way of Jesus to remember His Passover meal for us:
COMMUNION CLOSING PRAYER
On the night before He was crucified, Jesus had the Passover meal with His disciples and took the bread and wine starting a new ritual covenant along with the Passover meal. Jesus took the bread and break blessing it saying that this is my body broken for you, then He took the wine and said that this is His blood shed for you. I call upon you to do this to remember what I have done for each of you and he world. We take part in this Holy Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist expecting His renewal of our lives for the year, 2010, coming forth in His holiness, grace, love, and peace. We come singing the song written by Melody Green and her husband, Keith Green, called “There is a Redeemer:”
There is a redeemer, Jesus, God's own Son, Precious Lamb of God, Messiah, Holy One, Jesus my redeemer, Name above all names, Precious Lamb of God, Messiah, Oh, for sinners slain.
Thank you oh my father, For giving us Your Son, And leaving Your Spirit, 'Til the work on Earth is done. When I stand in Glory, I will see His face, And there I'll serve my King forever, In that Holy Place.
Thank you oh my father, For giving us Your Son, And leaving Your Spirit, 'Til the work on Earth is done. There is a redeemer, Jesus, God's own Son
Precious Lamb of God, Messiah, Holy One, Thank you oh my father, For giving us Your Son, And leaving Your Spirit, 'Til the work on Earth is done. And leaving Your Spirit, 'Till the work on Earth is done.
Holy Father, we come to you and thank you for the year 2009 and your grace in our lives. You have been there with us and we ask for your grace for this new year, 2010, to be the people you have called us to be. We come together praying the prayer that Jesus taught His disciples and us:
Our Father in heaven, Reveal who you are. Set the world right; Do what's best— as above, so below. Keep us alive with three square meals. Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others. Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil. You're in charge! You can do anything you want! You're ablaze in beauty! Yes. Yes. Yes.
In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen!!!
Closing Prayer and Benediction: We pray again the prayer that You taught your disciples when they asked You to teach them to pray as You prayed:
Our Father, Who art in heaven Hallowed be Thy Name; Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. In the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace.
Name of Jesus
January 1, 2010
Prayer of the Day: Eternal Father, you gave your incarnate Son the holy name of Jesus to be a sign of our salvation. Plant in every heart the love of the Savior of the world, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
PSALM
Psalm 8
A David Psalm
1 God, brilliant Lord, yours is a household name.
2 Nursing infants gurgle choruses about you;
toddlers shout the songs
That drown out enemy talk,
and silence atheist babble.
3-4 I look up at your macro-skies, dark and enormous,
your handmade sky-jewelry,
Moon and stars mounted in their settings.
Then I look at my micro-self and wonder,
Why do you bother with us?
Why take a second look our way?
5-8 Yet we've so narrowly missed being gods,
bright with Eden's dawn light.
You put us in charge of your handcrafted world,
repeated to us your Genesis-charge,
Made us lords of sheep and cattle,
even animals out in the wild,
Birds flying and fish swimming,
whales singing in the ocean deeps.
9 God, brilliant Lord,
your name echoes around the world.--The Message
LESSON 1
Numbers 6:22-27
The Aaronic Blessing
22-23 God spoke to Moses: "Tell Aaron and his sons, This is how you are to bless the People of Israel. Say to them,
24 God bless you and keep you,
25 God smile on you and gift you,
26 God look you full in the face
and make you prosper.
27 In so doing, they will place my name on the People of Israel—
I will confirm it by blessing them."--The Message
LESSON 2
Galatians 4:4-7
4-7But when the time arrived that was set by God the Father, God sent his Son, born among us of a woman, born under the conditions of the law so that he might redeem those of us who have been kidnapped by the law. Thus we have been set free to experience our rightful heritage. You can tell for sure that you are now fully adopted as his own children because God sent the Spirit of his Son into our lives crying out, "Papa! Father!" Doesn't that privilege of intimate conversation with God make it plain that you are not a slave, but a child? And if you are a child, you're also an heir, with complete access to the inheritance.--The Message
Philippians 2:5-11
5-8Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn't think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn't claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion.
9-11Because of that obedience, God lifted him high and honored him far beyond anyone or anything, ever, so that all created beings in heaven and on earth—even those long ago dead and buried—will bow in worship before this Jesus Christ, and call out in praise that he is the Master of all, to the glorious honor of God the Father.--The Message
Gospel Acclamation: Alleluia. At the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth. Alleluia.
GOSPEL
Luke 2:15-21
15-18As the angel choir withdrew into heaven, the sheepherders talked it over. "Let's get over to Bethlehem as fast as we can and see for ourselves what God has revealed to us." They left, running, and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in the manger. Seeing was believing. They told everyone they met what the angels had said about this child. All who heard the sheepherders were impressed.
19-20Mary kept all these things to herself, holding them dear, deep within herself. The sheepherders returned and let loose, glorifying and praising God for everything they had heard and seen. It turned out exactly the way they'd been told!
Blessings
21When the eighth day arrived, the day of circumcision, the child was named Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived.--The Message
SERMON OUTLINE
WRITTEN FOR: New Year’s Day, Friday, January 1, 2009
Title: Sharing the Good News
Scriptures: Luke 2:15-21
Proposition or Theme Sentence: We remember the shepherds listening to the angels then going and see the newborn baby and sharing what they heard and saw.
Purposes: The remembering the covenant promises of God fulfilled that we may trust Him fully even in hard times of our lives.
Introduction: How do you enter into a new year? On this first day of 2010, we remember the covenant we took and prayed last night, but remember how obedient the shepherds were to share what they heard and saw to other people. The greatest gift is to be fully amazed at the presence of God in our lives. We think back a few days ago when we first heard this story of the birth of Jesus with the announcement of His birth to the Shepherds then their response to what they heard. We realize that obedience is not only hearing the Message of Hope in Jesus, but to go into action in living out the Hope of Jesus in our lives to people we come in contact with who have no hope. How will you come and share the good news of Jesus redemption for all creation in word and deed? Come, let us go into this new year 2010 with God’s love to love unconditionally as He loves.
I. The Birth of Jesus.
A. The promise of God comes to life.
B. The Love of God is seen.
C. The action of God moves.
II. The birth announcement to the Shepherds.
A. God reaches to all people with His redemption story.
B. Remembering the social and economic status of the Shepherds.
C. Remembering what the Shepherds did after seeing the new born baby who is the Savior of the world.
III. Some lessons for us to live in the 21st century as Christ’s loving witnesses.
A. God calls all to be redeemed by Him.
B. God love is unconditional to all people.
C. God chooses to let us freely choose Him in our words and deeds.
Conclusion: We come to the time to allow the Holy Spirit to search our hearts, minds, and lives to see how we have been faithful witnesses to what we have heard and seen of God’s love. Where necessary, we come and confess to repent of our sins that we may live in God’s Holy Love.
Invitation: Just as we ended 2009 receiving God’s grace, we begum 2010 by eating the Body Jesus and drinking His blood through the Holy Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. We come singing from the Praise and Worship hymn#418 “Amazing Grace” or from the Worship in Song hymn#212 “Amazing Grace” or from the Sing to the Lord hymn#85 “Amazing Grace.”
Closing Prayer and Benediction: Lead us Holy Father into this new year of 2010 as we begin by praying the prayer you taught you disciples:
Our Father, Who art in heaven Hallowed be Thy Name; Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. In the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace.
WATCH NIGHT
LECTIONARY COMMENTARY
Thursday, December 31, 2009
William Watley, Guest Lectionary Commentator
Senior Pastor, St. James AME Church, Newark, NJ Lection - Isaiah 43:18-21 (New Revised Standard Version)
(v. 18) Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. (v. 19) I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. (v. 20) The wild animals will honour me, the jackals and the ostriches; for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people, (v. 21) the people whom I formed for myself so that they might declare my praise.
I. Description of the Liturgical Moment
Within the African American tradition, Watch Night services evolved around the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation by Abraham Lincoln in 1862, when black people gathered on December 31, 1862 to wait for the new day and the freedom that was promised for January 1863.
We began The African American Lectionary with December 31, 2007 waiting for the new year to begin. We close this second year again in watch—waiting for the next cycle. With our calendar, December 31 signals the end of the old and the promise of the new. In addition to our way of organizing time, there are cultural calendars that are significant to other cultures in ordering time and their lives. To a large extent, our calendar is dominant in that it governs the time line for marking civil affairs of the planet. For Christians, it is important to know that this version of ordering time reflects contributions from earlier calendars and treats all time as sacred and no time as ordinary.
Many cultures begin their new year with great celebrations, feasting and partying. This is also true with many within African American communities. However, Watch Night Service is a special way to move across the line of time that marks the end of one year and the coming of a new year. This night finds many Christians in church on their knees in gratitude for the completion of another leg in the journey and recommitting to a sacred partnership with the Almighty for whatever is to come in the new cycle before us.
For African American Christians, crossing of this line time is a time to remember the night their ancestors watched and waited for the arrival of January 1, 1863 and the application of the Emancipation Proclamation by President Abraham Lincoln. This observance is significant as a part of the fabric binding multiple and extended efforts to undermine and destroy the legal system of slavery within the United States of America. We are called to mark this time as a reminder of the importance of not accepting that which is evil in our midst. The 19th century struggles against slavery as morally wrong and indefensible remain an important element in the evolutionary journey of this nation, and the concept and quality of freedom around the world.1
II. Biblical Interpretation for Preaching and Worship: Isaiah 43:18-21
Part One: The Contemporary Contexts of the Interpreter
One of the realities of the last night of the year is that we face it with the baggage of the previous year. Many New Years are simply a repeat of our old years, because we carry both distant history and recent memory of pain and struggles. In the midst of our trials and tribulations, we have too often hung our harps of faith on weeping willows of self-pity and defeat and allowed daily survival issues to dim our vision as we peer into the future through a glass darkly. As we have waged war against the devil, who in various nefarious and sometimes unexpected ways has come against our families, our aspirations, and us, we often approach the New Year with dimmed hope rather than the conviction that real turn around can happen in our lives.
Part Two: Biblical Commentary
The text was spoken at a time when the people of God were re-establishing their identity as a free people. Their recent history had been one of slavery and servitude as they spent the last seventy years in Babylon. During that season, they struggled to keep their faith strong and their hopes alive. One thinks about the pain and the pathos of their lament that is found in Psalm 137:1-4, “By the rivers of Babylon---there we sat down and there we wept when we remembered Zion. On the willows there we hung our harps. For there our captors asked us for songs, and our tormentors asked for mirth, saying, ‘Sing us one of the songs of Zion!’ How could we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?” One hears their heartbreak as they with uplifted hands declared, “If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither! Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth, if I do not remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy” (vv. 5-6). And we hear their bitterness of spirit as they spoke about their captors, “Remember, O Lord, against the Edomites the day of Jerusalem’s fall, how they said, ‘Tear it down! Tear it down! Down to its foundations’ O Daughter Babylon, you devastator! Happy shall they be who pay you back what you have done to us! Happy shall they be who take you little ones and dash them against the rock” (vv. 7-9)! Such is the brokenness and bitterness of spirit that overtakes us when we refuse to keep singing our songs of faith and when we allow our present circumstances to suffocate our dreams and wipe out our vision of hope.
However, their season of suffering that was so onerous and nightmarish to live through had come to an end. With the demise of the Babylonian empire and the rise of the Persians as the preeminent leaders on the world’s stage of history under the leadership of Cyrus, an invitation had been extended to the displaced people of God to return to their ancestral homeland and rebuild their torn down cities, culture and, yes, their faith. A faithful remnant of the covenant people of God had returned to Palestine to pick up the broken pieces of their history and build a new future for the coming generations. Yet, how were they to build for the future when so much of their recent past had been filled with so much pain, despair and disappointment? The baggage of both the distant as well as the recent past can be a major stumbling block and impediment to the development and implementation of a wholesome vision and healed life for the future.
The stories of their faith were centuries old. In times of distress and confusion they encouraged themselves as best they could by retelling the familiar narratives of how Moses delivered their ancestors from Egyptian bondage, and how they were sustained during forty years of wilderness wanderings as they struggled to get to the land that flowed with milk and honey. They remembered the war stories of Joshua and how he had led their fathers and mothers in their conquest to conquer and make the Land of Promise their own place of opportunity and breakthrough.
Such were the people that the prophet Deutero-Isaiah ministered to in the words of the text when he declared, “Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel...Do not remember the former things or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. The wild animals will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches; for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people, the people whom I formed or myself so that they might declare my praise.”
The prophet was telling those to whom he ministered that they were at a turning point in their life. They were not to dwell on either past pain, and they would not have to rely on their past remembrance of the miracles of God. Their God was a very present help in their times of trouble, and their God was about to do something new in their lives that would make their faith not simply a history lesson but a living record of the power and the presence of God. They would see God work miracles in their own lives and circumstances that would give them their own testimonies and experiences with God whose power and presence is from everlasting to everlasting.
For too many of us, this past year was just like the year before, and if we are not careful the next year will be just like the one we have come through. However, this Watch Night we dare to proclaim a word of hope and change for the New Year. The God whom Deutero-Isaiah proclaimed is our God. This year can be more than one for making great resolutions, with weak follow through. This year can be more than one that begins with good intentions but ends in abysmal failure. If we are willing to let go of some things in our past, this year can be turn around time for real and for good.
Chapter 42:10 of the Book of Job states, “And the Lord restored the fortunes of Job when he had prayed for his friends; and the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before.” Job was restored and given double his losses not simply because he endured his trials without breaking. Job received double for his trouble when he was able to let go of any animosity he felt towards those who had falsely accused him when he was undergoing his season of suffering and pray for them. He shook off the pain of the past so that he could receive the promise of the future. He shook off the bitterness of the past so that he could receive new breakthroughs in a new season of his life.
In the same way, the word of the Lord says to us what he said to the people of the Covenant so long ago, “Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old.” Whatever has happened to us is history. Whatever heartbreak or disappointments, or problems or betrayals we encountered this past year, we made it through; we have survived. Instead of allowing the past to cloud our vision and steal our joy, we are invited to hear this word from the Lord, “I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?” The God of our mothers and fathers who walked with them in days past and gone, and who brought us through whatever we have faced this past year, is still on the throne. His power has not been abated and his arm has not been shortened. The blood of Jesus still saves to the utmost, and the Holy Spirit as the abiding presence of God to strengthen us for the living of these days.
Whatever new challenges or new foes or new problems arise in the coming year, we can still face it with the assurance of victory, because our God does new things in new places to help the people of faith face new challenges, attain new victories and form new testimonies. The witness of the prophet Jeremiah still holds true, “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. ‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘therefore I will hope in him.’” Our God is able to meet every crisis with new creativity. Our God is able to meet every problem with new provision. Our God is able to meet every mountain with new miracles. God is able to meet attacks with new anointing. God is able to meet new trouble with new triumphs.
The sacrifice of the Lord Jesus on Calvary was a new revelation of God’s love. His resurrection from the dead, never to stoop anymore, was a new revelation of divine power. The coming of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost was a new revelation of God’s manifest presence. The second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ at the end of time will be a new revelation of God’s conquering glory.
This year can be our turn around time because we serve a God who continually does new things in our lives when we are willing to let go of the past and lay hold upon the future with faith in God who continues to do all things well. I would submit to you that the word spoken so long ago by the prophet to another people in another time and at another place in history is still a viable, fresh, living and relevant word as we face another year.
Celebration
As the New Year swiftly approaches let us hear again the word of the prophet, “Do not remember the former things or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. The wild animals will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches; for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people, the people whom I formed for myself so that they might declare my praise.” I give praise unto God for this past year and the mighty things of the new year that God will bring.
Descriptive Details
The descriptive details in this passage include:
Sights: A new thing springing forth; a way made in the wilderness; wild animals; jackals and ostrich; water in the wilderness; rivers in the desert;
Sounds: The rushing waters of a river; wild animals making sounds to honor God; the thirsty people of God drinking water provided in a dry place; and
Emotions: The excitement felt because God is doing something new! Notes
1. This description of the liturgical moment, with slight revisions, was provided by Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon for the cultural resource unit for Watch Night in Year Two of The African American Lectionary.
LECTIONARY COMMENTARY
Friday, January 1, 2010
Luke A. Powery, Lectionary Team Commentator Lection – Daniel 6:23b (New Revised Standard Version)
(v. 23b) So Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no kind of harm was found on him, because he had trusted in his God.
I. Description of the Liturgical Moment
In Year One and Year Two of the lectionary, insightful historical information was given for this particular liturgical moment (e.g., Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863 freeing slaves in states that seceded from the Union); also, you can read the cultural commentary for this Sunday for further insight into the historical aspects of the writing of the Emancipation Proclamation.
For Year Three, I want to probe this liturgical moment theologically; that is, what does this moment say about God? To designate a day “Emancipation Proclamation” implies that God is a God of emancipation, freedom, and liberation. It suggests that God is on the side of freedom and resists oppression. This is surely true for the black church’s traditional understanding of God as a God who is on the side of the oppressed. The God of black people is a freeing God. By making this distinction (i.e., God of black people), I am suggesting that there may be other gods, even supposedly “Christian gods,” at work in the world; other gods whom people worship, other gods whom people think are God. But, if these gods are oppressive and destructive, they are not the God of the oppressed, the God of African Americans, the God of our weary years and silent tears, the One who has brought us thus far along the way. This identity of God as a deliverer of the oppressed is critical for this Sunday and is a lens through which one can worship in celebration with trust in his or her heart.
Furthermore, to speak of an “emancipation proclamation” means that this Sunday proclaims in time, space, word, song, movement, and meal, the emancipation of black people today, not just in the past as a historical event but as a progressive movement of
the Divine in the present. If God is a God of emancipation, God can be trusted to liberate today. If God is proclaimed to be a God of enslavement, then this god must be mistrusted and destroyed. Within the black Christian traditions, God is a liberating God; thus, God can be trusted. A God of emancipation is a socially engaged God, not just a God of personal piety; therefore, emancipation occurs inwardly and outwardly. In worship for this Sunday, every black believer sings out in trombone fashion “freedom!” while our trustworthy God of liberation continues to proclaim to systems of oppression, “Let my people go!”
II. Biblical Interpretation for Preaching and Worship: Daniel 6:23b
Part One: The Contemporary Contexts of the Interpreter
Sometimes life may seem like a lions’ den of sorts. The lions of life are growling and ready to pounce on us at any moment. Because of this, we are filled with much fear. In fact, within the United States in recent years, a culture of fear has been nurtured through the powers that be, the media, and our own imaginations. Fear has been propelled by such events as the 9/11 attacks and the discovery of terrorist cell groups, even home-grown ones in this country. More so now, those who are different are demonized and viewed as a suspicious other. Borders are to be protected because of fear. Immigrants are called “aliens.” Governmental color codes for levels of terrorist threats heighten the sense of anxiety already in the den of life.
Additionally, there have been senseless college campus shootings, such as at Virginia Tech, and even rumors of such threats at Princeton University and Princeton Seminary, making us go on lockdown and during lockdown one is chained to fear. The Princeton episodes have been benign, but the fear has been lethal for the soul. The current economic crisis has not helped either but has fanned the flames of fear, particularly the fear of the future. Surrounded by the lions of fear in the world, who will we trust in these testing times?
We need to be emancipated or freed from fear even in the lions’ den of life. Fear can quench faith but faith can destroy fear. A fearless faithful trust in a delivering God will do just that as Daniel demonstrates.
Part Two: Biblical Commentary
Deep in Daniel’s soul must have been that old familiar song “I’m gonna trust in the Lord, I’m gonna trust in the Lord, I’m gonna trust in the Lord ‘til I die.”2 His trust was unwavering in the face of a lion-style death. Just like our African ancestors, Daniel faced many trials, but his trials, his “slavery,” were not self-imposed. Others bound him.
Earlier in the chapter, we learn that the other presidents and satraps want to find a complaint against Daniel because they are jealous of him and do not want him to get promoted by King Darius (Dan v.4). But, he is blameless and “faithful” as an excellent leader and worker for the kingdom of Darius; thus, he escapes the traps of those jealous of him for a time. His faithfulness to the kingdom of God is soon put to the test, however, when the king signs an ordinance against anyone praying to any divine or human being other than himself. If someone did this, they would be thrown into the lions’ den which is where Daniel eventually finds himself—in this den of death (vv.7-9). The conspirators had seemingly defeated Daniel. All odds were against him. He was in serious trouble and, as James Cone notes, “trouble is inseparable from the black religious experience.”2 Trouble is something African Americans have known all too well throughout history, which may be the reason why blacks have been drawn to the character of Daniel. Daniel experienced tremendous trials, but how he handled his trials set him apart to be emulated. The question is not if there will be trouble but when there is trouble, how will you respond to it?
Daniel responds like many of the enslaved blacks of the past and his actions intone the spiritual, “I’ve been ‘buked an’ I’ve been scorned, I’ve been talked about sho’s you’ born. Dere is trouble all over dis’ world’. Ain’ gwine lay my ‘ligion down.”3 Daniel would not lay his faith in God down. His soul had obviously been anchored in the Lord based on how he responds to his predicament. Despite the king’s edict, Daniel still prays to God three times a day (v.10). This lands him in the lion’s den. In the end, he is not harmed because “he trusted in his God” (v.23). Daniel did not allow his trials to triumph. Rather, he hoped in a God somewhere who would bring triumph.
Daniel reveals that he believed God would trouble the water. In his situation, trust triumphs over terror. In particular, what is stressed in this story is a distinction between Daniel’s God and other gods. Throughout chapter six, Daniel’s God is distinguished by references to God as “his God” (vv.5, 10, 11), “your God,” (vv.16, 20), and Daniel declares “my God” (v.22). One must be certain in which God one is trusting. Daniel did not trust in himself for deliverance, but he trusted in his God. Others might have made claims to divinity, like Darius, but he was not the one Daniel trusted to deliver him out of trouble. There are other gods, but there is only one who delivers. Even King Darius realizes this in the end when he declares, “people should tremble and fear before the God of Daniel: For he is the living God, enduring forever. His kingdom shall never be destroyed, and his dominion has no end. He delivers and rescues, he works signs and wonders in heaven and on earth; for he has saved Daniel from the power of the lions” (vv. 26-27). Our ancestors sang this story, “Didn’t the Lord Deliver Daniel and Why Not Every Man?” Their God was the “God of Daniel” (v.26), a God of emancipation. They believed in the saving power of a trustworthy God as they sang, “God is a God! God don’t never change! God is a God an’ he always will be God!”
Fear in life and fear of death may fight for our allegiance but they are not God. This is not to say that all enslaved blacks trusted in God; one does not want to be ruined by such a romantic ideal. Some blacks may have gotten weary and given up hope in any God during slavery, but many trusted in the Lord ‘til they died to git them over; the vast literature of the spirituals reveals this. The God of the white man was not their God because “didn’t the Lord deliver Daniel and why not every man?” Their God, like Daniel’s, specialized in saving and liberating people, not binding them. Thus, what is essential to an emancipatory theology is a God who emancipates and this God must become “my God” if trust is to override trials.
With this belief in the “God of Daniel” (v. 26), one can trust fully in the face of trouble. Trust is tested in the face of hardship and trials but if one continues to trust in the times of testing, one may sing “Nobody Knows the Troubles I See”4 but will also eventually sing “Glory Hallelujah.”5 “Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel, and Why Not Every Man?”6 Why not you? Why not me?
Celebration
Didn’t my Lord deliver Daniel? God is trustworthy. God delivers from lions’ dens! God will deliver you. God is able to save. For complete emancipation, only trust God jus’ now.
Descriptive Details
The descriptive details of this passage include: Sounds: The roar of lions; Sights: The den and the lions in it; Daniel coming out of the den; Smells: The smell created by the animals in the den; and Textures: The unharmed skin of Daniel after he stepped out of the lion’s den. III. Sermonic Suggestions
•
Langston Hughes’ poem “Still Here”
I been scarred and battered. My hopes the wind done scattered.
Snow has froz me, Sun has baked me,
Looks like between ‘em they done Tried to make me
Stop laughin’, stop lovin’, stop livin’— But I don’t care!
I’m still here!
The words of this poem could be used in a sermon imaginatively, as the words of a delivered and victorious Daniel. Daniel was “still here” even after his enemies tried to get rid of him. This poem could be used as an analogy between the
oppressive experience of blacks throughout history and the oppressive experience of Daniel.
• Because Daniel and the lions’ den is a key biblical story found in the spirituals, it might be useful for integrative cultural purposes to have the choir or an ensemble sing some of the spirituals which include Daniel or the preacher may choose to sing or quote these songs in the sermon. Such spirituals include:
“He’s Jus de same today.” A verse of the song says: He’s jus’ de same today, an’ de God dat lived in Moses’/Daniel’s time is jus’ de same today.
“Didn’t my Lord deliver Daniel.” A verse of the song says: Didn’t my Lord deliver Daniel deliver Daniel, deliver Daniel? Didn’t my Lord deliver Daniel, and why not every man? He delivered Daniel from the lion’s den, Jonah from the belly of the whale, and the Hebrew children from the fiery furnace, and why not every man?
Notes
• McClurkin, Donnie. “We've Come This Far by Faith / I Will Trust In The Lord.” The Essential Donnie McClurkin. New York, NY: Verity, 2007.
• Cone, James H. The Spirituals and the Blues: An Interpretation. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1991. p. 31.
• “I’ve Been ‘buked an’ I’ve Been Scorned.” Traditional. Online location: http://www.negrospirituals.com/news-song/i_ve_been_buked_and_i- ve_been_scorned.htm accessed 2 September 2009
• “Nobody Knows the Troubles I See.” Traditional. Online location: http://www.negrospirituals.com/news-song/nobody_know_de_trouble_i_see.htm accessed 7 September 2009
• “Glory, Glory, Hallelujah.” Traditional. Online location: http://www.negrospirituals.com/news-song/glory_glory_hallelujah.htm accessed 7 September 2009
“Didn’t my Lord deliver Daniel.” Traditional. Online location: http://www.negrospirituals.com/news-song/didn_t_my_lord_delier_daniel.htm accessed 7 September 2009
Glorious Freedom
by Haldor Lillenas
Once I was bound by sin’s galling fetters, Chained like a slave, I struggled in vain; But I received a glorious freedom, When Jesus broke my fetters in twain.
Refrain: Glorious freedom, wonderful freedom, No more in chains of sin I repine! Jesus the glorious Emancipator, Now and forever He shall be mine.
Freedom from all the carnal affections, Freedom from envy, hatred and strife; Freedom from vain and worldly ambitions, Freedom from all that saddened my life.
Freedom from pride and all sinful follies, Freedom from love and glitter of gold; Freedom from evil, temper, and anger, Glorious freedom, rapture untold.
Freedom from fear with all of its torments, Freedom from care with all of its pain; Freedom in Christ, my blessed Redeemer, He who has rent my fetters in twain.
Lift Every Voice and Sing
by James Weldon Johnson
Lift every voice and sing, till earth and Heaven ring, Ring with the harmonies of liberty; Let our rejoicing rise, high as the listening skies, Let it resound loud as the rolling sea. Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us, Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us; Facing the rising sun of our new day begun, Let us march on till victory is won. Stony the road we trod, bitter the chastening rod, Felt in the days when hope unborn had died; Yet with a steady beat, have not our weary feet, Come to the place for which our fathers sighed? We have come over a way that with tears has been watered, We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered; Out from the gloomy past, till now we stand at last Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast. God of our weary years, God of our silent tears, Thou Who hast brought us thus far on the way; Thou Who hast by Thy might, led us into the light, Keep us forever in the path, we pray. Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee. Lest our hearts, drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee. Shadowed beneath Thy hand, may we forever stand, True to our God, true to our native land.
December 28, 2009
Prayer of the Day: We remember today, O God, the slaughter of the innocent children of Bethlehem by order of King Herod. Receive into the arms of your mercy all innocent victims. By your great might frustrate the designs of evil tyrants and establish your rule of justice, love, and peace, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
PSALM
Psalm 124
A Pilgrim Song of David
1-5 If God hadn't been for us —all together now, Israel, sing out!—
If God hadn't been for us
when everyone went against us,
We would have been swallowed alive
by their violent anger,
Swept away by the flood of rage,
drowned in the torrent;
We would have lost our lives
in the wild, raging water.
6 Oh, blessed be God!
He didn't go off and leave us.
He didn't abandon us defenseless,
helpless as a rabbit in a pack of snarling dogs.
7 We've flown free from their fangs,
free of their traps, free as a bird.
Their grip is broken;
we're free as a bird in flight.
8 God's strong name is our help,
the same God who made heaven and earth.--The Message
LESSON 1
Jeremiah 31:15-17
15-17Again, God's Message:
"Listen to this! Laments coming out of Ramah, wild and bitter weeping. It's Rachel weeping for her children, Rachel refusing all solace. Her children are gone, gone—long gone into exile." But God says, "Stop your incessant weeping, hold back your tears. Collect wages from your grief work." God's Decree. "They'll be coming back home! There's hope for your children." God's Decree.--The Message
LESSON 2
1 Peter 4:12-19
Glory Just Around the Corner
12-13Friends, when life gets really difficult, don't jump to the conclusion that God isn't on the job. Instead, be glad that you are in the very thick of what Christ experienced. This is a spiritual refining process, with glory just around the corner.
14-16If you're abused because of Christ, count yourself fortunate. It's the Spirit of God and his glory in you that brought you to the notice of others. If they're on you because you broke the law or disturbed the peace, that's a different matter. But if it's because you're a Christian, don't give it a second thought. Be proud of the distinguished status reflected in that name!
17-19It's judgment time for God's own family. We're first in line. If it starts with us, think what it's going to be like for those who refuse God's Message! If good people barely make it, What's in store for the bad? So if you find life difficult because you're doing what God said, take it in stride. Trust him. He knows what he's doing, and he'll keep on doing it.--The Message
Gospel Acclamation: Alleluia. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Alleluia.
GOSPEL
Matthew 2:13-18
13After the scholars were gone, God's angel showed up again in Joseph's dream and commanded, "Get up. Take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt. Stay until further notice. Herod is on the hunt for this child, and wants to kill him."
14-15Joseph obeyed. He got up, took the child and his mother under cover of darkness. They were out of town and well on their way by daylight. They lived in Egypt until Herod's death. This Egyptian exile fulfilled what Hosea had preached: "I called my son out of Egypt."
16-18Herod, when he realized that the scholars had tricked him, flew into a rage. He commanded the murder of every little boy two years old and under who lived in Bethlehem and its surrounding hills. (He determined that age from information he'd gotten from the scholars.) That's when Jeremiah's sermon was fulfilled: A sound was heard in Ramah, weeping and much lament. Rachel weeping for her children, Rachel refusing all solace, Her children gone, dead and buried.--The Message
SERMON OUTLINE
WRITTEN FOR: Monday, December 28, 2009
Title: Persecution in the Midst of Celebration
Scriptures: Matthew 2:13-18
Proposition or Theme Sentence: An earthly king had children killed because he was jealous for his own position as king of the Jews.
Purposes: The realization that even when the promises of God are fulfilled there is pain and suffering in this world.
Introduction: How do you relate to persecution of Christians? How do you relate to Christians who are not always healthy, wealthy, and wise? During this time of celebration of the birth of Jesus, we sometimes forget that at the first Christmas there were a large number of children who were killed in Bethlehem who were two years old and younger. We sometimes ask why God did not prevent the death of these many children as He He saved His own Son from being killed as a baby? In the world of American materialism and consumerism, we sometimes have the impression and thinking that God only blesses through material prosperity. Here we are reminded that even in the celebration of the birth of the promised Messiah, there was weeping because other people’s children were being killed. Even today, we here of children being killed, not just through abortion, but after they have been born because they are treated as objects rather than as people created in the Image of God. Too often, we fight for the right of our unborn babies while remaining silent at the death of children because of war, disease, and ethnic cleansing. This brings me to the idea that true pro-life will be seeking ways to eliminate death of children due to war, disease, and poverty. Yes, I must admit that God was being weeping at the unborn babies being killed by abortion, but how much more must God be weeping over the children who are being overlooked because of disease, impairments, poverty, and war? What are you doing to alleviate the deaths and destruction of children because they have lost parents due to disease or starvation as well as children starving and dying of thirst because of lack of clean water and enough food? What happens if God allowed this global economic crisis to happen because we need to begin to love all people with unconditional love as God loves us and to get our priorities straight concerning our responsibilities for the dying children because of disease, war, and environmental abuse?
I. After the wise men or scholars received a dream to go home by a different route, Joseph received a God-dream to take Mary and Jesus to Egypt.
A. The celebration of the birth of the promised Messiah brought tragedy to other families with young children.
B. The king of Jews approved by the Roman government did not want any rivalries to his throne and position of authority.
C. The non-Jewish scholars loved the Jewish God enough to listen and obey Him.
II. The weeping of families at the death of their children two years old and younger by their king.
A. The king discovered that the wise men or scholars failed to return to him to tell him where the new born king of the Jews resided.
B. The king ordered or commanded that all children that were two years old and younger to kill the new born King of the Jews.
C. Jesus escaped this mass murder of other children by Joseph’s obedience to God.
III. The lessons from this mass killings in Bethlehem to the 21st century people.
A. God is calling on His people to find ways to alleviate the pain and death of children due to war, disease, and poverty.
B. God knows that if were truly practiced the two greatest commandments to love God with our whole heart, mind, body, spirit, and soul as well as to love our neighbor unconditionally as God loves us there would be less suffering.
C. God does know that there will one day be no more suffering, but until that day we are to partner with HIm to love and be loved towards all people.
Conclusion: We come to the time to allow God’s Holy Spirit to search our hearts, minds, and lives to see that we are consistent in living out His love to all His creation. Where we need to repent of our sins, we come and seek God’s forgiveness in our actions as well as our words to love Him and other people unconditionally.
Invitation: We come seeking more of God’s love to live in His love as we take and eat the Body of Jesus and drink His Blood through the Holy Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. We come singing from the Praise and Worship hymn#287 “Hark! the Voice of Jesus Calling” or from the Worship in Song hymn#190 “A Charge to Keep I Have” or from the Sing to the Lord hymn#531 “Because I Have Been Given Much.”
Closing Prayer and Benediction: Holy Father, we come and realize that we have fallen short of loving your with our whole being and loving others unconditionally as You love us. We realize that even in the prayer you taught your disciples, we pray for your will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. Let us pray together:
Our Father, Who art in heaven Hallowed be Thy Name; Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. In the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace.
New Year's Eve
December 31, 2009
Prayer of the Day: Eternal God, you have placed us in a world of space and time, and through the events of our lives you bless us with your love. Grant that in the new year we may know your presence, see your love at work, and live in the light of the event that gives us joy forever – the coming of your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
PSALM
Psalm 8
A David Psalm
1 God, brilliant Lord, yours is a household name.
2 Nursing infants gurgle choruses about you;
toddlers shout the songs
That drown out enemy talk,
and silence atheist babble.
3-4 I look up at your macro-skies, dark and enormous,
your handmade sky-jewelry,
Moon and stars mounted in their settings.
Then I look at my micro-self and wonder,
Why do you bother with us?
Why take a second look our way?
5-8 Yet we've so narrowly missed being gods,
bright with Eden's dawn light.
You put us in charge of your handcrafted world,
repeated to us your Genesis-charge,
Made us lords of sheep and cattle,
even animals out in the wild,
Birds flying and fish swimming,
whales singing in the ocean deeps.
9 God, brilliant Lord,
your name echoes around the world.--The Message
LESSON 1
Ecclesiastes 3:1-13
There's a Right Time for Everything
1 There's an opportune time to do things, a right time for everything on the earth:
2-8 A right time for birth and another for death,
A right time to plant and another to reap,
A right time to kill and another to heal,
A right time to destroy and another to construct,
A right time to cry and another to laugh,
A right time to lament and another to cheer,
A right time to make love and another to abstain,
A right time to embrace and another to part,
A right time to search and another to count your losses,
A right time to hold on and another to let go,
A right time to rip out and another to mend,
A right time to shut up and another to speak up,
A right time to love and another to hate,
A right time to wage war and another to make peace.
9-13 But in the end, does it really make a difference what anyone does? I've had a good look at what God has given us to do—busywork, mostly. True, God made everything beautiful in itself and in its time—but he's left us in the dark, so we can never know what God is up to, whether he's coming or going. I've decided that there's nothing better to do than go ahead and have a good time and get the most we can out of life. That's it—eat, drink, and make the most of your job. It's God's gift.--The Message
LESSON 2
Revelation 21:1-6a
Everything New
1I saw Heaven and earth new-created. Gone the first Heaven, gone the first earth, gone the sea. 2I saw Holy Jerusalem, new-created, descending resplendent out of Heaven, as ready for God as a bride for her husband. 3-5I heard a voice thunder from the Throne: "Look! Look! God has moved into the neighborhood, making his home with men and women! They're his people, he's their God. He'll wipe every tear from their eyes. Death is gone for good—tears gone, crying gone, pain gone—all the first order of things gone." The Enthroned continued, "Look! I'm making everything new. Write it all down—each word dependable and accurate."
6-8Then he said, "It's happened. I'm A to Z. I'm the Beginning, I'm the Conclusion. From Water-of-Life Well I give freely to the thirsty. Conquerors inherit all this. I'll be God to them, they'll be sons and daughters to me. But for the rest—the feckless and faithless, degenerates and murderers, sex peddlers and sorcerers, idolaters and all liars—for them it's Lake Fire and Brimstone. Second death!"--The Message
Gospel Acclamation: Alleluia. O God, you have been our refuge from one generation to another. Alleluia.
GOSPEL
Matthew 25:31-46
The Sheep and the Goats
31-33"When he finally arrives, blazing in beauty and all his angels with him, the Son of Man will take his place on his glorious throne. Then all the nations will be arranged before him and he will sort the people out, much as a shepherd sorts out sheep and goats, putting sheep to his right and goats to his left.
34-36"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Enter, you who are blessed by my Father! Take what's coming to you in this kingdom. It's been ready for you since the world's foundation. And here's why: I was hungry and you fed me, I was thirsty and you gave me a drink, I was homeless and you gave me a room, I was shivering and you gave me clothes, I was sick and you stopped to visit, I was in prison and you came to me.'
37-40"Then those 'sheep' are going to say, 'Master, what are you talking about? When did we ever see you hungry and feed you, thirsty and give you a drink? And when did we ever see you sick or in prison and come to you?' Then the King will say, 'I'm telling the solemn truth: Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me—you did it to me.'
41-43"Then he will turn to the 'goats,' the ones on his left, and say, 'Get out, worthless goats! You're good for nothing but the fires of hell. And why? Because— I was hungry and you gave me no meal, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was homeless and you gave me no bed, I was shivering and you gave me no clothes, Sick and in prison, and you never visited.'
44"Then those 'goats' are going to say, 'Master, what are you talking about? When did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or homeless or shivering or sick or in prison and didn't help?'
45"He will answer them, 'I'm telling the solemn truth: Whenever you failed to do one of these things to someone who was being overlooked or ignored, that was me—you failed to do it to me.'
46"Then those 'goats' will be herded to their eternal doom, but the 'sheep' to their eternal reward."--The Message
SERMON OUTLINE
WRITTEN FOR: New Year’s Eve, Thursday, December 31, 2009
Title: Remembering the past to reorient our future
Scriptures: Matthew 25:31-46
Proposition or Theme Sentence: The closing of the old year to enter the new year bring us to a time to search our lives for our priorities in line with God’s priorities.
Purposes: The coming to God to renew our covenant with Him to be His hands and feet in this world.
Introduction: How do you really look at the past years failures and accomplishments? We look back at our past year to see where we have been consistent to be living as the sheep rather than as the goats. The way this year began was with a global economic crisis with many people being hurt by the way certain people have sought to seek their riches at the expenses of other people. Yes, even these people have meant well in giving some compassion to people that is more out of guilt rather than out of love. We look at this parable by Jesus about when He comes and divides His human creation according to what they have done or not done with the grace and love that Hs been given to them. I am always reminded of Keith Green’s rendition of this passage of Scripture, so I read to you his rendition as:
And when the Son of Man comes, and all the Holy Angels with Him,
Then shall He sit on His Glorious throne,
And He will divide the nations before Him, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
And He shall put the sheep on His right and the goats on His left,
And He shall say to the sheep; come ye, blessed of My Father,
inherit the Kingdom I have prepared for you from the foundation of the world,
For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat,
I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink,
I was naked, and you clothed Me,
I was a stranger, and you invited Me in,
I was sick, and I was in prison, and you came to Me.
Thank you! Enter into your rest.
And they shall answer Him, yes, they shall answer Him,
And they'll say, Lord, when?
When were You hungry Lord, and we gave You something to eat?
Lord, when were You thirsty? I can't remember. And we gave You drink?
Huh, when were You naked Lord, and we clothed You?
And Lord, when were You a stranger and we invited You in?
I mean, we invited lots of people in Lord. I could never forget that face.
And Lord, when were You sick and we visited You?
Or in prison, and we came to You? Lord, tell us?
In as much as you did it to the least of My bretheren, you've done it unto Me.
Oh yes, as much as you've done it to the very least of My bretheren, you've done it,
you've done it unto Me. Enter into your rest.
Then He shall turn to those on His left, the goats.
Depart from Me, you cursed ones, into everlasting fire,
prepared for the devil and his angels.
For I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat,
I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink,
I was naked, out in the cold, in exposure, and you sent me away,
I was a stranger, and I knocked at your door,
But you didn't open, you told Me to go away,
I was sick, racked in pain upon My bed,
And I begged, and prayed, and pleaded that you'd come, but you didn't,
I was in prison, and I rotted there,
I'd prayed that you'd come.
I heard your programs on the radio, I read your magazines, but you never came.
Depart from Me!!!
Lord, there must be some mistake, when?
Lord, I mean, when were You hungry Lord and we didn't give You something to eat?
And Lord, when were You thirsty, and we didn't give You drink?
I mean, that's not fair, well, would You like something now?
Would one of the Angels like to go out and get the Lord a hamburger and a coke?
Oh, You're not hungry, yeah, I lost my appetite too.
Uh Lord uh, Lord, when were You naked,
I mean Lord, that's not fair either Lord,
We didn't know what size You wear.
Oh Lord, when were You a stranger Lord,
You weren't one of those creepy people who used to come to the door, were you?
Oh Lord, that wasn't our ministry Lord. We just didn't feel led, you know?
Lord, when were You sick? What did You have, anyway?
Well, at least it wasn't fatal; oh, it was?
I'm sorry Lord, I would have sent You a card.
Lord, just one last thing we want to know,
When were You in prison Lord? What were You in for anyway?
I had a friend in Levenworth..
ENOUGH!
In as much as you've not done it unto the least of My bretheren,
You've not done it unto Me.
In as much as you've not done it unto the least of My bretheren,
You've not done it unto Me. Depart from Me.
And these shall go away into everlasting fire.
But the righteous into eternal life!
And my friends, the only difference between the sheep and the goats, according to this scripture,
is what they did, and didn't do!!
How do you react to these of Jesus in relationship to what you have done and not done this past year and how you want God to lead you into His full ways this coming year?
I. The way Jesus shared about the rewards in the time He returns.
A. Jesus first addresses the sheep who have been obedient.
B. Jesus shares what they have done for the least of these our brothers and sisters.
C. Jesus shares their reward for the actions.
II. The way Jesus shared about the punishment in the time He returns.
A. Jesus lastly addresses the goats for their disobedience.
B. Jesus shares what they have not done to the least of these brothers and sisters.
C. Jesus shares their punishment for their lack of action of God’s love towards them.
III. The lessons for us as we move from the year 2009 into the new year of 2010.
A. Allow God to search our lives, hearts, and minds to see where we have been disobedient or obedient to His commands to us.
B. We come to realize that we have a chance to confess to repent of our sins against what He has called us to do.
C. Through the Wesleyan Covenant Service, we begin the new year 2010 with renewed hope in following Him fully in our lives.
Conclusion: We take this time to follow the Wesleyan Covenant confess our sins and renew our vows to follow Jesus in His ways and love.
The John Wesley Covenant Service
"In those days, at that time"—God's Decree— "the people of Israel will come, And the people of Judah with them. Walking and weeping, they'll seek me, their God. They'll ask directions to Zion and set their faces toward Zion. They'll come and hold tight to God, bound in a covenant eternal they'll never forget.
Jeremiah 50:4-5--The Message
PREFACE
In his journal entry for August 6, 1755, Wesley wrote: I mentioned to the congregation another means of increasing serious religion, which has been frequently practiced by our forefathers and attended with eminent blessing; namely, the joining in a covenant to serve God with all our heart and with all our soul.
Wesley’s first formal Covenant Service was held in the French Church at Spitalfields on August 11, 1755, when he recited the words of that blessed man, Richard Alleine. At the close of that service all the people stood up, in testimony of assent, to the number of about 1800 persons. Such a night I scarce ever saw before. Surely the fruit of it shall remain forever.
The Covenant Service was published as a pamphlet by Wesley in 1780 and was used without alteration for nearly a century. The repeated revisions made later have left but the smallest remnants of the original. It is believed that the restoration of large portions of Wesley’s service will bring deeper meaning to the renewing of our covenant with God. It has been abridged and edited especially to this hymnal [Hymns of Faith and Life, published by Light and Life Press and Wesley Press, 1976] to provide for greater congregational participation. With few exceptions the dignity and the striking phraseology of Wesley’s language, including his numerous scriptural allusions, have been preserved.
The service should be a reminder of our condition as sinners, our solemn obligation to reaffirm our covenant relationship with God, and an opportunity for a fresh experience of the reality of Gods promises and presence.
A Covenant Service, following John Wesley’s traditional practice, is especially appropriate for watch night or for the first Sunday of the new year and is designed THE SERVICE
HYMN #95: O God, Our Help in Ages Past
Text: Isaac Watts, 1674-1748
Music: Attr. to William Croft; harm. by W.H. Monk
Tune: ST. ANNE, Meter: CM
1. O God, our help in ages past,
our hope for years to come,
our shelter from the stormy blast,
and our eternal home.
2. Under the shadow of thy throne,
still may we dwell secure;
sufficient is thine arm alone,
and our defense is sure.
3. Before the hills in order stood,
or earth received her frame,
from everlasting, thou art God,
to endless years the same.
4. A thousand ages, in thy sight,
are like an evening gone;
short as the watch that ends the night,
before the rising sun.
5. Time, like an ever rolling stream,
bears all who breathe away;
they fly forgotten, as a dream
dies at the opening day.
6. O God, our help in ages past,
our hope for years to come;
be thou our guide while life shall last,
and our eternal home.
Pastor:
Let us pray.
Almighty God, unto whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid: Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of Thy Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love Thee and worthily magnify Thy holy name; through Christ our Lord. Amen.
THE LORDS PRAYER
Our Father in heaven, Reveal who you are. Set the world right; Do what's best— as above, so below. Keep us alive with three square meals. Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others. Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil. You're in charge! You can do anything you want! You're ablaze in beauty! Yes. Yes. Yes.--The Message
Pastor:
My dear friends: Get these three principles fixed in your hearts: that things eternal are much more substantial than things temporal; that things not seen are as certain as the things that are seen; that upon your present choice depends your eternal lot. Choose Christ and His ways, and you are blessed forever; refuse, and you are undone forever.
And then, beloved, make your choice. Turn either to the right hand or to the left; Christ with His yoke, His cross, and His crown; or the devil with his wealth, his pleasure, and curse. Then ask yourselves, Soul, you see what is before you; what will you do? Which will you have, either the crown or the curse? If you choose the crown, remember that the day you take this, you must be content to submit to the cross and yoke, the service and sufferings of Christ, which are linked to it. What do you say? Had you rather take the gains and pleasures of sin and risk the curse? Or will you yield yourself a servant to Christ and so make sure the crown?
Do not delay the matter. If you are unresolved, you are resolved: if you remain undetermined for Christ, you are determined for the devil. Therefore follow your hearts from day to day; let them not rest till the matter be brought to an issue, and see that you make a good choice.
Next, embark with Christ. Adventure yourselves with Him. Cast yourselves upon His righteousness. You are exiles from the presence of God and fallen into a land of robbers and murderers. Your sins are robbers, your pleasures are robbers, your companions in sin are robbers and thieves. If you stay where you are, you perish. Christ offers, if you will venture with Him, to bring you to God. Will you say now to Him, Lord Jesus, wilt Thou undertake for me? Wilt Thou bring me to God and bring me into the land of promise? With Thee I will venture myself. I cast myself upon thee, upon Thy blood, upon thy righteousness.
This is coming to Christ as your priest. And by this you now renounce your own righteousness.
Do you deeply sense your sins and misery without Christ?
CONFESSION
Congregation:
We acknowledge a deep sense of sin and misery. We see our- selves as sinners in need of a Savior. The spirit of God has awakened us; a kind of awakening, as it were, in hell. We cry,
Lord, what am I! What mean these legions round about me? These chains and fetters that are upon me?
Lord, where am I! Is there no hope of escaping out of this wretched state? I am but dead, if I continue as I am. What may I do to be saved?
Pastor:
Being made sensible of his sin and his danger, a sinner will look for help and deliverance, but he will look everywhere else before he looks unto Christ. Nothing will bring a sinner to Christ but absolute necessity. He will try to forsake his sins. He will go to prayers, and sermons, and sacraments and search out if there be salvation in them. But all these, though they be useful in their places, are of no help. His duties cannot help him; these may be reckoned among his sins. Ordinances cannot help; these are but empty cisterns. They all tell him, You knock at a wrong door; salvation is not in us.
Do you now utterly despair of your own goodness, or do you trust in anything but Christ?
SUPPLICATION
Congregation:
Lord, be merciful to me. What shall I do?
Abide as I am I dare not, and how to help myself I know not. My praying will not help me. My hearing will not help me. If I give all my goods to the poor, if I should give my body to be burned, all this would not save my soul. Woe is me. What shall I do?
Pastor:
You must let your sins go. You must let your righteousness go. Christ came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. He came to seek and to save them that are lost.
Friends, will you now adventure on Christ? You have this threefold assurance:
First, Gods ordination. Christ is He whom God the Father hath appointed and sent into the world to save sinners. This is He whom God the Father has sealed as the Savior who is redeeming and reconciling the world to himself. Second, Gods command. This is His commandment, that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ. Third, the promise of God. Behold, I lay in Zion a chief corner stone, elect, precious; and he that believeth on him, shall not be confounded.
Now, having this threefold assurance of God’s ordination, command, and promise, you may now be bold to adventure on Christ and to apply yourselves to Him.
Pastor and Congregation:
Lord, Jesus, here I am, a lost creature, an enemy to God, under His wrath and curse. Wilt Thou, Lord, undertake for me, reconcile me to God, and save my soul? Do not, Lord, refuse me, for if Thou refuse me, to whom then shall I go?
If I had come in my own name, Thou mightest well have put me back; but since I come as the command of the Father, reject me not. Lord, help me. Lord, save me.
I come, Lord. I believe, Lord. I throw myself upon Thy grace and mercy. I cast myself upon Thy blood. Do not refuse me. I have not whither else to go. Here I will stay. On Thee I will trust, and rest, and venture myself. On Thee I lay my hope for pardon, for life, for salvation. If I perish, I perish on Thy shoulders. If I sink, I sink in Thy vessel. If I die, I die at Thy door. Bid me not go away, for I will not go.
COMMITMENT
Pastor:
Yield yourselves now to the Lord. As his servants, give up the dominion and government of yourselves to Christ. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves to God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. To whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey. Yield yourselves so to the Lord that you may henceforth be the Lords.
Those that yield themselves to sin and the world, their hearts say, Sin, I am yours; World, I am yours; Riches, I am yours; Pleasures, I am yours.
Rather, with the psalmist, we say to the Lord:
Pastor and Congregation:
I am Thine, I reverence Thee. I dedicate myself to Thy service.
Pastor:
In so giving yourselves to the Lord, you affirm that you will be heartily contented that He appoint you to your work.
Let Him appoint you to your work. Christ has many services to be done; some are more easy and honorable, others more difficult and menial.
Some are suitable to our inclinations and interests; others are contrary to both. In some we may please Christ and please ourselves, as when he requires us to feed and clothe ourselves. Indeed, there are some spiritual duties that are more pleasing than others; as to rejoice in the Lord, to be blessing and praising of God. These are the sweet works of a Christian. But then there are other works, wherein we cannot please Christ but by denying ourselves, as in bearing and forbearing, reproving men for their sins, withdrawing from their company; witnessing against their wickedness; confessing Christ and His name, when it will cost us shame and reproach; sailing against the wind, swimming against the tide, parting with our liberties and accommodations for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
See what it is that Christ expects and then yield yourselves to His whole will. Do not think of making your own terms with Christ; that will never be allowed you. Let us now approach Christ in prayer.
Pastor and Congregation:
Lord Jesus, if Thou wilt receive me into Thy house, if Thou wilt but own me as Thy servant, I will not stand upon terms. Impose on me what condition Thou pleasest; write down Thy own articles; command me what Thou wilt; let me be Thy servant.
Make me what Thou wilt, Lord, and set me where Thou wilt. Let me be a vessel of silver or gold, or a vessel of wood or stone; so I be a vessel of honor, I am content. If I be not the head, or the eye, or the ear, one of the nobler and more honorable instruments Thou wilt employ, let me be the hand, or the foot, as one of the lowest and least esteemed of all the servants of my Lord.
Lord, put me to what Thou wilt; rank me with whom Thou wilt.
Put me to doing; put me to suffering.
Let me be employed for Thee, or laid aside for Thee, exalted for Thee, or trodden underfoot for Thee.
Let me be full; let me be empty.
Let me have all things; let me have nothing.
I freely and heartily resign all to Thy pleasure and disposal.
HYMN #455:
Take My Life and Let It Be Consecrated
Frances R. Havergal
1874
Take my life and let it be Consecrated, Lord, to Thee; Take my hands and let them move At the impulse of Thy love.
Take my feet and let them be Swift and beautiful for Thee; Take my voice and let me sing, Always, only for my King.
Take my lips and let them be Filled with messages from Thee; Take my silver and my gold, Not a mite would I withhold.
Take my moments and my days, Let them flow in endless praise; Take my intellect and use Every pow’r as Thou shalt choose.
Take my will and make it Thine, It shall be no longer mine; Take my heart, it is Thine own, It shall be Thy royal throne.
Take my love, my Lord, I pour At Thy feet its treasure store; Take myself and I will be Ever, only, all for Thee.
CONFESSION
Pastor:
Beloved, such a commitment to Christ as you have now made is that wherein the essence of Christianity lies. When you have chosen God to be your portion and happiness; when you have laid all your hopes upon Christ, casting yourself wholly upon the merits of His righteousness; when you have understandingly and heartily resigned and given up yourselves to Him; then you are Christians indeed, and never till then. Christ will be the Savior of none but of His servants. He is the Author of eternal salvation to those who obey Him. Christ will have no servants but by consent. His people are a willing people, and Christ will accept of no consent but in full to all that He requires. He will be all in all, or He will be nothing.
THE COVENANT
And now, let us confirm our commitment by a solemn covenant, beginning with the singing of a covenant hymn.
(The congregation will join in singing the following hymn, published by Charles Wesley in 1762 and based on Jeremiah 50:5. Among early Methodists it became popularly known as the Covenant Hymn. It should be sung to the tune of Hymn #147, O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing.)
1 COME, let us use the grace divine, And all, with one accord, In a perpetual covenant join Ourselves to CHRIST the LORD:
2 Give up ourselves, through Jesu's power, His name to glorify; And promise, in this sacred hour, For GOD to live and die.
3 The covenant we this moment make Be ever kept in mind: We will no more our God forsake, Or cast his words behind.
4 We never will throw off his fear Who hears our solemn vow: And if thou art well-pleased to hear, Come down, and meet us now!
5 Thee, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, Let all our hearts receive; Present with the Celestial host, The peaceful answer give!
6 To each the covenant blood apply, Which takes our sins away; And register our names on high, And keep us to that day!
Congregation:
We acknowledge a deep sense of sin and misery. We see ourselves as sinners in need of a Savior. The spirit of God has awakened us; a kind of awakening, as it were, in hell. We cry,
Lord, what am I! What mean these legions round about me? These chains and fetters that are upon me?
Lord, where am I! Is there no hope of escaping out of this wretched state? I am but dead, if I continue as I am. What may I do to be saved?
Pastor:
Being made sensible of his sin and his danger, a sinner will look for help and deliverance, but he will look everywhere else before he looks unto Christ. Nothing will bring a sinner to Christ but absolute necessity. He will try to forsake his sins. He will go to prayers, and sermons, and sacraments and search out if there be salvation in them. But all these, though they be useful in their places, are of no help. His duties cannot help him; these may be reckoned among his sins. Ordinances cannot help; these are but empty cisterns. They all tell him, You knock at a wrong door; salvation is not in us.
Do you now utterly despair of your own goodness, or do you trust in anything but Christ?
SUPPLICATION
Congregation:
Lord, be merciful to me. What shall I do?
Abide as I am I dare not, and how to help myself I know not. My praying will not help me. My hearing will not help me. If I give all my goods to the poor, if I should give my body to be burned, all this would not save my soul. Woe is me. What shall I do?
Pastor:
You must let your sins go. You must let your righteousness go. Christ came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. He came to seek and to save them that are lost.
Friends, will you now adventure on Christ? You have this threefold assurance:
First, Gods ordination. Christ is He whom God the Father hath appointed and sent into the world to save sinners. This is He whom God the Father has sealed as the Savior who is redeeming and reconciling the world
Come, let us use the grace divine, And all, with one accord,
In a perpetual covenant join Ourselves to Christ the Lord.
Give up ourselves, through Jesus power,
His name to glorify; And promise, in this sacred hour,
For God to live and die.
The covenant we this moment make Be ever kept in mind:
We will no more our God forsake, Or cast His words behind.
We never will throw off His fear Who hears our solemn vow;
And if Thou art well pleased to hear, Come down, and meet us now.
Pastor:
To each the covenant blood apply, which takes our sins away;
And register our names on high, and keep us to that day.
Search your hearts whether you either have already, or can now freely, make this commitment to God in Christ. First, consider what your sins are and examine whether you can resolve to forego them all. Consider what the laws of Christ are, how holy, strict, and spiritual, and whether you can, upon deliberation, make choice of them all as the rule of your whole life.
Second, compose your spirits into the most serious frame possible, suitable to a transaction of so high importance.
Third, lay hold on the covenant of God and rely upon His promise of giving grace and strength, whereby you may be enabled to perform your promise. Trust not to your own strength but take hold on His strength.
Fourth, resolve to be faithful. Having engaged your hearts, opened your mouths, and subscribed with your hands to the Lord, resolve in His strength never to go back.
Last, being thus prepared, in the most solemn manner possible, as if the Lord were visibly present before your eyes, bow and open your hearts to the Lord.
Pastor and Congregation:
O most holy God, I beseech Thee accept the poor prodigal now prostrating himself at Thy door. I have fallen from Thee by my iniquity and am by nature a son of death and a thousandfold more the child of hell by my wicked practice. But of Thy infinite grace Thou hast promised mercy to me in Christ if I will but turn to Thee with all my heart. Therefore upon the call of Thy gospel, I am now come and, throwing down my weapons, submit myself to Thy mercy.
And because Thou requirest, as the condition of my peace with Thee, that I should put away my idols and be at defiance with all Thy enemies, I here from the bottom of my heart renounce them all. I firmly covenant with Thee not to allow myself in any known sin, but conscientiously to use all the means that I know Thou hast prescribed, for the death and utter destruction of all my corruptions. I humbly affirm before Thy glorious majesty that it is the firm resolution of my heart to forsake all that is dear unto me in this world, rather than to turn from Thee to the ways of sin. I will watch against all its temptations whether of prosperity or adversity, lest they should withdraw my heart from Thee.
And since Thou hast, of Thy boundless mercy, offered graciously to me to be my God through Christ, I call heaven and earth to record this day, that I do here solemnly avouch Thee for the Lord my God. I do here take Thee, the Lord Jehovah, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, for my portion and do give up myself, body and soul, for Thy servant, promising and vowing to serve Thee in holiness and righteousness all the days of my life.
And since Thou has appointed the Lord Jesus Christ the only means of coming unto Thee, I do here upon the bended knees of my soul solemnly join myself in a marriage-covenant to Him. O blessed Jesus, I come to Thee hungry, wretched, miserable,blind, and naked, unworthy to wash the feet of the servants of my Lord, much less to be solemnly married to the King of Glory. But since such is Thy unparalleled love, I do here with all my power accept Thee and take Thee for my Head and Husband, to love, honor, and obey Thee before all others, and this to the death. I renounce my own worthiness and do here avow Thee for the Lord my righteousness. I renounce my own wisdom and do here take Thee for my only guide. I renounce my own will and take Thy will for my law.
And since Thou hast told me I must suffer if I will reign, I do here covenant with Thee to take my lot, as it falls, with Thee and by Thy grace to run all hazards with Thee, purposing that neither life nor death shall part between Thee and me.
Now, Almighty God, Searcher of Hearts, Thou knowest that I make this covenant with Thee this day, without any known guile or reservation, beseeching Thee that if Thou seest any flaw or falsehood therein, Thou wouldst reveal it to me and help me to put it right.
HYMN #298:
Spirit of God, Descend Upon My Heart
Text: George Croly, 1780-1860
Music: Frederick C. Atkinson, 1841-1897
Tune: MORECAMBE, Meter: 10 10.10 10
1. Spirit of God, descend upon my heart;
wean it from earth; through all its pulses move;
stoop to my weakness, mighty as thou art,
and make me love thee as I ought to love.
2. I ask no dream, no prophet ecstasies,
no sudden rending of the veil of clay,
no angel visitant, no opening skies;
but take the dimness of my soul away.
3. Has thou not bid me love thee, God and King?
All, all thine own, soul, heart and strength and mind.
I see thy cross; there teach my heart to cling.
O let me seek thee, and O let me find.
4. Teach me to feel that thou art always nigh;
teach me the struggles of the soul to bear.
To check the rising doubt, the rebel sigh,
teach me the patience of unanswered prayer.
5. Teach me to love thee as thine angels love,
one holy passion filling all my frame;
the kindling of the heaven-descended Dove,
my heart an altar, and thy love the flame.
Pastor and Congregation (standing):
And now, glory be to thee, O God the Father, whom I shall be bold from this day forward to look upon as my God and Father. Glory be to Thee, O God the Son, who hast loved me and washed me from my sins in Thy own blood and art now become my Savior and Redeemer. Glory be to Thee, O God the Holy Ghost, who by Thy almighty power hast turned my heart from sin to God.
O eternal Jehovah, the Lord God Omnipotent, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, Thou art now become my Covenant-Friend, and I, through Thy infinite grace, am become Thy Covenant-Servant. And the Covenant which I have made on earth, let it be ratified in heaven. Amen.
Invitation: Let us follow the way of Jesus to remember His Passover meal for us:
COMMUNION CLOSING PRAYER
On the night before He was crucified, Jesus had the Passover meal with His disciples and took the bread and wine starting a new ritual covenant along with the Passover meal. Jesus took the bread and break blessing it saying that this is my body broken for you, then He took the wine and said that this is His blood shed for you. I call upon you to do this to remember what I have done for each of you and he world. We take part in this Holy Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist expecting His renewal of our lives for the year, 2010, coming forth in His holiness, grace, love, and peace. We come singing the song written by Melody Green and her husband, Keith Green, called “There is a Redeemer:”
There is a redeemer, Jesus, God's own Son, Precious Lamb of God, Messiah, Holy One, Jesus my redeemer, Name above all names, Precious Lamb of God, Messiah, Oh, for sinners slain.
Thank you oh my father, For giving us Your Son, And leaving Your Spirit, 'Til the work on Earth is done. When I stand in Glory, I will see His face, And there I'll serve my King forever, In that Holy Place.
Thank you oh my father, For giving us Your Son, And leaving Your Spirit, 'Til the work on Earth is done. There is a redeemer, Jesus, God's own Son
Precious Lamb of God, Messiah, Holy One, Thank you oh my father, For giving us Your Son, And leaving Your Spirit, 'Til the work on Earth is done. And leaving Your Spirit, 'Till the work on Earth is done.
Holy Father, we come to you and thank you for the year 2009 and your grace in our lives. You have been there with us and we ask for your grace for this new year, 2010, to be the people you have called us to be. We come together praying the prayer that Jesus taught His disciples and us:
Our Father in heaven, Reveal who you are. Set the world right; Do what's best— as above, so below. Keep us alive with three square meals. Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others. Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil. You're in charge! You can do anything you want! You're ablaze in beauty! Yes. Yes. Yes.
In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen!!!
Closing Prayer and Benediction: We pray again the prayer that You taught your disciples when they asked You to teach them to pray as You prayed:
Our Father, Who art in heaven Hallowed be Thy Name; Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. In the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace.
Name of Jesus
January 1, 2010
Prayer of the Day: Eternal Father, you gave your incarnate Son the holy name of Jesus to be a sign of our salvation. Plant in every heart the love of the Savior of the world, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
PSALM
Psalm 8
A David Psalm
1 God, brilliant Lord, yours is a household name.
2 Nursing infants gurgle choruses about you;
toddlers shout the songs
That drown out enemy talk,
and silence atheist babble.
3-4 I look up at your macro-skies, dark and enormous,
your handmade sky-jewelry,
Moon and stars mounted in their settings.
Then I look at my micro-self and wonder,
Why do you bother with us?
Why take a second look our way?
5-8 Yet we've so narrowly missed being gods,
bright with Eden's dawn light.
You put us in charge of your handcrafted world,
repeated to us your Genesis-charge,
Made us lords of sheep and cattle,
even animals out in the wild,
Birds flying and fish swimming,
whales singing in the ocean deeps.
9 God, brilliant Lord,
your name echoes around the world.--The Message
LESSON 1
Numbers 6:22-27
The Aaronic Blessing
22-23 God spoke to Moses: "Tell Aaron and his sons, This is how you are to bless the People of Israel. Say to them,
24 God bless you and keep you,
25 God smile on you and gift you,
26 God look you full in the face
and make you prosper.
27 In so doing, they will place my name on the People of Israel—
I will confirm it by blessing them."--The Message
LESSON 2
Galatians 4:4-7
4-7But when the time arrived that was set by God the Father, God sent his Son, born among us of a woman, born under the conditions of the law so that he might redeem those of us who have been kidnapped by the law. Thus we have been set free to experience our rightful heritage. You can tell for sure that you are now fully adopted as his own children because God sent the Spirit of his Son into our lives crying out, "Papa! Father!" Doesn't that privilege of intimate conversation with God make it plain that you are not a slave, but a child? And if you are a child, you're also an heir, with complete access to the inheritance.--The Message
Philippians 2:5-11
5-8Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn't think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn't claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion.
9-11Because of that obedience, God lifted him high and honored him far beyond anyone or anything, ever, so that all created beings in heaven and on earth—even those long ago dead and buried—will bow in worship before this Jesus Christ, and call out in praise that he is the Master of all, to the glorious honor of God the Father.--The Message
Gospel Acclamation: Alleluia. At the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth. Alleluia.
GOSPEL
Luke 2:15-21
15-18As the angel choir withdrew into heaven, the sheepherders talked it over. "Let's get over to Bethlehem as fast as we can and see for ourselves what God has revealed to us." They left, running, and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in the manger. Seeing was believing. They told everyone they met what the angels had said about this child. All who heard the sheepherders were impressed.
19-20Mary kept all these things to herself, holding them dear, deep within herself. The sheepherders returned and let loose, glorifying and praising God for everything they had heard and seen. It turned out exactly the way they'd been told!
Blessings
21When the eighth day arrived, the day of circumcision, the child was named Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived.--The Message
SERMON OUTLINE
WRITTEN FOR: New Year’s Day, Friday, January 1, 2009
Title: Sharing the Good News
Scriptures: Luke 2:15-21
Proposition or Theme Sentence: We remember the shepherds listening to the angels then going and see the newborn baby and sharing what they heard and saw.
Purposes: The remembering the covenant promises of God fulfilled that we may trust Him fully even in hard times of our lives.
Introduction: How do you enter into a new year? On this first day of 2010, we remember the covenant we took and prayed last night, but remember how obedient the shepherds were to share what they heard and saw to other people. The greatest gift is to be fully amazed at the presence of God in our lives. We think back a few days ago when we first heard this story of the birth of Jesus with the announcement of His birth to the Shepherds then their response to what they heard. We realize that obedience is not only hearing the Message of Hope in Jesus, but to go into action in living out the Hope of Jesus in our lives to people we come in contact with who have no hope. How will you come and share the good news of Jesus redemption for all creation in word and deed? Come, let us go into this new year 2010 with God’s love to love unconditionally as He loves.
I. The Birth of Jesus.
A. The promise of God comes to life.
B. The Love of God is seen.
C. The action of God moves.
II. The birth announcement to the Shepherds.
A. God reaches to all people with His redemption story.
B. Remembering the social and economic status of the Shepherds.
C. Remembering what the Shepherds did after seeing the new born baby who is the Savior of the world.
III. Some lessons for us to live in the 21st century as Christ’s loving witnesses.
A. God calls all to be redeemed by Him.
B. God love is unconditional to all people.
C. God chooses to let us freely choose Him in our words and deeds.
Conclusion: We come to the time to allow the Holy Spirit to search our hearts, minds, and lives to see how we have been faithful witnesses to what we have heard and seen of God’s love. Where necessary, we come and confess to repent of our sins that we may live in God’s Holy Love.
Invitation: Just as we ended 2009 receiving God’s grace, we begum 2010 by eating the Body Jesus and drinking His blood through the Holy Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. We come singing from the Praise and Worship hymn#418 “Amazing Grace” or from the Worship in Song hymn#212 “Amazing Grace” or from the Sing to the Lord hymn#85 “Amazing Grace.”
Closing Prayer and Benediction: Lead us Holy Father into this new year of 2010 as we begin by praying the prayer you taught you disciples:
Our Father, Who art in heaven Hallowed be Thy Name; Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. In the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace.
WATCH NIGHT
LECTIONARY COMMENTARY
Thursday, December 31, 2009
William Watley, Guest Lectionary Commentator
Senior Pastor, St. James AME Church, Newark, NJ Lection - Isaiah 43:18-21 (New Revised Standard Version)
(v. 18) Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. (v. 19) I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. (v. 20) The wild animals will honour me, the jackals and the ostriches; for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people, (v. 21) the people whom I formed for myself so that they might declare my praise.
I. Description of the Liturgical Moment
Within the African American tradition, Watch Night services evolved around the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation by Abraham Lincoln in 1862, when black people gathered on December 31, 1862 to wait for the new day and the freedom that was promised for January 1863.
We began The African American Lectionary with December 31, 2007 waiting for the new year to begin. We close this second year again in watch—waiting for the next cycle. With our calendar, December 31 signals the end of the old and the promise of the new. In addition to our way of organizing time, there are cultural calendars that are significant to other cultures in ordering time and their lives. To a large extent, our calendar is dominant in that it governs the time line for marking civil affairs of the planet. For Christians, it is important to know that this version of ordering time reflects contributions from earlier calendars and treats all time as sacred and no time as ordinary.
Many cultures begin their new year with great celebrations, feasting and partying. This is also true with many within African American communities. However, Watch Night Service is a special way to move across the line of time that marks the end of one year and the coming of a new year. This night finds many Christians in church on their knees in gratitude for the completion of another leg in the journey and recommitting to a sacred partnership with the Almighty for whatever is to come in the new cycle before us.
For African American Christians, crossing of this line time is a time to remember the night their ancestors watched and waited for the arrival of January 1, 1863 and the application of the Emancipation Proclamation by President Abraham Lincoln. This observance is significant as a part of the fabric binding multiple and extended efforts to undermine and destroy the legal system of slavery within the United States of America. We are called to mark this time as a reminder of the importance of not accepting that which is evil in our midst. The 19th century struggles against slavery as morally wrong and indefensible remain an important element in the evolutionary journey of this nation, and the concept and quality of freedom around the world.1
II. Biblical Interpretation for Preaching and Worship: Isaiah 43:18-21
Part One: The Contemporary Contexts of the Interpreter
One of the realities of the last night of the year is that we face it with the baggage of the previous year. Many New Years are simply a repeat of our old years, because we carry both distant history and recent memory of pain and struggles. In the midst of our trials and tribulations, we have too often hung our harps of faith on weeping willows of self-pity and defeat and allowed daily survival issues to dim our vision as we peer into the future through a glass darkly. As we have waged war against the devil, who in various nefarious and sometimes unexpected ways has come against our families, our aspirations, and us, we often approach the New Year with dimmed hope rather than the conviction that real turn around can happen in our lives.
Part Two: Biblical Commentary
The text was spoken at a time when the people of God were re-establishing their identity as a free people. Their recent history had been one of slavery and servitude as they spent the last seventy years in Babylon. During that season, they struggled to keep their faith strong and their hopes alive. One thinks about the pain and the pathos of their lament that is found in Psalm 137:1-4, “By the rivers of Babylon---there we sat down and there we wept when we remembered Zion. On the willows there we hung our harps. For there our captors asked us for songs, and our tormentors asked for mirth, saying, ‘Sing us one of the songs of Zion!’ How could we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?” One hears their heartbreak as they with uplifted hands declared, “If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither! Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth, if I do not remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy” (vv. 5-6). And we hear their bitterness of spirit as they spoke about their captors, “Remember, O Lord, against the Edomites the day of Jerusalem’s fall, how they said, ‘Tear it down! Tear it down! Down to its foundations’ O Daughter Babylon, you devastator! Happy shall they be who pay you back what you have done to us! Happy shall they be who take you little ones and dash them against the rock” (vv. 7-9)! Such is the brokenness and bitterness of spirit that overtakes us when we refuse to keep singing our songs of faith and when we allow our present circumstances to suffocate our dreams and wipe out our vision of hope.
However, their season of suffering that was so onerous and nightmarish to live through had come to an end. With the demise of the Babylonian empire and the rise of the Persians as the preeminent leaders on the world’s stage of history under the leadership of Cyrus, an invitation had been extended to the displaced people of God to return to their ancestral homeland and rebuild their torn down cities, culture and, yes, their faith. A faithful remnant of the covenant people of God had returned to Palestine to pick up the broken pieces of their history and build a new future for the coming generations. Yet, how were they to build for the future when so much of their recent past had been filled with so much pain, despair and disappointment? The baggage of both the distant as well as the recent past can be a major stumbling block and impediment to the development and implementation of a wholesome vision and healed life for the future.
The stories of their faith were centuries old. In times of distress and confusion they encouraged themselves as best they could by retelling the familiar narratives of how Moses delivered their ancestors from Egyptian bondage, and how they were sustained during forty years of wilderness wanderings as they struggled to get to the land that flowed with milk and honey. They remembered the war stories of Joshua and how he had led their fathers and mothers in their conquest to conquer and make the Land of Promise their own place of opportunity and breakthrough.
Such were the people that the prophet Deutero-Isaiah ministered to in the words of the text when he declared, “Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel...Do not remember the former things or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. The wild animals will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches; for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people, the people whom I formed or myself so that they might declare my praise.”
The prophet was telling those to whom he ministered that they were at a turning point in their life. They were not to dwell on either past pain, and they would not have to rely on their past remembrance of the miracles of God. Their God was a very present help in their times of trouble, and their God was about to do something new in their lives that would make their faith not simply a history lesson but a living record of the power and the presence of God. They would see God work miracles in their own lives and circumstances that would give them their own testimonies and experiences with God whose power and presence is from everlasting to everlasting.
For too many of us, this past year was just like the year before, and if we are not careful the next year will be just like the one we have come through. However, this Watch Night we dare to proclaim a word of hope and change for the New Year. The God whom Deutero-Isaiah proclaimed is our God. This year can be more than one for making great resolutions, with weak follow through. This year can be more than one that begins with good intentions but ends in abysmal failure. If we are willing to let go of some things in our past, this year can be turn around time for real and for good.
Chapter 42:10 of the Book of Job states, “And the Lord restored the fortunes of Job when he had prayed for his friends; and the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before.” Job was restored and given double his losses not simply because he endured his trials without breaking. Job received double for his trouble when he was able to let go of any animosity he felt towards those who had falsely accused him when he was undergoing his season of suffering and pray for them. He shook off the pain of the past so that he could receive the promise of the future. He shook off the bitterness of the past so that he could receive new breakthroughs in a new season of his life.
In the same way, the word of the Lord says to us what he said to the people of the Covenant so long ago, “Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old.” Whatever has happened to us is history. Whatever heartbreak or disappointments, or problems or betrayals we encountered this past year, we made it through; we have survived. Instead of allowing the past to cloud our vision and steal our joy, we are invited to hear this word from the Lord, “I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?” The God of our mothers and fathers who walked with them in days past and gone, and who brought us through whatever we have faced this past year, is still on the throne. His power has not been abated and his arm has not been shortened. The blood of Jesus still saves to the utmost, and the Holy Spirit as the abiding presence of God to strengthen us for the living of these days.
Whatever new challenges or new foes or new problems arise in the coming year, we can still face it with the assurance of victory, because our God does new things in new places to help the people of faith face new challenges, attain new victories and form new testimonies. The witness of the prophet Jeremiah still holds true, “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. ‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘therefore I will hope in him.’” Our God is able to meet every crisis with new creativity. Our God is able to meet every problem with new provision. Our God is able to meet every mountain with new miracles. God is able to meet attacks with new anointing. God is able to meet new trouble with new triumphs.
The sacrifice of the Lord Jesus on Calvary was a new revelation of God’s love. His resurrection from the dead, never to stoop anymore, was a new revelation of divine power. The coming of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost was a new revelation of God’s manifest presence. The second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ at the end of time will be a new revelation of God’s conquering glory.
This year can be our turn around time because we serve a God who continually does new things in our lives when we are willing to let go of the past and lay hold upon the future with faith in God who continues to do all things well. I would submit to you that the word spoken so long ago by the prophet to another people in another time and at another place in history is still a viable, fresh, living and relevant word as we face another year.
Celebration
As the New Year swiftly approaches let us hear again the word of the prophet, “Do not remember the former things or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. The wild animals will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches; for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people, the people whom I formed for myself so that they might declare my praise.” I give praise unto God for this past year and the mighty things of the new year that God will bring.
Descriptive Details
The descriptive details in this passage include:
Sights: A new thing springing forth; a way made in the wilderness; wild animals; jackals and ostrich; water in the wilderness; rivers in the desert;
Sounds: The rushing waters of a river; wild animals making sounds to honor God; the thirsty people of God drinking water provided in a dry place; and
Emotions: The excitement felt because God is doing something new! Notes
1. This description of the liturgical moment, with slight revisions, was provided by Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon for the cultural resource unit for Watch Night in Year Two of The African American Lectionary.
LECTIONARY COMMENTARY
Friday, January 1, 2010
Luke A. Powery, Lectionary Team Commentator Lection – Daniel 6:23b (New Revised Standard Version)
(v. 23b) So Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no kind of harm was found on him, because he had trusted in his God.
I. Description of the Liturgical Moment
In Year One and Year Two of the lectionary, insightful historical information was given for this particular liturgical moment (e.g., Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863 freeing slaves in states that seceded from the Union); also, you can read the cultural commentary for this Sunday for further insight into the historical aspects of the writing of the Emancipation Proclamation.
For Year Three, I want to probe this liturgical moment theologically; that is, what does this moment say about God? To designate a day “Emancipation Proclamation” implies that God is a God of emancipation, freedom, and liberation. It suggests that God is on the side of freedom and resists oppression. This is surely true for the black church’s traditional understanding of God as a God who is on the side of the oppressed. The God of black people is a freeing God. By making this distinction (i.e., God of black people), I am suggesting that there may be other gods, even supposedly “Christian gods,” at work in the world; other gods whom people worship, other gods whom people think are God. But, if these gods are oppressive and destructive, they are not the God of the oppressed, the God of African Americans, the God of our weary years and silent tears, the One who has brought us thus far along the way. This identity of God as a deliverer of the oppressed is critical for this Sunday and is a lens through which one can worship in celebration with trust in his or her heart.
Furthermore, to speak of an “emancipation proclamation” means that this Sunday proclaims in time, space, word, song, movement, and meal, the emancipation of black people today, not just in the past as a historical event but as a progressive movement of
the Divine in the present. If God is a God of emancipation, God can be trusted to liberate today. If God is proclaimed to be a God of enslavement, then this god must be mistrusted and destroyed. Within the black Christian traditions, God is a liberating God; thus, God can be trusted. A God of emancipation is a socially engaged God, not just a God of personal piety; therefore, emancipation occurs inwardly and outwardly. In worship for this Sunday, every black believer sings out in trombone fashion “freedom!” while our trustworthy God of liberation continues to proclaim to systems of oppression, “Let my people go!”
II. Biblical Interpretation for Preaching and Worship: Daniel 6:23b
Part One: The Contemporary Contexts of the Interpreter
Sometimes life may seem like a lions’ den of sorts. The lions of life are growling and ready to pounce on us at any moment. Because of this, we are filled with much fear. In fact, within the United States in recent years, a culture of fear has been nurtured through the powers that be, the media, and our own imaginations. Fear has been propelled by such events as the 9/11 attacks and the discovery of terrorist cell groups, even home-grown ones in this country. More so now, those who are different are demonized and viewed as a suspicious other. Borders are to be protected because of fear. Immigrants are called “aliens.” Governmental color codes for levels of terrorist threats heighten the sense of anxiety already in the den of life.
Additionally, there have been senseless college campus shootings, such as at Virginia Tech, and even rumors of such threats at Princeton University and Princeton Seminary, making us go on lockdown and during lockdown one is chained to fear. The Princeton episodes have been benign, but the fear has been lethal for the soul. The current economic crisis has not helped either but has fanned the flames of fear, particularly the fear of the future. Surrounded by the lions of fear in the world, who will we trust in these testing times?
We need to be emancipated or freed from fear even in the lions’ den of life. Fear can quench faith but faith can destroy fear. A fearless faithful trust in a delivering God will do just that as Daniel demonstrates.
Part Two: Biblical Commentary
Deep in Daniel’s soul must have been that old familiar song “I’m gonna trust in the Lord, I’m gonna trust in the Lord, I’m gonna trust in the Lord ‘til I die.”2 His trust was unwavering in the face of a lion-style death. Just like our African ancestors, Daniel faced many trials, but his trials, his “slavery,” were not self-imposed. Others bound him.
Earlier in the chapter, we learn that the other presidents and satraps want to find a complaint against Daniel because they are jealous of him and do not want him to get promoted by King Darius (Dan v.4). But, he is blameless and “faithful” as an excellent leader and worker for the kingdom of Darius; thus, he escapes the traps of those jealous of him for a time. His faithfulness to the kingdom of God is soon put to the test, however, when the king signs an ordinance against anyone praying to any divine or human being other than himself. If someone did this, they would be thrown into the lions’ den which is where Daniel eventually finds himself—in this den of death (vv.7-9). The conspirators had seemingly defeated Daniel. All odds were against him. He was in serious trouble and, as James Cone notes, “trouble is inseparable from the black religious experience.”2 Trouble is something African Americans have known all too well throughout history, which may be the reason why blacks have been drawn to the character of Daniel. Daniel experienced tremendous trials, but how he handled his trials set him apart to be emulated. The question is not if there will be trouble but when there is trouble, how will you respond to it?
Daniel responds like many of the enslaved blacks of the past and his actions intone the spiritual, “I’ve been ‘buked an’ I’ve been scorned, I’ve been talked about sho’s you’ born. Dere is trouble all over dis’ world’. Ain’ gwine lay my ‘ligion down.”3 Daniel would not lay his faith in God down. His soul had obviously been anchored in the Lord based on how he responds to his predicament. Despite the king’s edict, Daniel still prays to God three times a day (v.10). This lands him in the lion’s den. In the end, he is not harmed because “he trusted in his God” (v.23). Daniel did not allow his trials to triumph. Rather, he hoped in a God somewhere who would bring triumph.
Daniel reveals that he believed God would trouble the water. In his situation, trust triumphs over terror. In particular, what is stressed in this story is a distinction between Daniel’s God and other gods. Throughout chapter six, Daniel’s God is distinguished by references to God as “his God” (vv.5, 10, 11), “your God,” (vv.16, 20), and Daniel declares “my God” (v.22). One must be certain in which God one is trusting. Daniel did not trust in himself for deliverance, but he trusted in his God. Others might have made claims to divinity, like Darius, but he was not the one Daniel trusted to deliver him out of trouble. There are other gods, but there is only one who delivers. Even King Darius realizes this in the end when he declares, “people should tremble and fear before the God of Daniel: For he is the living God, enduring forever. His kingdom shall never be destroyed, and his dominion has no end. He delivers and rescues, he works signs and wonders in heaven and on earth; for he has saved Daniel from the power of the lions” (vv. 26-27). Our ancestors sang this story, “Didn’t the Lord Deliver Daniel and Why Not Every Man?” Their God was the “God of Daniel” (v.26), a God of emancipation. They believed in the saving power of a trustworthy God as they sang, “God is a God! God don’t never change! God is a God an’ he always will be God!”
Fear in life and fear of death may fight for our allegiance but they are not God. This is not to say that all enslaved blacks trusted in God; one does not want to be ruined by such a romantic ideal. Some blacks may have gotten weary and given up hope in any God during slavery, but many trusted in the Lord ‘til they died to git them over; the vast literature of the spirituals reveals this. The God of the white man was not their God because “didn’t the Lord deliver Daniel and why not every man?” Their God, like Daniel’s, specialized in saving and liberating people, not binding them. Thus, what is essential to an emancipatory theology is a God who emancipates and this God must become “my God” if trust is to override trials.
With this belief in the “God of Daniel” (v. 26), one can trust fully in the face of trouble. Trust is tested in the face of hardship and trials but if one continues to trust in the times of testing, one may sing “Nobody Knows the Troubles I See”4 but will also eventually sing “Glory Hallelujah.”5 “Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel, and Why Not Every Man?”6 Why not you? Why not me?
Celebration
Didn’t my Lord deliver Daniel? God is trustworthy. God delivers from lions’ dens! God will deliver you. God is able to save. For complete emancipation, only trust God jus’ now.
Descriptive Details
The descriptive details of this passage include: Sounds: The roar of lions; Sights: The den and the lions in it; Daniel coming out of the den; Smells: The smell created by the animals in the den; and Textures: The unharmed skin of Daniel after he stepped out of the lion’s den. III. Sermonic Suggestions
•
Langston Hughes’ poem “Still Here”
I been scarred and battered. My hopes the wind done scattered.
Snow has froz me, Sun has baked me,
Looks like between ‘em they done Tried to make me
Stop laughin’, stop lovin’, stop livin’— But I don’t care!
I’m still here!
The words of this poem could be used in a sermon imaginatively, as the words of a delivered and victorious Daniel. Daniel was “still here” even after his enemies tried to get rid of him. This poem could be used as an analogy between the
oppressive experience of blacks throughout history and the oppressive experience of Daniel.
• Because Daniel and the lions’ den is a key biblical story found in the spirituals, it might be useful for integrative cultural purposes to have the choir or an ensemble sing some of the spirituals which include Daniel or the preacher may choose to sing or quote these songs in the sermon. Such spirituals include:
“He’s Jus de same today.” A verse of the song says: He’s jus’ de same today, an’ de God dat lived in Moses’/Daniel’s time is jus’ de same today.
“Didn’t my Lord deliver Daniel.” A verse of the song says: Didn’t my Lord deliver Daniel deliver Daniel, deliver Daniel? Didn’t my Lord deliver Daniel, and why not every man? He delivered Daniel from the lion’s den, Jonah from the belly of the whale, and the Hebrew children from the fiery furnace, and why not every man?
Notes
• McClurkin, Donnie. “We've Come This Far by Faith / I Will Trust In The Lord.” The Essential Donnie McClurkin. New York, NY: Verity, 2007.
• Cone, James H. The Spirituals and the Blues: An Interpretation. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1991. p. 31.
• “I’ve Been ‘buked an’ I’ve Been Scorned.” Traditional. Online location: http://www.negrospirituals.com/news-song/i_ve_been_buked_and_i- ve_been_scorned.htm accessed 2 September 2009
• “Nobody Knows the Troubles I See.” Traditional. Online location: http://www.negrospirituals.com/news-song/nobody_know_de_trouble_i_see.htm accessed 7 September 2009
• “Glory, Glory, Hallelujah.” Traditional. Online location: http://www.negrospirituals.com/news-song/glory_glory_hallelujah.htm accessed 7 September 2009
“Didn’t my Lord deliver Daniel.” Traditional. Online location: http://www.negrospirituals.com/news-song/didn_t_my_lord_delier_daniel.htm accessed 7 September 2009
Glorious Freedom
by Haldor Lillenas
Once I was bound by sin’s galling fetters, Chained like a slave, I struggled in vain; But I received a glorious freedom, When Jesus broke my fetters in twain.
Refrain: Glorious freedom, wonderful freedom, No more in chains of sin I repine! Jesus the glorious Emancipator, Now and forever He shall be mine.
Freedom from all the carnal affections, Freedom from envy, hatred and strife; Freedom from vain and worldly ambitions, Freedom from all that saddened my life.
Freedom from pride and all sinful follies, Freedom from love and glitter of gold; Freedom from evil, temper, and anger, Glorious freedom, rapture untold.
Freedom from fear with all of its torments, Freedom from care with all of its pain; Freedom in Christ, my blessed Redeemer, He who has rent my fetters in twain.
Lift Every Voice and Sing
by James Weldon Johnson
Lift every voice and sing, till earth and Heaven ring, Ring with the harmonies of liberty; Let our rejoicing rise, high as the listening skies, Let it resound loud as the rolling sea. Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us, Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us; Facing the rising sun of our new day begun, Let us march on till victory is won. Stony the road we trod, bitter the chastening rod, Felt in the days when hope unborn had died; Yet with a steady beat, have not our weary feet, Come to the place for which our fathers sighed? We have come over a way that with tears has been watered, We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered; Out from the gloomy past, till now we stand at last Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast. God of our weary years, God of our silent tears, Thou Who hast brought us thus far on the way; Thou Who hast by Thy might, led us into the light, Keep us forever in the path, we pray. Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee. Lest our hearts, drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee. Shadowed beneath Thy hand, may we forever stand, True to our God, true to our native land.
Scriptures and Sermon Outlines for Sunday, December 27, 2009
FIRST SUNDAY OF CHRISTMAS
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2009
PRAYER OF THE DAY: Shine into our hearts the light of your wisdom, O God, and open our minds to the knowledge of your word, that in all things we may think and act accordingly to your good will and may live continually in the light of your Son, Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
PSALM
Psalm 148
1-5 Hallelujah! Praise God from heaven,
praise him from the mountaintops;
Praise him, all you his angels,
praise him, all you his warriors,
Praise him, sun and moon,
praise him, you morning stars;
Praise him, high heaven,
praise him, heavenly rain clouds;
Praise, oh let them praise the name of God—
he spoke the word, and there they were!
6 He set them in place
from all time to eternity;
He gave his orders,
and that's it!
7-12 Praise God from earth,
you sea dragons, you fathomless ocean deeps;
Fire and hail, snow and ice,
hurricanes obeying his orders;
Mountains and all hills,
apple orchards and cedar forests;
Wild beasts and herds of cattle,
snakes, and birds in flight;
Earth's kings and all races,
leaders and important people,
Robust men and women in their prime,
and yes, graybeards and little children.
13-14 Let them praise the name of God—
it's the only Name worth praising.
His radiance exceeds anything in earth and sky;
he's built a monument—his very own people!
Praise from all who love God! Israel's children, intimate friends of God. Hallelujah!--The Message
LESSON 1
1 Samuel 2:18-20, 26
18-20 In the midst of all this, Samuel, a boy dressed in a priestly linen tunic, served God. Additionally, every year his mother would make him a little robe cut to his size and bring it to him when she and her husband came for the annual sacrifice. Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife, saying, "God give you children to replace this child you have dedicated to God." Then they would go home.
25-26 But they were far gone in disobedience and refused to listen to a thing their father said. So God, who was fed up with them, decreed their death. But the boy Samuel was very much alive, growing up, blessed by God and popular with the people.--The Message
LESSON 2
Colossians 3:12-17
12-14So, chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offense. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you. And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It's your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it.
15-17Let the peace of Christ keep you in tune with each other, in step with each other. None of this going off and doing your own thing. And cultivate thankfulness. Let the Word of Christ—the Message—have the run of the house. Give it plenty of room in your lives. Instruct and direct one another using good common sense. And sing, sing your hearts out to God! Let every detail in your lives—words, actions, whatever—be done in the name of the Master, Jesus, thanking God the Father every step of the way.--The Message
GOSPEL ACCLAMATION: Alleluia. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, and the word of Christ dwell in you richly. Alleluia.
GOSPEL
Luke 2:41-52
They Found Him in the Temple
41-45Every year Jesus' parents traveled to Jerusalem for the Feast of Passover. When he was twelve years old, they went up as they always did for the Feast. When it was over and they left for home, the child Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but his parents didn't know it. Thinking he was somewhere in the company of pilgrims, they journeyed for a whole day and then began looking for him among relatives and neighbors. When they didn't find him, they went back to Jerusalem looking for him.
46-48The next day they found him in the Temple seated among the teachers, listening to them and asking questions. The teachers were all quite taken with him, impressed with the sharpness of his answers. But his parents were not impressed; they were upset and hurt.
His mother said, "Young man, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been half out of our minds looking for you."
49-50He said, "Why were you looking for me? Didn't you know that I had to be here, dealing with the things of my Father?" But they had no idea what he was talking about.
51-52So he went back to Nazareth with them, and lived obediently with them. His mother held these things dearly, deep within herself. And Jesus matured, growing up in both body and spirit, blessed by both God and people.--The Message
SERMON OUTLINE
WRITTEN FOR: Sunday, December 27, 2009
Title: Lost Child
Scriptures: Luke 2:41-52
Proposition or Theme Sentence: Observing the family traditions of traveling to Jerusalem and celebrating Passover in the Temple brings and unexpected surprise.
Purposes: Family traditions are great when they bring us into obedience of God’s Law and Word.
Introduction: What family traditions that bring you closer to God bring anxiety when unexpected events occur? Have you ever been to church with your family and went home and realized one of the family members were not with you? I have. As a Child, I had a habit of falling asleep in morning worship. Well, this one Sunday morning, I fell asleep next to my Mom and after the service I continued sleeping while my Mom continued to fellowshipping with the people gathering my brother and sister to walk home. When they got home and my mother was fixing Sunday dinner, the pastor called asking if my Mom knew where I was because he found me sleep on the pew. I am not sure if that was embarrassing for me at my young age, but my Mom was embarrassed. I remember this story as my Mom shared it with me from time to time because she said that if she ever forgot a child, the church would be a great place to to leave a child accidentally. Now, here we have baby Jesus at the pre-adolescence age of 12 traveling to Jerusalem with his parents and other relatives to observe the annual Passover celebration. From studies, I realize that the age of 12 is about the time a Jewish boy has a Bar Mitzvah and becomes a man and the practice in the Church of the Nazarene is that at 12 years old a person may become an official member of the Church of the Nazarene they have been a part of. Because families traveled in a caravan with other friends and relatives, there was probably not a need for parents to make sure whether or not their children, especially a twelve year old, was missing. Meanwhile, the caravan made at least a one day journey back to Nazareth which is where Mary and Joseph discovered that Jesus was not with them. They needed to return to Jerusalem to find out where their missing son was. They traveled back to Jerusalem and searched all over the city of Jerusalem, which must have been a task since Jerusalem was filled with Passover visitors, but did not find him. As a last result it seemed, they went to the Temple to see if Jesus was there. When they arrived at the Temple, they discovered that Jesus was in the Temple talking and listening to the Temple leaders discussing God’s Law and Word. Mary and Joseph saw Jesus and responded with a statement type question that came out something like this: what have you done, do you not know that your father and I were worried about you? Jesus simply responded to his mother and father with a statement type question sounding like this: did you not know that I would be in my Father’s house? How do you think Mary and Joseph felt with this remark type question from Jesus? We do know that the three of them went home and and Jesus grew in statue and wisdom with God and humanity. How would an area in your life be simple? How do your respond to lost children whether yours or someone else? How do you respond to the children around the world who have no parents and are fending for themselves whether in war zones or inner cities or country neighborhoods?
I. Joseph and Mary take twelve year old Jesus to Jerusalem for the annual Passover celebration.
A. The call of God to celebrate the Passover annually of God’s deliverance of Israel from Egypt.
B. The family traveled with other relatives and friends on the long journey from Nazareth to Jerusalem.
C. The family and the rest of the caravan complete the celebration and travel back to their homes in Nazareth.
II. Mary and Joseph discover that their son, Jesus, is not with the caravan after a one day journey away from Jerusalem.
A. Mary and Joseph take leave of the caravan to go back to Jerusalem to find their son, Jesus.
B. They spend a lot of time search for their son in Jerusalem.
C. They finally head to the Temple where they find out that their son, Jesus, have been talking with the Temple leaders for the past three days, then head home with Jesus.
III. The lessons from Mary and Joseph’s search for Jesus and their discovering for us in the 21st century.
A. The searching for the people seeking to know a God who loves them.
B. The finding people who have no one to take care of them, whether people with impairments and orphans from wars, disease, or natural disasters.
C. The willingness to really listen to people in our contact areas concerning their quest for God and His grace, mercy, and love.
Conclusion: We come to the time to allow God’s Holy Spirit to search our hearts, minds, and lives to see how we respond to lost people who are seeking a loving relationship with the One true God. Where we need to, we confess our sins of not being as loving as God is towards all people seeking the same think we are that is a loving relationship with God.
Invitation: Seeking more of His grace, we come and eat the Body of Jesus and drink His Blood as we partake of the Holy Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. As we usually do, we come and worship in song from the Praise and Worship hymn#411 “Seeking the Lost” or from the Worship in Song hymn#349 “Rescue the Perishing” or from the Sing to the Lord hymn#716 “So Send I You--by Grace Made Strong” or from The United Methodist Church hymn#187 “Arise, Shine, You People.”
Closing Prayer and Benediction: Holy Father, we come and seek your presence and power to find those people who need extra help to live this life and know that they are loved. We come praying together for your strength and wisdom that you have as we pray the prayer that you taught your disciples to pray:
Our Father, Who art in heaven Hallowed be Thy Name; Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. In the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace.
SCRIPTURE READING
Zechariah 3
Fourth Vision: Joshua's New Clothes
1-2 Next the Messenger-Angel showed me the high priest Joshua. He was standing before God's Angel where the Accuser showed up to accuse him. Then God said to the Accuser, "I, God, rebuke you, Accuser! I rebuke you and choose Jerusalem. Surprise! Everything is going up in flames, but I reach in and pull out Jerusalem!"
3-4Joshua, standing before the angel, was dressed in dirty clothes. The angel spoke to his attendants, "Get him out of those filthy clothes," and then said to Joshua, "Look, I've stripped you of your sin and dressed you up in clean clothes."
5I spoke up and said, "How about a clean new turban for his head also?" And they did it—put a clean new turban on his head. Then they finished dressing him, with God's Angel looking on.
6-7God's Angel then charged Joshua, "Orders from God-of-the-Angel-Armies: 'If you live the way I tell you and remain obedient in my service, then you'll make the decisions around here and oversee my affairs. And all my attendants standing here will be at your service.
8-9"'Careful, High Priest Joshua—both you and your friends sitting here with you, for your friends are in on this, too! Here's what I'm doing next: I'm introducing my servant Branch. And note this: This stone that I'm placing before Joshua, a single stone with seven eyes'—Decree of God-of-the-Angel-Armies—'I'll engrave with these words: "I'll strip this land of its filthy sin, all at once, in a single day."
10"'At that time, everyone will get along with one another, with friendly visits across the fence, friendly visits on one another's porches.'"--The Message
SERMON OUTLINE
WRITTEN FOR: Sunday, December 27, 2009
Title: New Clothes
Scriptures: Zechariah 3
Proposition or Theme Sentence: The transformation that comes to people and communities comes as God turns their sin-sick lives into brand new cleansed white lives.
Purposes: The hearing from God of the vision from Zechariah about the priest, Joshua, and the promise of a branch to redeem Israel from their oppressors.
Introduction: How do we really understand the meaning of the prophets of Israel, not only for Israel, but for us? We have a prophet here who is prophesy some of God’s visions to restore Israel to their splendor as he promise. Today’s vision is about a priest named Joshua who is actually dirty and dressed in dirty rags which is not what God’s priest are suppose to be dressed in according to His law. God speaks to Zechariah that he and the other people are to take Joshua and give him a bath and dress him in clean and new clothes. How does the call of God in this situation symbolize the way God cleanses us from our sins? We look at this vision of God’s through the prophet Zechariah and see that God will never forget His promise to His people the Israelites and was going to release them from their bondage from the nations and give them life again as a whole nation of God. The nation of Israel is not only to be restored, but the people of the world will look to Israel as a witness to the One True God. How do you respond to God’s Holiness for your life and the life of your community?
I. Zechariah says that God will restore Israel.
A. God speaks through Zechariah that God has not forgotten Israel.
B. God begins to share of His vision for his people to live in God’s holy law.
C. God sees a priest coming with some other men to Zechariah.
II. God uses the priest as an example of God’s Transformation of His people.
God says to the other men, see how Joshua, the priest, is dressed in rags and very dirty.
B. God commands Zechariah and the other man to give Joshua, the priest, a bath and dress in clean, new clothes.
C. God says that as Joshua is transformed His people will be transformed into His Holiness with a branch coming.
III. God speaks to us in the 21st century to be transformed as Joshua was transformed from dirty rags to clean and dress in new clothes.
A. God calls us to repent of our sins and seek His Holiness of life.
B. God’s holiness comes and cleanses us from our sins both inherited and committed.
C. God leads us to be His tool to the rest of the world to embrace God’s Holiness in words and deeds.
Conclusion: What does it really mean to really be made holy by God? We seek God’s Holy Spirit to search our hearts, minds, and lives to see where we have allowed sin to come into our lives. Where necessary, we repent of our sins to receive God’s grace to live holy lives as His witness to the world.
Invitation: Seeking more of God’s holiness, we come and eat the Body of Jesus and drink His Blood through the Holy Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. In coming, we sing from the Praise and Worship hymn#325 “Holiness Forever” or from the Worship in Song hymn#290 “Holiness Unto the Lord” or from the Sing to the Lord hymn#436 “I’d Rather Have Jesus” or from The United Methodist Hymnal hymn#331 “Holy Spirit, Come, Confirm Us.”
I’d Rather Have Jesus
By: Rhea Miller
I’d rather have Jesus than silver or gold; I’d rather be His than have riches untold; I’d rather have Jesus than houses or lands; I’d rather be led by His nail-pierced hand
Refrain: Than to be the king of a vast domain, Or be held in sin’s dread sway; I’d rather have Jesus than anything This world affords today.
I’d rather have Jesus than men’s applause; I’d rather be faithful to His dear cause; I’d rather have Jesus than worldwide fame; I’d rather be true to His holy name
He’s fairer than lilies of rarest bloom; He’s sweeter than honey from out the comb; He’s all that my hungering spirit needs; I’d rather have Jesus and let Him lead
Closing Prayer and Benediction: Holy God, come and transform us into Your Holiness that we may live in Holy Love towards all people. We pray this together from the words of the prayer that Jesus taught His disciples when they asked HIm to teach them to pray as He prays:
Our Father, Who art in heaven Hallowed be Thy Name; Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. In the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace.
JOHN APOSTLE AND EVANGELIST
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2009
PRAYER OF THE DAY: Merciful God, through John the apostle and evangelist you have revealed the mysteries of your Word made flesh. Let the brightness of your light shine on your church, so that all your people, instructed in the holy gospel, may walk in the light of your truth and attain eternal life, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
PSALM
Psalm 116:12-19
12-19 What can I give back to God for the blessings he's poured out on me? I'll lift high the cup of salvation—a toast to God! I'll pray in the name of God; I'll complete what I promised God I'd do, and I'll do it together with his people. When they arrive at the gates of death, God welcomes those who love him. Oh, God, here I am, your servant, your faithful servant: set me free for your service! I'm ready to offer the thanksgiving sacrifice and pray in the name of God. I'll complete what I promised God I'd do, and I'll do it in company with his people, In the place of worship, in God's house, in Jerusalem, God's city. Hallelujah!--The Message
LESSON 1
Genesis 1:1-5,26-31
Heaven and Earth
1-2First this: God created the Heavens and Earth—all you see, all you don't see. Earth was a soup of nothingness, a bottomless emptiness, an inky blackness. God's Spirit brooded like a bird above the watery abyss.
3-5 God spoke: "Light!"
And light appeared.
God saw that light was good
and separated light from dark.
God named the light Day,
he named the dark Night.
It was evening, it was morning—
Day One.
24-25 God spoke: "Earth, generate life! Every sort and kind: cattle and reptiles and wild animals—all kinds." And there it was: wild animals of every kind, Cattle of all kinds, every sort of reptile and bug. God saw that it was good. 26-28 God spoke: "Let us make human beings in our image, make them reflecting our nature So they can be responsible for the fish in the sea, the birds in the air, the cattle, And, yes, Earth itself, and every animal that moves on the face of Earth." God created human beings; he created them godlike, Reflecting God's nature. He created them male and female. God blessed them: "Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Earth! Take charge! Be responsible for fish in the sea and birds in the air, for every living thing that moves on the face of Earth." 29-30 Then God said, "I've given you every sort of seed-bearing plant on Earth And every kind of fruit-bearing tree, given them to you for food. To all animals and all birds,
everything that moves and breathes, I give whatever grows out of the ground for food." And there it was. 31 God looked over everything he had made; it was so good, so very good! It was evening, it was morning— Day Six.--The Message
LESSON 2
1 John 1-2:2
1-2From the very first day, we were there, taking it all in—we heard it with our own ears, saw it with our own eyes, verified it with our own hands. The Word of Life appeared right before our eyes; we saw it happen! And now we're telling you in most sober prose that what we witnessed was, incredibly, this: The infinite Life of God himself took shape before us.
3-4We saw it, we heard it, and now we're telling you so you can experience it along with us, this experience of communion with the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ. Our motive for writing is simply this: We want you to enjoy this, too. Your joy will double our joy!
Walk in the Light
5This, in essence, is the message we heard from Christ and are passing on to you: God is light, pure light; there's not a trace of darkness in him.
6-7If we claim that we experience a shared life with him and continue to stumble around in the dark, we're obviously lying through our teeth—we're not living what we claim. But if we walk in the light, God himself being the light, we also experience a shared life with one another, as the sacrificed blood of Jesus, God's Son, purges all our sin.
8-10If we claim that we're free of sin, we're only fooling ourselves. A claim like that is errant nonsense. On the other hand, if we admit our sins—make a clean breast of them—he won't let us down; he'll be true to himself. He'll forgive our sins and purge us of all wrongdoing. If we claim that we've never sinned, we out-and-out contradict God—make a liar out of him. A claim like that only shows off our ignorance of God.
1-2I write this, dear children, to guide you out of sin. But if anyone does sin, we have a Priest-Friend in the presence of the Father: Jesus Christ, righteous Jesus. When he served as a sacrifice for our sins, he solved the sin problem for good—not only ours, but the whole world's.
The Only Way to Know We're in Him
2-3Here's how we can be sure that we know God in the right way: Keep his commandments.--The Message
GOSPEL ACCLAMATION: Alleluia. The word became flesh and lived among us, and we have beheld his glory. Alleluia.
GOSPEL
John 21:21-25
20-21Turning his head, Peter noticed the disciple Jesus loved following right behind. When Peter noticed him, he asked Jesus, "Master, what's going to happen to him?"
22-23Jesus said, "If I want him to live until I come again, what's that to you? You—follow me." That is how the rumor got out among the brothers that this disciple wouldn't die. But that is not what Jesus said. He simply said, "If I want him to live until I come again, what's that to you?"
24This is the same disciple who was eyewitness to all these things and wrote them down. And we all know that his eyewitness account is reliable and accurate.
25There are so many other things Jesus did. If they were all written down, each of them, one by one, I can't imagine a world big enough to hold such a library of books.--The Message
SERMON OUTLINE
WRITTEN FOR: Sunday, December 27, 2009
Title: The Apostle of Love and Light
Scriptures: John 21:21-25
Proposition or Theme Sentence: Even though Jesus told Peter what kind of death he would honor God, the disciple Jesus loved was not told.
Purposes: The Apostle of Love and Light teaches us how to love as Jesus loved and to shine His light in the midst of a darkened world.
Introduction: How do you reflect God’s light in the world that you live in? We really do not know if John was the apostle that Jesus loved or why Jesus appeared to love him more than the others. Just maybe, John needed to be confirmed more of Jesus love for him than all the others, but just maybe Jesus knew that John would being speaking and writing about God’s love for us. In this passage of Scripture as Jesus restores Peter to a holy love relationship with Him after Peter denied that He even knew Jesus, Peter ask about the apostle that Jesus loved and what would happen to him. John throughout His writings beginning in the Book we call the Gospel of John and his three Epistles of John, John talks about how much God loves us and calls us to love other people as God loves us. John connects the God of creation to Jesus and that Jesus is truly God being God in human form. Even in the Revelation of Jesus Christ, the book is about how much God loves us and calls us to love Him in what we do from being in Him. How do you respond to God’s love? How do you live out God’s love to other people no matter who they are? This is why we cannot really understand why the rumor started that John would remain alive until Jesus returned, but we do know that John was the only apostle that died of natural causes. Also, John was the one apostle that was assigned to take care of His mother, Mary, after His death, resurrection, and ascension. How are you responding to God’s call to love as He loves?
I. Peter receives Jesus’ words about the kind of death he would honor God, but question Jesus about the apostle who Jesus loved who we believe is God.
A. Peter questions Peter about the fate of the apostle He loved.
B. Jesus responds to Peter that it is none of Peter’s business what will happen to the apostle that He loved.
C. Jesus than shares that whether John remained until He return could be a possibility.
II. After this event, John shared about God’s love to all people as well as being the light of the world in written and spoken words.
A. John’s Christmas story was about the relationship with Jesus and the creation story.
B. The Epistles of John speaks about the love that God transform us to love as He loves.
C. The Revelation of Jesus Christ speaks about the promise of His return to set up a Kingdom of Love with no light, but the light of God--the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
III. John gave examples how we are to be the light to the world in loving other people as God loves them and to love God with our whole being--body, soul, spirit, and mind.
A. Through John, we are told how much God loves us that He came in human form to redeem us from our sins against Him.
B. Through John, we our taught that the light of the world is God in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit because there is no darkness.
C. Through John, we realize that no matter what we go through God is with us because He loves us.
Conclusion: We pray for the Holy Spirit to search our hearts, minds, and life to see how we have truly love Him and loved all His other creation. Where necessary, we seek God’s forgiveness of our sins of failing to love as He loves.
Invitation: We seek more of God’s love for our lives as we remember his love for us as we eat the Body of Jesus and drink His Blood through the Holy Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. We come to receive more of God’s love and grace in singing from the Praise and Worship hymn#423 “Jesus Loves Even Me” or from the Worship in Song hymn#497 “Jesus Loves Me” or from the Sing to the Lord hymn#636 “Jesus, Love of my Soul” or from The United Methodist Hymnal hymn#432 “Jesu, Jesu”
Closing Prayer and Benediction: Holy God of Love, come and lead us to love everything that you love in the way that you love. Allow us to pray the prayer that Jesus taught His disciples when they asked HIm to teach them to pray as He prays because of their observations of His prayer. Let us pray:
Our Father, Who art in heaven Hallowed be Thy Name; Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. In the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace.
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2009
PRAYER OF THE DAY: Shine into our hearts the light of your wisdom, O God, and open our minds to the knowledge of your word, that in all things we may think and act accordingly to your good will and may live continually in the light of your Son, Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
PSALM
Psalm 148
1-5 Hallelujah! Praise God from heaven,
praise him from the mountaintops;
Praise him, all you his angels,
praise him, all you his warriors,
Praise him, sun and moon,
praise him, you morning stars;
Praise him, high heaven,
praise him, heavenly rain clouds;
Praise, oh let them praise the name of God—
he spoke the word, and there they were!
6 He set them in place
from all time to eternity;
He gave his orders,
and that's it!
7-12 Praise God from earth,
you sea dragons, you fathomless ocean deeps;
Fire and hail, snow and ice,
hurricanes obeying his orders;
Mountains and all hills,
apple orchards and cedar forests;
Wild beasts and herds of cattle,
snakes, and birds in flight;
Earth's kings and all races,
leaders and important people,
Robust men and women in their prime,
and yes, graybeards and little children.
13-14 Let them praise the name of God—
it's the only Name worth praising.
His radiance exceeds anything in earth and sky;
he's built a monument—his very own people!
Praise from all who love God! Israel's children, intimate friends of God. Hallelujah!--The Message
LESSON 1
1 Samuel 2:18-20, 26
18-20 In the midst of all this, Samuel, a boy dressed in a priestly linen tunic, served God. Additionally, every year his mother would make him a little robe cut to his size and bring it to him when she and her husband came for the annual sacrifice. Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife, saying, "God give you children to replace this child you have dedicated to God." Then they would go home.
25-26 But they were far gone in disobedience and refused to listen to a thing their father said. So God, who was fed up with them, decreed their death. But the boy Samuel was very much alive, growing up, blessed by God and popular with the people.--The Message
LESSON 2
Colossians 3:12-17
12-14So, chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offense. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you. And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It's your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it.
15-17Let the peace of Christ keep you in tune with each other, in step with each other. None of this going off and doing your own thing. And cultivate thankfulness. Let the Word of Christ—the Message—have the run of the house. Give it plenty of room in your lives. Instruct and direct one another using good common sense. And sing, sing your hearts out to God! Let every detail in your lives—words, actions, whatever—be done in the name of the Master, Jesus, thanking God the Father every step of the way.--The Message
GOSPEL ACCLAMATION: Alleluia. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, and the word of Christ dwell in you richly. Alleluia.
GOSPEL
Luke 2:41-52
They Found Him in the Temple
41-45Every year Jesus' parents traveled to Jerusalem for the Feast of Passover. When he was twelve years old, they went up as they always did for the Feast. When it was over and they left for home, the child Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but his parents didn't know it. Thinking he was somewhere in the company of pilgrims, they journeyed for a whole day and then began looking for him among relatives and neighbors. When they didn't find him, they went back to Jerusalem looking for him.
46-48The next day they found him in the Temple seated among the teachers, listening to them and asking questions. The teachers were all quite taken with him, impressed with the sharpness of his answers. But his parents were not impressed; they were upset and hurt.
His mother said, "Young man, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been half out of our minds looking for you."
49-50He said, "Why were you looking for me? Didn't you know that I had to be here, dealing with the things of my Father?" But they had no idea what he was talking about.
51-52So he went back to Nazareth with them, and lived obediently with them. His mother held these things dearly, deep within herself. And Jesus matured, growing up in both body and spirit, blessed by both God and people.--The Message
SERMON OUTLINE
WRITTEN FOR: Sunday, December 27, 2009
Title: Lost Child
Scriptures: Luke 2:41-52
Proposition or Theme Sentence: Observing the family traditions of traveling to Jerusalem and celebrating Passover in the Temple brings and unexpected surprise.
Purposes: Family traditions are great when they bring us into obedience of God’s Law and Word.
Introduction: What family traditions that bring you closer to God bring anxiety when unexpected events occur? Have you ever been to church with your family and went home and realized one of the family members were not with you? I have. As a Child, I had a habit of falling asleep in morning worship. Well, this one Sunday morning, I fell asleep next to my Mom and after the service I continued sleeping while my Mom continued to fellowshipping with the people gathering my brother and sister to walk home. When they got home and my mother was fixing Sunday dinner, the pastor called asking if my Mom knew where I was because he found me sleep on the pew. I am not sure if that was embarrassing for me at my young age, but my Mom was embarrassed. I remember this story as my Mom shared it with me from time to time because she said that if she ever forgot a child, the church would be a great place to to leave a child accidentally. Now, here we have baby Jesus at the pre-adolescence age of 12 traveling to Jerusalem with his parents and other relatives to observe the annual Passover celebration. From studies, I realize that the age of 12 is about the time a Jewish boy has a Bar Mitzvah and becomes a man and the practice in the Church of the Nazarene is that at 12 years old a person may become an official member of the Church of the Nazarene they have been a part of. Because families traveled in a caravan with other friends and relatives, there was probably not a need for parents to make sure whether or not their children, especially a twelve year old, was missing. Meanwhile, the caravan made at least a one day journey back to Nazareth which is where Mary and Joseph discovered that Jesus was not with them. They needed to return to Jerusalem to find out where their missing son was. They traveled back to Jerusalem and searched all over the city of Jerusalem, which must have been a task since Jerusalem was filled with Passover visitors, but did not find him. As a last result it seemed, they went to the Temple to see if Jesus was there. When they arrived at the Temple, they discovered that Jesus was in the Temple talking and listening to the Temple leaders discussing God’s Law and Word. Mary and Joseph saw Jesus and responded with a statement type question that came out something like this: what have you done, do you not know that your father and I were worried about you? Jesus simply responded to his mother and father with a statement type question sounding like this: did you not know that I would be in my Father’s house? How do you think Mary and Joseph felt with this remark type question from Jesus? We do know that the three of them went home and and Jesus grew in statue and wisdom with God and humanity. How would an area in your life be simple? How do your respond to lost children whether yours or someone else? How do you respond to the children around the world who have no parents and are fending for themselves whether in war zones or inner cities or country neighborhoods?
I. Joseph and Mary take twelve year old Jesus to Jerusalem for the annual Passover celebration.
A. The call of God to celebrate the Passover annually of God’s deliverance of Israel from Egypt.
B. The family traveled with other relatives and friends on the long journey from Nazareth to Jerusalem.
C. The family and the rest of the caravan complete the celebration and travel back to their homes in Nazareth.
II. Mary and Joseph discover that their son, Jesus, is not with the caravan after a one day journey away from Jerusalem.
A. Mary and Joseph take leave of the caravan to go back to Jerusalem to find their son, Jesus.
B. They spend a lot of time search for their son in Jerusalem.
C. They finally head to the Temple where they find out that their son, Jesus, have been talking with the Temple leaders for the past three days, then head home with Jesus.
III. The lessons from Mary and Joseph’s search for Jesus and their discovering for us in the 21st century.
A. The searching for the people seeking to know a God who loves them.
B. The finding people who have no one to take care of them, whether people with impairments and orphans from wars, disease, or natural disasters.
C. The willingness to really listen to people in our contact areas concerning their quest for God and His grace, mercy, and love.
Conclusion: We come to the time to allow God’s Holy Spirit to search our hearts, minds, and lives to see how we respond to lost people who are seeking a loving relationship with the One true God. Where we need to, we confess our sins of not being as loving as God is towards all people seeking the same think we are that is a loving relationship with God.
Invitation: Seeking more of His grace, we come and eat the Body of Jesus and drink His Blood as we partake of the Holy Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. As we usually do, we come and worship in song from the Praise and Worship hymn#411 “Seeking the Lost” or from the Worship in Song hymn#349 “Rescue the Perishing” or from the Sing to the Lord hymn#716 “So Send I You--by Grace Made Strong” or from The United Methodist Church hymn#187 “Arise, Shine, You People.”
Closing Prayer and Benediction: Holy Father, we come and seek your presence and power to find those people who need extra help to live this life and know that they are loved. We come praying together for your strength and wisdom that you have as we pray the prayer that you taught your disciples to pray:
Our Father, Who art in heaven Hallowed be Thy Name; Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. In the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace.
SCRIPTURE READING
Zechariah 3
Fourth Vision: Joshua's New Clothes
1-2 Next the Messenger-Angel showed me the high priest Joshua. He was standing before God's Angel where the Accuser showed up to accuse him. Then God said to the Accuser, "I, God, rebuke you, Accuser! I rebuke you and choose Jerusalem. Surprise! Everything is going up in flames, but I reach in and pull out Jerusalem!"
3-4Joshua, standing before the angel, was dressed in dirty clothes. The angel spoke to his attendants, "Get him out of those filthy clothes," and then said to Joshua, "Look, I've stripped you of your sin and dressed you up in clean clothes."
5I spoke up and said, "How about a clean new turban for his head also?" And they did it—put a clean new turban on his head. Then they finished dressing him, with God's Angel looking on.
6-7God's Angel then charged Joshua, "Orders from God-of-the-Angel-Armies: 'If you live the way I tell you and remain obedient in my service, then you'll make the decisions around here and oversee my affairs. And all my attendants standing here will be at your service.
8-9"'Careful, High Priest Joshua—both you and your friends sitting here with you, for your friends are in on this, too! Here's what I'm doing next: I'm introducing my servant Branch. And note this: This stone that I'm placing before Joshua, a single stone with seven eyes'—Decree of God-of-the-Angel-Armies—'I'll engrave with these words: "I'll strip this land of its filthy sin, all at once, in a single day."
10"'At that time, everyone will get along with one another, with friendly visits across the fence, friendly visits on one another's porches.'"--The Message
SERMON OUTLINE
WRITTEN FOR: Sunday, December 27, 2009
Title: New Clothes
Scriptures: Zechariah 3
Proposition or Theme Sentence: The transformation that comes to people and communities comes as God turns their sin-sick lives into brand new cleansed white lives.
Purposes: The hearing from God of the vision from Zechariah about the priest, Joshua, and the promise of a branch to redeem Israel from their oppressors.
Introduction: How do we really understand the meaning of the prophets of Israel, not only for Israel, but for us? We have a prophet here who is prophesy some of God’s visions to restore Israel to their splendor as he promise. Today’s vision is about a priest named Joshua who is actually dirty and dressed in dirty rags which is not what God’s priest are suppose to be dressed in according to His law. God speaks to Zechariah that he and the other people are to take Joshua and give him a bath and dress him in clean and new clothes. How does the call of God in this situation symbolize the way God cleanses us from our sins? We look at this vision of God’s through the prophet Zechariah and see that God will never forget His promise to His people the Israelites and was going to release them from their bondage from the nations and give them life again as a whole nation of God. The nation of Israel is not only to be restored, but the people of the world will look to Israel as a witness to the One True God. How do you respond to God’s Holiness for your life and the life of your community?
I. Zechariah says that God will restore Israel.
A. God speaks through Zechariah that God has not forgotten Israel.
B. God begins to share of His vision for his people to live in God’s holy law.
C. God sees a priest coming with some other men to Zechariah.
II. God uses the priest as an example of God’s Transformation of His people.
God says to the other men, see how Joshua, the priest, is dressed in rags and very dirty.
B. God commands Zechariah and the other man to give Joshua, the priest, a bath and dress in clean, new clothes.
C. God says that as Joshua is transformed His people will be transformed into His Holiness with a branch coming.
III. God speaks to us in the 21st century to be transformed as Joshua was transformed from dirty rags to clean and dress in new clothes.
A. God calls us to repent of our sins and seek His Holiness of life.
B. God’s holiness comes and cleanses us from our sins both inherited and committed.
C. God leads us to be His tool to the rest of the world to embrace God’s Holiness in words and deeds.
Conclusion: What does it really mean to really be made holy by God? We seek God’s Holy Spirit to search our hearts, minds, and lives to see where we have allowed sin to come into our lives. Where necessary, we repent of our sins to receive God’s grace to live holy lives as His witness to the world.
Invitation: Seeking more of God’s holiness, we come and eat the Body of Jesus and drink His Blood through the Holy Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. In coming, we sing from the Praise and Worship hymn#325 “Holiness Forever” or from the Worship in Song hymn#290 “Holiness Unto the Lord” or from the Sing to the Lord hymn#436 “I’d Rather Have Jesus” or from The United Methodist Hymnal hymn#331 “Holy Spirit, Come, Confirm Us.”
I’d Rather Have Jesus
By: Rhea Miller
I’d rather have Jesus than silver or gold; I’d rather be His than have riches untold; I’d rather have Jesus than houses or lands; I’d rather be led by His nail-pierced hand
Refrain: Than to be the king of a vast domain, Or be held in sin’s dread sway; I’d rather have Jesus than anything This world affords today.
I’d rather have Jesus than men’s applause; I’d rather be faithful to His dear cause; I’d rather have Jesus than worldwide fame; I’d rather be true to His holy name
He’s fairer than lilies of rarest bloom; He’s sweeter than honey from out the comb; He’s all that my hungering spirit needs; I’d rather have Jesus and let Him lead
Closing Prayer and Benediction: Holy God, come and transform us into Your Holiness that we may live in Holy Love towards all people. We pray this together from the words of the prayer that Jesus taught His disciples when they asked HIm to teach them to pray as He prays:
Our Father, Who art in heaven Hallowed be Thy Name; Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. In the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace.
JOHN APOSTLE AND EVANGELIST
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2009
PRAYER OF THE DAY: Merciful God, through John the apostle and evangelist you have revealed the mysteries of your Word made flesh. Let the brightness of your light shine on your church, so that all your people, instructed in the holy gospel, may walk in the light of your truth and attain eternal life, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
PSALM
Psalm 116:12-19
12-19 What can I give back to God for the blessings he's poured out on me? I'll lift high the cup of salvation—a toast to God! I'll pray in the name of God; I'll complete what I promised God I'd do, and I'll do it together with his people. When they arrive at the gates of death, God welcomes those who love him. Oh, God, here I am, your servant, your faithful servant: set me free for your service! I'm ready to offer the thanksgiving sacrifice and pray in the name of God. I'll complete what I promised God I'd do, and I'll do it in company with his people, In the place of worship, in God's house, in Jerusalem, God's city. Hallelujah!--The Message
LESSON 1
Genesis 1:1-5,26-31
Heaven and Earth
1-2First this: God created the Heavens and Earth—all you see, all you don't see. Earth was a soup of nothingness, a bottomless emptiness, an inky blackness. God's Spirit brooded like a bird above the watery abyss.
3-5 God spoke: "Light!"
And light appeared.
God saw that light was good
and separated light from dark.
God named the light Day,
he named the dark Night.
It was evening, it was morning—
Day One.
24-25 God spoke: "Earth, generate life! Every sort and kind: cattle and reptiles and wild animals—all kinds." And there it was: wild animals of every kind, Cattle of all kinds, every sort of reptile and bug. God saw that it was good. 26-28 God spoke: "Let us make human beings in our image, make them reflecting our nature So they can be responsible for the fish in the sea, the birds in the air, the cattle, And, yes, Earth itself, and every animal that moves on the face of Earth." God created human beings; he created them godlike, Reflecting God's nature. He created them male and female. God blessed them: "Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Earth! Take charge! Be responsible for fish in the sea and birds in the air, for every living thing that moves on the face of Earth." 29-30 Then God said, "I've given you every sort of seed-bearing plant on Earth And every kind of fruit-bearing tree, given them to you for food. To all animals and all birds,
everything that moves and breathes, I give whatever grows out of the ground for food." And there it was. 31 God looked over everything he had made; it was so good, so very good! It was evening, it was morning— Day Six.--The Message
LESSON 2
1 John 1-2:2
1-2From the very first day, we were there, taking it all in—we heard it with our own ears, saw it with our own eyes, verified it with our own hands. The Word of Life appeared right before our eyes; we saw it happen! And now we're telling you in most sober prose that what we witnessed was, incredibly, this: The infinite Life of God himself took shape before us.
3-4We saw it, we heard it, and now we're telling you so you can experience it along with us, this experience of communion with the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ. Our motive for writing is simply this: We want you to enjoy this, too. Your joy will double our joy!
Walk in the Light
5This, in essence, is the message we heard from Christ and are passing on to you: God is light, pure light; there's not a trace of darkness in him.
6-7If we claim that we experience a shared life with him and continue to stumble around in the dark, we're obviously lying through our teeth—we're not living what we claim. But if we walk in the light, God himself being the light, we also experience a shared life with one another, as the sacrificed blood of Jesus, God's Son, purges all our sin.
8-10If we claim that we're free of sin, we're only fooling ourselves. A claim like that is errant nonsense. On the other hand, if we admit our sins—make a clean breast of them—he won't let us down; he'll be true to himself. He'll forgive our sins and purge us of all wrongdoing. If we claim that we've never sinned, we out-and-out contradict God—make a liar out of him. A claim like that only shows off our ignorance of God.
1-2I write this, dear children, to guide you out of sin. But if anyone does sin, we have a Priest-Friend in the presence of the Father: Jesus Christ, righteous Jesus. When he served as a sacrifice for our sins, he solved the sin problem for good—not only ours, but the whole world's.
The Only Way to Know We're in Him
2-3Here's how we can be sure that we know God in the right way: Keep his commandments.--The Message
GOSPEL ACCLAMATION: Alleluia. The word became flesh and lived among us, and we have beheld his glory. Alleluia.
GOSPEL
John 21:21-25
20-21Turning his head, Peter noticed the disciple Jesus loved following right behind. When Peter noticed him, he asked Jesus, "Master, what's going to happen to him?"
22-23Jesus said, "If I want him to live until I come again, what's that to you? You—follow me." That is how the rumor got out among the brothers that this disciple wouldn't die. But that is not what Jesus said. He simply said, "If I want him to live until I come again, what's that to you?"
24This is the same disciple who was eyewitness to all these things and wrote them down. And we all know that his eyewitness account is reliable and accurate.
25There are so many other things Jesus did. If they were all written down, each of them, one by one, I can't imagine a world big enough to hold such a library of books.--The Message
SERMON OUTLINE
WRITTEN FOR: Sunday, December 27, 2009
Title: The Apostle of Love and Light
Scriptures: John 21:21-25
Proposition or Theme Sentence: Even though Jesus told Peter what kind of death he would honor God, the disciple Jesus loved was not told.
Purposes: The Apostle of Love and Light teaches us how to love as Jesus loved and to shine His light in the midst of a darkened world.
Introduction: How do you reflect God’s light in the world that you live in? We really do not know if John was the apostle that Jesus loved or why Jesus appeared to love him more than the others. Just maybe, John needed to be confirmed more of Jesus love for him than all the others, but just maybe Jesus knew that John would being speaking and writing about God’s love for us. In this passage of Scripture as Jesus restores Peter to a holy love relationship with Him after Peter denied that He even knew Jesus, Peter ask about the apostle that Jesus loved and what would happen to him. John throughout His writings beginning in the Book we call the Gospel of John and his three Epistles of John, John talks about how much God loves us and calls us to love other people as God loves us. John connects the God of creation to Jesus and that Jesus is truly God being God in human form. Even in the Revelation of Jesus Christ, the book is about how much God loves us and calls us to love Him in what we do from being in Him. How do you respond to God’s love? How do you live out God’s love to other people no matter who they are? This is why we cannot really understand why the rumor started that John would remain alive until Jesus returned, but we do know that John was the only apostle that died of natural causes. Also, John was the one apostle that was assigned to take care of His mother, Mary, after His death, resurrection, and ascension. How are you responding to God’s call to love as He loves?
I. Peter receives Jesus’ words about the kind of death he would honor God, but question Jesus about the apostle who Jesus loved who we believe is God.
A. Peter questions Peter about the fate of the apostle He loved.
B. Jesus responds to Peter that it is none of Peter’s business what will happen to the apostle that He loved.
C. Jesus than shares that whether John remained until He return could be a possibility.
II. After this event, John shared about God’s love to all people as well as being the light of the world in written and spoken words.
A. John’s Christmas story was about the relationship with Jesus and the creation story.
B. The Epistles of John speaks about the love that God transform us to love as He loves.
C. The Revelation of Jesus Christ speaks about the promise of His return to set up a Kingdom of Love with no light, but the light of God--the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
III. John gave examples how we are to be the light to the world in loving other people as God loves them and to love God with our whole being--body, soul, spirit, and mind.
A. Through John, we are told how much God loves us that He came in human form to redeem us from our sins against Him.
B. Through John, we our taught that the light of the world is God in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit because there is no darkness.
C. Through John, we realize that no matter what we go through God is with us because He loves us.
Conclusion: We pray for the Holy Spirit to search our hearts, minds, and life to see how we have truly love Him and loved all His other creation. Where necessary, we seek God’s forgiveness of our sins of failing to love as He loves.
Invitation: We seek more of God’s love for our lives as we remember his love for us as we eat the Body of Jesus and drink His Blood through the Holy Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. We come to receive more of God’s love and grace in singing from the Praise and Worship hymn#423 “Jesus Loves Even Me” or from the Worship in Song hymn#497 “Jesus Loves Me” or from the Sing to the Lord hymn#636 “Jesus, Love of my Soul” or from The United Methodist Hymnal hymn#432 “Jesu, Jesu”
Closing Prayer and Benediction: Holy God of Love, come and lead us to love everything that you love in the way that you love. Allow us to pray the prayer that Jesus taught His disciples when they asked HIm to teach them to pray as He prays because of their observations of His prayer. Let us pray:
Our Father, Who art in heaven Hallowed be Thy Name; Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. In the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace.
Reflecting God for Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Today’s Question
When have you taken an opportunity to be God’s love, grace, and delight for someone?
Weekly Prayer:
Lord Jesus, you were born in a Bethlehem jammed with so many out-of-town guests that your mother couldn’t find a room. It was probably a lot like December 21 through 24 at the mall! But to the listening shepherds, angels sang the joyous, awe-inspiring news that a Savior was born. Give me inward stillness this week to welcome your love into my heart. Help me, like you, to love all. Amen.
INCARNATION
Question of the Day:
What limitations of the human scene am I being asked to accept?
“Have this mind in yourselves, which is in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped at, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of the human.”
~ Philippians 2:5-7
It’s a gift to joyfully recognize and accept our own smallness and ordinariness. Then you are free with nothing to live up to, nothing to prove, and nothing to protect. Such freedom is my best description of Christian maturity, because once you know that your “I” is great and one with God, you can ironically be quite content with a small and ordinary “I.” No grandstanding is necessary. Any question of your own importance or dignity has already been resolved once and for all and forever.--Adapted from Letting Go: A Spirituality of Subtraction, p. 255
Mantra:
And the word became flesh
and dwelt among us. - ~ John 1:14
DAILY OFFICE FOR WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 23, 2009
Psalm 72
Solomon Psalm
1-8 Give the gift of wise rule to the king, O God, the gift of just rule to the crown prince.
May he judge your people rightly,
be honorable to your meek and lowly.
Let the mountains give exuberant witness;
shape the hills with the contours of right living.
Please stand up for the poor,
help the children of the needy,
come down hard on the cruel tyrants.
Outlast the sun, outlive the moon—
age after age after age.
Be rainfall on cut grass,
earth-refreshing rain showers.
Let righteousness burst into blossom
and peace abound until the moon fades to nothing.
Rule from sea to sea,
from the River to the Rim.
9-14 Foes will fall on their knees before God,
his enemies lick the dust.
Kings remote and legendary will pay homage,
kings rich and resplendent will turn over their wealth.
All kings will fall down and worship,
and godless nations sign up to serve him,
Because he rescues the poor at the first sign of need,
the destitute who have run out of luck.
He opens a place in his heart for the down-and-out,
he restores the wretched of the earth.
He frees them from tyranny and torture—
when they bleed, he bleeds;
when they die, he dies.
15-17 And live! Oh, let him live!
Deck him out in Sheba gold.
Offer prayers unceasing to him,
bless him from morning to night.
Fields of golden grain in the land,
cresting the mountains in wild exuberance,
Cornucopias of praise, praises
springing from the city like grass from the earth.
May he never be forgotten,
his fame shine on like sunshine.
May all godless people enter his circle of blessing
and bless the One who blessed them.
18-20 Blessed God, Israel's God,
the one and only wonder-working God!
Blessed always his blazing glory!
All earth brims with his glory.
Yes and Yes and Yes.--The Message
Psalm 111
1-10 Hallelujah! I give thanks to God with everything I've got—
Wherever good people gather, and in the congregation.
God's works are so great, worth
A lifetime of study—endless enjoyment!
Splendor and beauty mark his craft;
His generosity never gives out.
His miracles are his memorial—
This God of Grace, this God of Love.
He gave food to those who fear him,
He remembered to keep his ancient promise.
He proved to his people that he could do what he said:
Hand them the nations on a platter—a gift!
He manufactures truth and justice;
All his products are guaranteed to last—
Never out-of-date, never obsolete, rust-proof.
All that he makes and does is honest and true:
He paid the ransom for his people,
He ordered his Covenant kept forever.
He's so personal and holy, worthy of our respect.
The good life begins in the fear of God—
Do that and you'll know the blessing of God.
His Hallelujah lasts forever!--The Message
Psalm 113
1-3 Hallelujah! You who serve God, praise God!
Just to speak his name is praise!
Just to remember God is a blessing—
now and tomorrow and always.
From east to west, from dawn to dusk,
keep lifting all your praises to God!
4-9 God is higher than anything and anyone,
outshining everything you can see in the skies.
Who can compare with God, our God,
so majestically enthroned,
Surveying his magnificent
heavens and earth?
He picks up the poor from out of the dirt,
rescues the wretched who've been thrown out with the trash,
Seats them among the honored guests,
a place of honor among the brightest and best.
He gives childless couples a family,
gives them joy as the parents of children.
Hallelujah!--The Message
2 Samuel 7:1-17
God's Covenant with David
1-2 Before long, the king made himself at home and God gave him peace from all his enemies. Then one day King David said to Nathan the prophet, "Look at this: Here I am, comfortable in a luxurious house of cedar, and the Chest of God sits in a plain tent."
3 Nathan told the king, "Whatever is on your heart, go and do it. God is with you."
4-7 But that night, the word of God came to Nathan saying, "Go and tell my servant David: This is God's word on the matter: You're going to build a 'house' for me to live in? Why, I haven't lived in a 'house' from the time I brought the children of Israel up from Egypt till now. All that time I've moved about with nothing but a tent. And in all my travels with Israel, did I ever say to any of the leaders I commanded to shepherd Israel, 'Why haven't you built me a house of cedar?'
8-11 "So here is what you are to tell my servant David: The God-of-the-Angel-Armies has this word for you: I took you from the pasture, tagging along after sheep, and made you prince over my people Israel. I was with you everywhere you went and mowed your enemies down before you. Now I'm making you famous, to be ranked with the great names on earth. And I'm going to set aside a place for my people Israel and plant them there so they'll have their own home and not be knocked around any more. Nor will evil men afflict you as they always have, even during the days I set judges over my people Israel. Finally, I'm going to give you peace from all your enemies.
11-16 "Furthermore, God has this message for you: God himself will build you a house! When your life is complete and you're buried with your ancestors, then I'll raise up your child, your own flesh and blood, to succeed you, and I'll firmly establish his rule. He will build a house to honor me, and I will guarantee his kingdom's rule permanently. I'll be a father to him, and he'll be a son to me. When he does wrong, I'll discipline him in the usual ways, the pitfalls and obstacles of this mortal life. But I'll never remove my gracious love from him, as I removed it from Saul, who preceded you and whom I most certainly did remove. Your family and your kingdom are permanently secured. I'm keeping my eye on them! And your royal throne will always be there, rock solid."
17 Nathan gave David a complete and accurate account of everything he heard and saw in the vision.--The Message
Titus 2:11-3:8a
1-14God's readiness to give and forgive is now public. Salvation's available for everyone! We're being shown how to turn our backs on a godless, indulgent life, and how to take on a God-filled, God-honoring life. This new life is starting right now, and is whetting our appetites for the glorious day when our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, appears. He offered himself as a sacrifice to free us from a dark, rebellious life into this good, pure life, making us a people he can be proud of, energetic in goodness.
15Tell them all this. Build up their courage, and discipline them if they get out of line. You're in charge. Don't let anyone put you down.
He Put Our Lives Together
1-2Remind the people to respect the government and be law-abiding, always ready to lend a helping hand. No insults, no fights. God's people should be bighearted and courteous.
3-8It wasn't so long ago that we ourselves were stupid and stubborn, dupes of sin, ordered every which way by our glands, going around with a chip on our shoulder, hated and hating back. But when God, our kind and loving Savior God, stepped in, he saved us from all that. It was all his doing; we had nothing to do with it. He gave us a good bath, and we came out of it new people, washed inside and out by the Holy Spirit. Our Savior Jesus poured out new life so generously. God's gift has restored our relationship with him and given us back our lives. And there's more life to come—an eternity of life! You can count on this.
8-11I want you to put your foot down. Take a firm stand on these matters so that those who have put their trust in God will concentrate on the essentials that are good for everyone. Stay away from mindless, pointless quarreling over genealogies and fine print in the law code. That gets you nowhere. Warn a quarrelsome person once or twice, but then be done with him. It's obvious that such a person is out of line, rebellious against God. By persisting in divisiveness he cuts himself off.--The Message
Luke 1:39-48a(48b-56)
Blessed Among Women
39-45Mary didn't waste a minute. She got up and traveled to a town in Judah in the hill country, straight to Zachariah's house, and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby in her womb leaped. She was filled with the Holy Spirit, and sang out exuberantly,
You're so blessed among women,
and the babe in your womb, also blessed!
And why am I so blessed that
the mother of my Lord visits me?
The moment the sound of your
greeting entered my ears,
The babe in my womb
skipped like a lamb for sheer joy.
Blessed woman, who believed what God said,
believed every word would come true!
46-55And Mary said,
I'm bursting with God-news;
I'm dancing the song of my Savior God.
God took one good look at me, and look what happened—
I'm the most fortunate woman on earth!
What God has done for me will never be forgotten,
the God whose very name is holy, set apart from all others.
His mercy flows in wave after wave
on those who are in awe before him.
He bared his arm and showed his strength,
scattered the bluffing braggarts.
He knocked tyrants off their high horses,
pulled victims out of the mud.
The starving poor sat down to a banquet;
the callous rich were left out in the cold.
He embraced his chosen child, Israel;
he remembered and piled on the mercies, piled them high.
It's exactly what he promised,
beginning with Abraham and right up to now.
56Mary stayed with Elizabeth for three months and then went back to her own home.--The Message
Psalm 25:1-14
A David Psalm
1-2 My head is high, God, held high; I'm looking to you, God;
No hangdog skulking for me.
3 I've thrown in my lot with you;
You won't embarrass me, will you?
Or let my enemies get the best of me?
Don't embarrass any of us
Who went out on a limb for you.
It's the traitors who should be humiliated.
4 Show me how you work, God;
School me in your ways.
5 Take me by the hand;
Lead me down the path of truth.
You are my Savior, aren't you?
6 Mark the milestones of your mercy and love, God;
Rebuild the ancient landmarks!
7 Forget that I sowed wild oats;
Mark me with your sign of love.
Plan only the best for me, God!
8 God is fair and just;
He corrects the misdirected,
Sends them in the right direction.
9 He gives the rejects his hand,
And leads them step-by-step.
10 From now on every road you travel
Will take you to God.
Follow the Covenant signs;
Read the charted directions.
11 Keep up your reputation, God;
Forgive my bad life;
It's been a very bad life.
12 My question: What are God-worshipers like?
Your answer: Arrows aimed at God's bull's-eye.
13 They settle down in a promising place;
Their kids inherit a prosperous farm.
14 God-friendship is for God-worshipers;
They are the ones he confides in.--The Message
Malachi 3:1-5
The Master You've Been Looking For
1 "Look! I'm sending my messenger on ahead to clear the way for me. Suddenly, out of the blue, the Leader you've been looking for will enter his Temple—yes, the Messenger of the Covenant, the one you've been waiting for. Look! He's on his way!" A Message from the mouth of God-of-the-Angel-Armies.
2-4But who will be able to stand up to that coming? Who can survive his appearance?
He'll be like white-hot fire from the smelter's furnace. He'll be like the strongest lye soap at the laundry. He'll take his place as a refiner of silver, as a cleanser of dirty clothes. He'll scrub the Levite priests clean, refine them like gold and silver, until they're fit for God, fit to present offerings of righteousness. Then, and only then, will Judah and Jerusalem be fit and pleasing to God, as they used to be in the years long ago.
5"Yes, I'm on my way to visit you with Judgment. I'll present compelling evidence against sorcerers, adulterers, liars, those who exploit workers, those who take advantage of widows and orphans, those who are inhospitable to the homeless—anyone and everyone who doesn't honor me." A Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies.--The Message
Luke 1:57-66
The Birth of John
57-58When Elizabeth was full-term in her pregnancy, she bore a son. Her neighbors and relatives, seeing that God had overwhelmed her with mercy, celebrated with her.
59-60On the eighth day, they came to circumcise the child and were calling him Zachariah after his father. But his mother intervened: "No. He is to be called John."
61-62"But," they said, "no one in your family is named that." They used sign language to ask Zachariah what he wanted him named.
63-64Asking for a tablet, Zachariah wrote, "His name is to be John." That took everyone by surprise. Surprise followed surprise—Zachariah's mouth was now open, his tongue loose, and he was talking, praising God!
65-66A deep, reverential fear settled over the neighborhood, and in all that Judean hill country people talked about nothing else. Everyone who heard about it took it to heart, wondering, "What will become of this child? Clearly, God has his hand in this."--The Message
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Advent Weekday
First Reading: Malachi 3:1-4, 23-24
The Master You've Been Looking For
1 "Look! I'm sending my messenger on ahead to clear the way for me. Suddenly, out of the blue, the Leader you've been looking for will enter his Temple—yes, the Messenger of the Covenant, the one you've been waiting for. Look! He's on his way!" A Message from the mouth of God-of-the-Angel-Armies.
2-4But who will be able to stand up to that coming? Who can survive his appearance?
He'll be like white-hot fire from the smelter's furnace. He'll be like the strongest lye soap at the laundry. He'll take his place as a refiner of silver, as a cleanser of dirty clothes. He'll scrub the Levite priests clean, refine them like gold and silver, until they're fit for God, fit to present offerings of righteousness. Then, and only then, will Judah and Jerusalem be fit and pleasing to God, as they used to be in the years long ago.--The Message
23 Lo, I will send you Elijah, the prophet, Before the day of the LORD comes, the great and terrible day,
24 To turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, Lest I come and strike the land with doom. Lo, I will send you Elijah, the prophet, Before the day of the LORD comes, the great and terrible day.--New American Bible
Psalm: Psalm 25:4-5, 8-10, 14
4 Show me how you work, God;
School me in your ways.
5 Take me by the hand;
Lead me down the path of truth.
You are my Savior, aren't you?
8 God is fair and just;
He corrects the misdirected,
Sends them in the right direction.
9 He gives the rejects his hand,
And leads them step-by-step.
10 From now on every road you travel
Will take you to God.
Follow the Covenant signs;
Read the charted directions.
14 God-friendship is for God-worshipers;
They are the ones he confides in.--The Message
Gospel: Luke 1:57-66
The Birth of John
57-58When Elizabeth was full-term in her pregnancy, she bore a son. Her neighbors and relatives, seeing that God had overwhelmed her with mercy, celebrated with her.
59-60On the eighth day, they came to circumcise the child and were calling him Zachariah after his father. But his mother intervened: "No. He is to be called John."
61-62"But," they said, "no one in your family is named that." They used sign language to ask Zachariah what he wanted him named.
63-64Asking for a tablet, Zachariah wrote, "His name is to be John." That took everyone by surprise. Surprise followed surprise—Zachariah's mouth was now open, his tongue loose, and he was talking, praising God!
65-66A deep, reverential fear settled over the neighborhood, and in all that Judean hill country people talked about nothing else. Everyone who heard about it took it to heart, wondering, "What will become of this child? Clearly, God has his hand in this."--The Message
There are three distinct comings of the Lord of which I know: His coming to men, His coming into men, and His coming against men-- St. Bernard of Clairvaux
SCRIPTURE READING: Daniel 1:6-10
6-7 Four young men from Judah—Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah—were among those selected. The head of the palace staff gave them Babylonian names: Daniel was named Belteshazzar, Hananiah was named Shadrach, Mishael was named Meshach, Azariah was named Abednego.
8-10 But Daniel determined that he would not defile himself by eating the king's food or drinking his wine, so he asked the head of the palace staff to exempt him from the royal diet. The head of the palace staff, by God's grace, liked Daniel, but he warned him, "I'm afraid of what my master the king will do. He is the one who assigned this diet and if he sees that you are not as healthy as the rest, he'll have my head!"--The Message
KEY VERSE: Daniel resolved not to defile himself (Dan. 1:8).
Character or Compromise
Integrity, honesty, humility, faithfulness are all traits God values in His people. Values are the ideas and beliefs we hold as significant. In our culture, opportunities to compromise on what we stand for occur daily. How do we handle these temptations? If pleasing others is important, then choices that are pleasing to God will be forfeited. If success is equivalent to significance, then honesty and humility are often sacrificed.
In this passage, Daniel held on to principle. He did not waiver. He had courage to hold on to what God valued. Identifying your individual pursuits and incorporating those into your family's value system enables you to be prepared when the temptation to compromise arises.
The best way to prepare for pitfalls is to claim what you stand for. What does God value? Read scripture, pray, and listen for God's direction when identifying what you claim as a priority. Discuss what you have learned with your family or friends. Write them down and post them where you can reflect on them daily. Once they are engrained in your mind, temptation to compromise those values will be less appealing.--Brooke Pointer
SING TO THE LORD
1. It may not be on the mountain's height
Or over the stormy sea,
It may not be at the battle's front
My Lord will have need of me;
But if by a still, small voice
He calls to paths I do not know,
I'll answer, dear Lord, with my hand in Thine,
I'll go where You want me to go.
2. Perhaps today there are loving words
Which Jesus would have me speak,
There may be now, in the paths of sin,
Some wand'rer whom I should seek;
O Savior, if Thou wilt be my Guide,
Tho' dark and rugged the way,
My voice shall echo the message sweet,
I'll say what you want me to say.
3. There's surely somewhere a lowly place
In earth's harvest fields so wide,
Where I may labor through life's short day
For Jesus the Crucified;
So, trusting my all unto Thy care
I know Thou lovest me
I'll do Thy will with a heart sincere,
I'll be what You want me to be.
Chorus:
I'll go where You want me to go, dear Lord,
O'er mountain or plain or sea;
I'll say what You want me to say, dear Lord,
I'll be what You want me to be.
"I'll Go Where You Want Me to Go" by Charles E. Prior
SECOND SONG-CHRISTMAS CAROL-TO MEDITATE ON:
Good King Wenceslas looked out
On the feast of Stephen
When the snow lay round about
Deep and crisp and even
Brightly shone the moon that night
Though the frost was cruel
When a poor man came in sight
Gath'ring winter fuel
"Hither, page, and stand by me
If thou know'st it, telling
Yonder peasant, who is he?
Where and what his dwelling?"
"Sire, he lives a good league hence
Underneath the mountain
Right against the forest fence
By Saint Agnes' fountain."
"Bring me flesh and bring me wine
Bring me pine logs hither
Thou and I will see him dine
When we bear him thither."
Page and monarch forth they went
Forth they went together
Through the rude wind's wild lament
And the bitter weather
"Sire, the night is darker now
And the wind blows stronger
Fails my heart, I know not how,
I can go no longer."
"Mark my footsteps, my good page
Tread thou in them boldly
Thou shalt find the winter's rage
Freeze thy blood less coldly."
In his master's steps he trod
Where the snow lay dinted
Heat was in the very sod
Which the Saint had printed
Therefore, Christian men, be sure
Wealth or rank possessing
Ye who now will bless the poor
Shall yourselves find blessing
REACH OUT IN PRAYER
Many people in Croatia will come to know Christ and receive the fullness of the Holy Spirit.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
When you surrender your will to God, you discover the resources to do what God requires (Erwin W. Lutzer).
SECOND THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
December 23rd.
HOW CAN I PERSONALLY PARTAKE IN THE ATONEMENT? BY OSWALD CHAMBERS
"But God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ." Galatians 6:14
The Gospel of Jesus Christ always forces an issue of will. Do I accept God's verdict on sin in the Cross of Christ? Have I the slightest interest in the death of Jesus? Do I want to be identified with His death, to be killed right out to all interest in sin, in worldliness, in self - to be so identified with Jesus that I am spoilt for every thing else but Him? The great privilege of discipleship is that I can sign on under His Cross, and that means death to sin. Get alone with Jesus and either tell Him that you do not want sin to die out in you; or else tell Him that at all costs you want to be identified with His death. Immediately you transact in confident faith in what Our Lord did on the Cross, a supernatural identification with His death takes place, and you will know with a knowledge that passeth knowledge that your "old man" is crucified with Christ. The proof that your old man is crucified with Christ is the amazing ease with which the life of God in you enables you to obey the voice of Jesus Christ.
Every now and again, Our Lord lets us see what we would be like if it were not for Himself; it is a justification of what He said - "Without Me ye can do nothing." That is why the bedrock of Christianity is personal, passionate devotion to the Lord Jesus. We mistake the ecstasy of our first introduction into the Kingdom for the purpose of God in getting us there; His purpose in getting us there is that we may realize all that identification with Jesus Christ means.
THIRD THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
In the Presence of the Holy
It is no surprise to those of us who live in community that we do not always find it easy to be with one another! It has been hard for Thelus to watch Mary Anne move into her beloved home, Brookwood, with her friends Hsi-Fu, Peggy, Mary, Darryl and the others, while she, Thelus, continues to struggle to live in long-term care. And yet, Mary Anne has been consistent in her cheerfulness with Thelus and this has helped Thelus to see Mary Anne as a friend.
Two weeks ago as we were visiting together, Thelus said that she would like to teach Mary Anne how to make her special recipe for cowboy cookies. While we were waiting for the cookies to bake Mary Anne knelt in front of Thelus with her hands on Thelus' knees and looked intently into her face. Thelus looked up with a radiant smile on her face.
"So, Hsi-fu says hello to you!" Mary Anne announced. Thelus grinned as Mary Anne carried on with her lively chatter and caught Thelus up to date on all that was going on at Brookwood House. The sight of these two women with their heads close together, so obviously enjoying one another's company was very moving for me. I realized that Thelus had chosen to bless Mary Anne by handing on her legacy of baking and Mary Anne had blessed Thelus with her joy and friendship. And I was being blessed because I was witnessing the transforming of their relationship and being transformed in the process! It was one of those moments when you know you are in the presence of the Holy.
The Advent readings leading up to Christmas call us to be alert, to be on guard so that our hearts are not weighed down by the worries of this life. It is a reminder that we need to have "open hearts," and to not be distracted by things that are not important. In our community life that means paying attention to the quality of our relationships with one another; "wasting time" together; making sure that we are paying attention to the way we celebrate with and forgive one another. The reign of God comes to us not in large, spectacular events, but in the small, yet nevertheless transforming moments when our hearts are opened to one another. Thelus, Mary Anne and I could all say, "The reign of God is near!" . --by Wendy Lywood, L'Arche Daybreak
FOURTH THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
An Inner Attitude
Community life, with all its complexities, implies an inner attitude. Without this, it very quickly ossifies and we seek all sorts of compromises to avoid growth. This attitude is that of a trusting child who knows that he is only a tiny part of the universe and that he is called to live in gift and oblation where he is. -- Jean Vanier, Community and Growth, p. 193
FIFTH THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
The Heart of Jesus
Jesus is the vulnerable child, the humble preacher, the despised, rejected, and crucified Christ. But Jesus also is "the image of the unseen God, the first-born of all creation, ... [who] exists before all things and in him all things hold together" (Colossians 1:15,17). Jesus is the King, ridiculed on the cross and reigning from his throne in the heavenly Jerusalem. He is the Lord riding into the city on a donkey, and the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End. He is cursed by the world but blessed by God.
Let's always look at Jesus, because in his crucified and glorified heart we will see ourselves called to share in his suffering as well as in his glory.--Henri J. M. Nouwen
THROUGH THE BIBLE IN A YEAR
1 John 3-5
1 What marvelous love the Father has extended to us! Just look at it—we're called children of God! That's who we really are. But that's also why the world doesn't recognize us or take us seriously, because it has no idea who he is or what he's up to.
2-3But friends, that's exactly who we are: children of God. And that's only the beginning. Who knows how we'll end up! What we know is that when Christ is openly revealed, we'll see him—and in seeing him, become like him. All of us who look forward to his Coming stay ready, with the glistening purity of Jesus' life as a model for our own.
4-6All who indulge in a sinful life are dangerously lawless, for sin is a major disruption of God's order. Surely you know that Christ showed up in order to get rid of sin. There is no sin in him, and sin is not part of his program. No one who lives deeply in Christ makes a practice of sin. None of those who do practice sin have taken a good look at Christ. They've got him all backward.
7-8So, my dear children, don't let anyone divert you from the truth. It's the person who acts right who is right, just as we see it lived out in our righteous Messiah. Those who make a practice of sin are straight from the Devil, the pioneer in the practice of sin. The Son of God entered the scene to abolish the Devil's ways.
9-10People conceived and brought into life by God don't make a practice of sin. How could they? God's seed is deep within them, making them who they are. It's not in the nature of the God-begotten to practice and parade sin. Here's how you tell the difference between God's children and the Devil's children: The one who won't practice righteous ways isn't from God, nor is the one who won't love brother or sister. A simple test.
11For this is the original message we heard: We should love each other.
12-13We must not be like Cain, who joined the Evil One and then killed his brother. And why did he kill him? Because he was deep in the practice of evil, while the acts of his brother were righteous. So don't be surprised, friends, when the world hates you. This has been going on a long time.
14-15The way we know we've been transferred from death to life is that we love our brothers and sisters. Anyone who doesn't love is as good as dead. Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know very well that eternal life and murder don't go together.
16-17This is how we've come to understand and experience love: Christ sacrificed his life for us. This is why we ought to live sacrificially for our fellow believers, and not just be out for ourselves. If you see some brother or sister in need and have the means to do something about it but turn a cold shoulder and do nothing, what happens to God's love? It disappears. And you made it disappear.
When We Practice Real Love
18-20My dear children, let's not just talk about love; let's practice real love. This is the only way we'll know we're living truly, living in God's reality. It's also the way to shut down debilitating self-criticism, even when there is something to it. For God is greater than our worried hearts and knows more about us than we do ourselves.
21-24And friends, once that's taken care of and we're no longer accusing or condemning ourselves, we're bold and free before God! We're able to stretch our hands out and receive what we asked for because we're doing what he said, doing what pleases him. Again, this is God's command: to believe in his personally named Son, Jesus Christ. He told us to love each other, in line with the original command. As we keep his commands, we live deeply and surely in him, and he lives in us. And this is how we experience his deep and abiding presence in us: by the Spirit he gave us.
Don't Believe Everything You Hear
1 My dear friends, don't believe everything you hear. Carefully weigh and examine what people tell you. Not everyone who talks about God comes from God. There are a lot of lying preachers loose in the world.
2-3Here's how you test for the genuine Spirit of God. Everyone who confesses openly his faith in Jesus Christ—the Son of God, who came as an actual flesh-and-blood person—comes from God and belongs to God. And everyone who refuses to confess faith in Jesus has nothing in common with God. This is the spirit of antichrist that you heard was coming. Well, here it is, sooner than we thought!
4-6My dear children, you come from God and belong to God. You have already won a big victory over those false teachers, for the Spirit in you is far stronger than anything in the world. These people belong to the Christ-denying world. They talk the world's language and the world eats it up. But we come from God and belong to God. Anyone who knows God understands us and listens. The person who has nothing to do with God will, of course, not listen to us. This is another test for telling the Spirit of Truth from the spirit of deception.
God Is Love
7-10My beloved friends, let us continue to love each other since love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God. The person who refuses to love doesn't know the first thing about God, because God is love—so you can't know him if you don't love. This is how God showed his love for us: God sent his only Son into the world so we might live through him. This is the kind of love we are talking about—not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they've done to our relationship with God.
11-12My dear, dear friends, if God loved us like this, we certainly ought to love each other. No one has seen God, ever. But if we love one another, God dwells deeply within us, and his love becomes complete in us—perfect love!
13-16This is how we know we're living steadily and deeply in him, and he in us: He's given us life from his life, from his very own Spirit. Also, we've seen for ourselves and continue to state openly that the Father sent his Son as Savior of the world. Everyone who confesses that Jesus is God's Son participates continuously in an intimate relationship with God. We know it so well, we've embraced it heart and soul, this love that comes from God.
To Love, to Be Loved
17-18God is love. When we take up permanent residence in a life of love, we live in God and God lives in us. This way, love has the run of the house, becomes at home and mature in us, so that we're free of worry on Judgment Day—our standing in the world is identical with Christ's. There is no room in love for fear. Well-formed love banishes fear. Since fear is crippling, a fearful life—fear of death, fear of judgment—is one not yet fully formed in love.
19We, though, are going to love—love and be loved. First we were loved, now we love. He loved us first.
20-21If anyone boasts, "I love God," and goes right on hating his brother or sister, thinking nothing of it, he is a liar. If he won't love the person he can see, how can he love the God he can't see? The command we have from Christ is blunt: Loving God includes loving people. You've got to love both.
1-3Every person who believes that Jesus is, in fact, the Messiah, is God-begotten. If we love the One who conceives the child, we'll surely love the child who was conceived. The reality test on whether or not we love God's children is this: Do we love God? Do we keep his commands? The proof that we love God comes when we keep his commandments and they are not at all troublesome.
The Power That Brings the World to Its Knees
4-5Every God-begotten person conquers the world's ways. The conquering power that brings the world to its knees is our faith. The person who wins out over the world's ways is simply the one who believes Jesus is the Son of God.
6-8Jesus—the Divine Christ! He experienced a life-giving birth and a death-killing death. Not only birth from the womb, but baptismal birth of his ministry and sacrificial death. And all the while the Spirit is confirming the truth, the reality of God's presence at Jesus' baptism and crucifixion, bringing those occasions alive for us. A triple testimony: the Spirit, the Baptism, the Crucifixion. And the three in perfect agreement.
9-10If we take human testimony at face value, how much more should we be reassured when God gives testimony as he does here, testifying concerning his Son. Whoever believes in the Son of God inwardly confirms God's testimony. Whoever refuses to believe in effect calls God a liar, refusing to believe God's own testimony regarding his Son.
11-12This is the testimony in essence: God gave us eternal life; the life is in his Son. So, whoever has the Son, has life; whoever rejects the Son, rejects life.
The Reality, Not the Illusion
13-15My purpose in writing is simply this: that you who believe in God's Son will know beyond the shadow of a doubt that you have eternal life, the reality and not the illusion. And how bold and free we then become in his presence, freely asking according to his will, sure that he's listening. And if we're confident that he's listening, we know that what we've asked for is as good as ours.
16-17For instance, if we see a Christian believer sinning (clearly I'm not talking about those who make a practice of sin in a way that is "fatal," leading to eternal death), we ask for God's help and he gladly gives it, gives life to the sinner whose sin is not fatal. There is such a thing as a fatal sin, and I'm not urging you to pray about that. Everything we do wrong is sin, but not all sin is fatal.
18-21We know that none of the God-begotten makes a practice of sin—fatal sin. The God-begotten are also the God-protected. The Evil One can't lay a hand on them. We know that we are held firm by God; it's only the people of the world who continue in the grip of the Evil One. And we know that the Son of God came so we could recognize and understand the truth of God—what a gift!—and we are living in the Truth itself, in God's Son, Jesus Christ. This Jesus is both True God and Real Life. Dear children, be on guard against all clever facsimiles.--The Message
All Scripture quotations not otherwise designated are from the Holy Bible, New International Version® (NIV®). Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.
All hymn texts are taken from the hymnal Sing to the Lord. Copyright © 1993 by Lillenas Publishing Company.
Copyright © 2009 by WordAction Publishing Company. All rights reserved. Http://www.WordAction.com
Commentary of the day :
Homily attributed to Saint Gregory the Wonderworker (c.213-270), Bishop
Homily on the holy Theophany, 4 ; PG 10, 1181 (©Friends of Henry Ashworth)
"He spoke blessing God"
[John the Baptist said:] «I am the voice, the voice crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way for the Lord». So I cannot be silent, Lord, in your presence. «I need to be baptized by you, and do You come to me?» (Mt 3,3.14).
At my birth I took away my mother's barrenness, and while still an infant I healed my father's dumbness, for you gave me in childhood the gift of working miracles. But when you were born of the Virgin Mary, in the way you willed and in a manner known to you alone, you did not take away her virginity, but while preserving it intact you gave her in addition the name of "mother." Her virginity did not hinder your birth, nor did your birth destroy her virginity. On the contrary, two opposites, motherhood and virginity, were easily united by you, because the laws of nature have their origin in you.
I am a mere man, sharing in the grace of God, but you are both God and man because of your love for humankind (cf. Wis 1,6).
When have you taken an opportunity to be God’s love, grace, and delight for someone?
Weekly Prayer:
Lord Jesus, you were born in a Bethlehem jammed with so many out-of-town guests that your mother couldn’t find a room. It was probably a lot like December 21 through 24 at the mall! But to the listening shepherds, angels sang the joyous, awe-inspiring news that a Savior was born. Give me inward stillness this week to welcome your love into my heart. Help me, like you, to love all. Amen.
INCARNATION
Question of the Day:
What limitations of the human scene am I being asked to accept?
“Have this mind in yourselves, which is in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped at, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of the human.”
~ Philippians 2:5-7
It’s a gift to joyfully recognize and accept our own smallness and ordinariness. Then you are free with nothing to live up to, nothing to prove, and nothing to protect. Such freedom is my best description of Christian maturity, because once you know that your “I” is great and one with God, you can ironically be quite content with a small and ordinary “I.” No grandstanding is necessary. Any question of your own importance or dignity has already been resolved once and for all and forever.--Adapted from Letting Go: A Spirituality of Subtraction, p. 255
Mantra:
And the word became flesh
and dwelt among us. - ~ John 1:14
DAILY OFFICE FOR WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 23, 2009
Psalm 72
Solomon Psalm
1-8 Give the gift of wise rule to the king, O God, the gift of just rule to the crown prince.
May he judge your people rightly,
be honorable to your meek and lowly.
Let the mountains give exuberant witness;
shape the hills with the contours of right living.
Please stand up for the poor,
help the children of the needy,
come down hard on the cruel tyrants.
Outlast the sun, outlive the moon—
age after age after age.
Be rainfall on cut grass,
earth-refreshing rain showers.
Let righteousness burst into blossom
and peace abound until the moon fades to nothing.
Rule from sea to sea,
from the River to the Rim.
9-14 Foes will fall on their knees before God,
his enemies lick the dust.
Kings remote and legendary will pay homage,
kings rich and resplendent will turn over their wealth.
All kings will fall down and worship,
and godless nations sign up to serve him,
Because he rescues the poor at the first sign of need,
the destitute who have run out of luck.
He opens a place in his heart for the down-and-out,
he restores the wretched of the earth.
He frees them from tyranny and torture—
when they bleed, he bleeds;
when they die, he dies.
15-17 And live! Oh, let him live!
Deck him out in Sheba gold.
Offer prayers unceasing to him,
bless him from morning to night.
Fields of golden grain in the land,
cresting the mountains in wild exuberance,
Cornucopias of praise, praises
springing from the city like grass from the earth.
May he never be forgotten,
his fame shine on like sunshine.
May all godless people enter his circle of blessing
and bless the One who blessed them.
18-20 Blessed God, Israel's God,
the one and only wonder-working God!
Blessed always his blazing glory!
All earth brims with his glory.
Yes and Yes and Yes.--The Message
Psalm 111
1-10 Hallelujah! I give thanks to God with everything I've got—
Wherever good people gather, and in the congregation.
God's works are so great, worth
A lifetime of study—endless enjoyment!
Splendor and beauty mark his craft;
His generosity never gives out.
His miracles are his memorial—
This God of Grace, this God of Love.
He gave food to those who fear him,
He remembered to keep his ancient promise.
He proved to his people that he could do what he said:
Hand them the nations on a platter—a gift!
He manufactures truth and justice;
All his products are guaranteed to last—
Never out-of-date, never obsolete, rust-proof.
All that he makes and does is honest and true:
He paid the ransom for his people,
He ordered his Covenant kept forever.
He's so personal and holy, worthy of our respect.
The good life begins in the fear of God—
Do that and you'll know the blessing of God.
His Hallelujah lasts forever!--The Message
Psalm 113
1-3 Hallelujah! You who serve God, praise God!
Just to speak his name is praise!
Just to remember God is a blessing—
now and tomorrow and always.
From east to west, from dawn to dusk,
keep lifting all your praises to God!
4-9 God is higher than anything and anyone,
outshining everything you can see in the skies.
Who can compare with God, our God,
so majestically enthroned,
Surveying his magnificent
heavens and earth?
He picks up the poor from out of the dirt,
rescues the wretched who've been thrown out with the trash,
Seats them among the honored guests,
a place of honor among the brightest and best.
He gives childless couples a family,
gives them joy as the parents of children.
Hallelujah!--The Message
2 Samuel 7:1-17
God's Covenant with David
1-2 Before long, the king made himself at home and God gave him peace from all his enemies. Then one day King David said to Nathan the prophet, "Look at this: Here I am, comfortable in a luxurious house of cedar, and the Chest of God sits in a plain tent."
3 Nathan told the king, "Whatever is on your heart, go and do it. God is with you."
4-7 But that night, the word of God came to Nathan saying, "Go and tell my servant David: This is God's word on the matter: You're going to build a 'house' for me to live in? Why, I haven't lived in a 'house' from the time I brought the children of Israel up from Egypt till now. All that time I've moved about with nothing but a tent. And in all my travels with Israel, did I ever say to any of the leaders I commanded to shepherd Israel, 'Why haven't you built me a house of cedar?'
8-11 "So here is what you are to tell my servant David: The God-of-the-Angel-Armies has this word for you: I took you from the pasture, tagging along after sheep, and made you prince over my people Israel. I was with you everywhere you went and mowed your enemies down before you. Now I'm making you famous, to be ranked with the great names on earth. And I'm going to set aside a place for my people Israel and plant them there so they'll have their own home and not be knocked around any more. Nor will evil men afflict you as they always have, even during the days I set judges over my people Israel. Finally, I'm going to give you peace from all your enemies.
11-16 "Furthermore, God has this message for you: God himself will build you a house! When your life is complete and you're buried with your ancestors, then I'll raise up your child, your own flesh and blood, to succeed you, and I'll firmly establish his rule. He will build a house to honor me, and I will guarantee his kingdom's rule permanently. I'll be a father to him, and he'll be a son to me. When he does wrong, I'll discipline him in the usual ways, the pitfalls and obstacles of this mortal life. But I'll never remove my gracious love from him, as I removed it from Saul, who preceded you and whom I most certainly did remove. Your family and your kingdom are permanently secured. I'm keeping my eye on them! And your royal throne will always be there, rock solid."
17 Nathan gave David a complete and accurate account of everything he heard and saw in the vision.--The Message
Titus 2:11-3:8a
1-14God's readiness to give and forgive is now public. Salvation's available for everyone! We're being shown how to turn our backs on a godless, indulgent life, and how to take on a God-filled, God-honoring life. This new life is starting right now, and is whetting our appetites for the glorious day when our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, appears. He offered himself as a sacrifice to free us from a dark, rebellious life into this good, pure life, making us a people he can be proud of, energetic in goodness.
15Tell them all this. Build up their courage, and discipline them if they get out of line. You're in charge. Don't let anyone put you down.
He Put Our Lives Together
1-2Remind the people to respect the government and be law-abiding, always ready to lend a helping hand. No insults, no fights. God's people should be bighearted and courteous.
3-8It wasn't so long ago that we ourselves were stupid and stubborn, dupes of sin, ordered every which way by our glands, going around with a chip on our shoulder, hated and hating back. But when God, our kind and loving Savior God, stepped in, he saved us from all that. It was all his doing; we had nothing to do with it. He gave us a good bath, and we came out of it new people, washed inside and out by the Holy Spirit. Our Savior Jesus poured out new life so generously. God's gift has restored our relationship with him and given us back our lives. And there's more life to come—an eternity of life! You can count on this.
8-11I want you to put your foot down. Take a firm stand on these matters so that those who have put their trust in God will concentrate on the essentials that are good for everyone. Stay away from mindless, pointless quarreling over genealogies and fine print in the law code. That gets you nowhere. Warn a quarrelsome person once or twice, but then be done with him. It's obvious that such a person is out of line, rebellious against God. By persisting in divisiveness he cuts himself off.--The Message
Luke 1:39-48a(48b-56)
Blessed Among Women
39-45Mary didn't waste a minute. She got up and traveled to a town in Judah in the hill country, straight to Zachariah's house, and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby in her womb leaped. She was filled with the Holy Spirit, and sang out exuberantly,
You're so blessed among women,
and the babe in your womb, also blessed!
And why am I so blessed that
the mother of my Lord visits me?
The moment the sound of your
greeting entered my ears,
The babe in my womb
skipped like a lamb for sheer joy.
Blessed woman, who believed what God said,
believed every word would come true!
46-55And Mary said,
I'm bursting with God-news;
I'm dancing the song of my Savior God.
God took one good look at me, and look what happened—
I'm the most fortunate woman on earth!
What God has done for me will never be forgotten,
the God whose very name is holy, set apart from all others.
His mercy flows in wave after wave
on those who are in awe before him.
He bared his arm and showed his strength,
scattered the bluffing braggarts.
He knocked tyrants off their high horses,
pulled victims out of the mud.
The starving poor sat down to a banquet;
the callous rich were left out in the cold.
He embraced his chosen child, Israel;
he remembered and piled on the mercies, piled them high.
It's exactly what he promised,
beginning with Abraham and right up to now.
56Mary stayed with Elizabeth for three months and then went back to her own home.--The Message
Psalm 25:1-14
A David Psalm
1-2 My head is high, God, held high; I'm looking to you, God;
No hangdog skulking for me.
3 I've thrown in my lot with you;
You won't embarrass me, will you?
Or let my enemies get the best of me?
Don't embarrass any of us
Who went out on a limb for you.
It's the traitors who should be humiliated.
4 Show me how you work, God;
School me in your ways.
5 Take me by the hand;
Lead me down the path of truth.
You are my Savior, aren't you?
6 Mark the milestones of your mercy and love, God;
Rebuild the ancient landmarks!
7 Forget that I sowed wild oats;
Mark me with your sign of love.
Plan only the best for me, God!
8 God is fair and just;
He corrects the misdirected,
Sends them in the right direction.
9 He gives the rejects his hand,
And leads them step-by-step.
10 From now on every road you travel
Will take you to God.
Follow the Covenant signs;
Read the charted directions.
11 Keep up your reputation, God;
Forgive my bad life;
It's been a very bad life.
12 My question: What are God-worshipers like?
Your answer: Arrows aimed at God's bull's-eye.
13 They settle down in a promising place;
Their kids inherit a prosperous farm.
14 God-friendship is for God-worshipers;
They are the ones he confides in.--The Message
Malachi 3:1-5
The Master You've Been Looking For
1 "Look! I'm sending my messenger on ahead to clear the way for me. Suddenly, out of the blue, the Leader you've been looking for will enter his Temple—yes, the Messenger of the Covenant, the one you've been waiting for. Look! He's on his way!" A Message from the mouth of God-of-the-Angel-Armies.
2-4But who will be able to stand up to that coming? Who can survive his appearance?
He'll be like white-hot fire from the smelter's furnace. He'll be like the strongest lye soap at the laundry. He'll take his place as a refiner of silver, as a cleanser of dirty clothes. He'll scrub the Levite priests clean, refine them like gold and silver, until they're fit for God, fit to present offerings of righteousness. Then, and only then, will Judah and Jerusalem be fit and pleasing to God, as they used to be in the years long ago.
5"Yes, I'm on my way to visit you with Judgment. I'll present compelling evidence against sorcerers, adulterers, liars, those who exploit workers, those who take advantage of widows and orphans, those who are inhospitable to the homeless—anyone and everyone who doesn't honor me." A Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies.--The Message
Luke 1:57-66
The Birth of John
57-58When Elizabeth was full-term in her pregnancy, she bore a son. Her neighbors and relatives, seeing that God had overwhelmed her with mercy, celebrated with her.
59-60On the eighth day, they came to circumcise the child and were calling him Zachariah after his father. But his mother intervened: "No. He is to be called John."
61-62"But," they said, "no one in your family is named that." They used sign language to ask Zachariah what he wanted him named.
63-64Asking for a tablet, Zachariah wrote, "His name is to be John." That took everyone by surprise. Surprise followed surprise—Zachariah's mouth was now open, his tongue loose, and he was talking, praising God!
65-66A deep, reverential fear settled over the neighborhood, and in all that Judean hill country people talked about nothing else. Everyone who heard about it took it to heart, wondering, "What will become of this child? Clearly, God has his hand in this."--The Message
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Advent Weekday
First Reading: Malachi 3:1-4, 23-24
The Master You've Been Looking For
1 "Look! I'm sending my messenger on ahead to clear the way for me. Suddenly, out of the blue, the Leader you've been looking for will enter his Temple—yes, the Messenger of the Covenant, the one you've been waiting for. Look! He's on his way!" A Message from the mouth of God-of-the-Angel-Armies.
2-4But who will be able to stand up to that coming? Who can survive his appearance?
He'll be like white-hot fire from the smelter's furnace. He'll be like the strongest lye soap at the laundry. He'll take his place as a refiner of silver, as a cleanser of dirty clothes. He'll scrub the Levite priests clean, refine them like gold and silver, until they're fit for God, fit to present offerings of righteousness. Then, and only then, will Judah and Jerusalem be fit and pleasing to God, as they used to be in the years long ago.--The Message
23 Lo, I will send you Elijah, the prophet, Before the day of the LORD comes, the great and terrible day,
24 To turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, Lest I come and strike the land with doom. Lo, I will send you Elijah, the prophet, Before the day of the LORD comes, the great and terrible day.--New American Bible
Psalm: Psalm 25:4-5, 8-10, 14
4 Show me how you work, God;
School me in your ways.
5 Take me by the hand;
Lead me down the path of truth.
You are my Savior, aren't you?
8 God is fair and just;
He corrects the misdirected,
Sends them in the right direction.
9 He gives the rejects his hand,
And leads them step-by-step.
10 From now on every road you travel
Will take you to God.
Follow the Covenant signs;
Read the charted directions.
14 God-friendship is for God-worshipers;
They are the ones he confides in.--The Message
Gospel: Luke 1:57-66
The Birth of John
57-58When Elizabeth was full-term in her pregnancy, she bore a son. Her neighbors and relatives, seeing that God had overwhelmed her with mercy, celebrated with her.
59-60On the eighth day, they came to circumcise the child and were calling him Zachariah after his father. But his mother intervened: "No. He is to be called John."
61-62"But," they said, "no one in your family is named that." They used sign language to ask Zachariah what he wanted him named.
63-64Asking for a tablet, Zachariah wrote, "His name is to be John." That took everyone by surprise. Surprise followed surprise—Zachariah's mouth was now open, his tongue loose, and he was talking, praising God!
65-66A deep, reverential fear settled over the neighborhood, and in all that Judean hill country people talked about nothing else. Everyone who heard about it took it to heart, wondering, "What will become of this child? Clearly, God has his hand in this."--The Message
There are three distinct comings of the Lord of which I know: His coming to men, His coming into men, and His coming against men-- St. Bernard of Clairvaux
SCRIPTURE READING: Daniel 1:6-10
6-7 Four young men from Judah—Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah—were among those selected. The head of the palace staff gave them Babylonian names: Daniel was named Belteshazzar, Hananiah was named Shadrach, Mishael was named Meshach, Azariah was named Abednego.
8-10 But Daniel determined that he would not defile himself by eating the king's food or drinking his wine, so he asked the head of the palace staff to exempt him from the royal diet. The head of the palace staff, by God's grace, liked Daniel, but he warned him, "I'm afraid of what my master the king will do. He is the one who assigned this diet and if he sees that you are not as healthy as the rest, he'll have my head!"--The Message
KEY VERSE: Daniel resolved not to defile himself (Dan. 1:8).
Character or Compromise
Integrity, honesty, humility, faithfulness are all traits God values in His people. Values are the ideas and beliefs we hold as significant. In our culture, opportunities to compromise on what we stand for occur daily. How do we handle these temptations? If pleasing others is important, then choices that are pleasing to God will be forfeited. If success is equivalent to significance, then honesty and humility are often sacrificed.
In this passage, Daniel held on to principle. He did not waiver. He had courage to hold on to what God valued. Identifying your individual pursuits and incorporating those into your family's value system enables you to be prepared when the temptation to compromise arises.
The best way to prepare for pitfalls is to claim what you stand for. What does God value? Read scripture, pray, and listen for God's direction when identifying what you claim as a priority. Discuss what you have learned with your family or friends. Write them down and post them where you can reflect on them daily. Once they are engrained in your mind, temptation to compromise those values will be less appealing.--Brooke Pointer
SING TO THE LORD
1. It may not be on the mountain's height
Or over the stormy sea,
It may not be at the battle's front
My Lord will have need of me;
But if by a still, small voice
He calls to paths I do not know,
I'll answer, dear Lord, with my hand in Thine,
I'll go where You want me to go.
2. Perhaps today there are loving words
Which Jesus would have me speak,
There may be now, in the paths of sin,
Some wand'rer whom I should seek;
O Savior, if Thou wilt be my Guide,
Tho' dark and rugged the way,
My voice shall echo the message sweet,
I'll say what you want me to say.
3. There's surely somewhere a lowly place
In earth's harvest fields so wide,
Where I may labor through life's short day
For Jesus the Crucified;
So, trusting my all unto Thy care
I know Thou lovest me
I'll do Thy will with a heart sincere,
I'll be what You want me to be.
Chorus:
I'll go where You want me to go, dear Lord,
O'er mountain or plain or sea;
I'll say what You want me to say, dear Lord,
I'll be what You want me to be.
"I'll Go Where You Want Me to Go" by Charles E. Prior
SECOND SONG-CHRISTMAS CAROL-TO MEDITATE ON:
Good King Wenceslas looked out
On the feast of Stephen
When the snow lay round about
Deep and crisp and even
Brightly shone the moon that night
Though the frost was cruel
When a poor man came in sight
Gath'ring winter fuel
"Hither, page, and stand by me
If thou know'st it, telling
Yonder peasant, who is he?
Where and what his dwelling?"
"Sire, he lives a good league hence
Underneath the mountain
Right against the forest fence
By Saint Agnes' fountain."
"Bring me flesh and bring me wine
Bring me pine logs hither
Thou and I will see him dine
When we bear him thither."
Page and monarch forth they went
Forth they went together
Through the rude wind's wild lament
And the bitter weather
"Sire, the night is darker now
And the wind blows stronger
Fails my heart, I know not how,
I can go no longer."
"Mark my footsteps, my good page
Tread thou in them boldly
Thou shalt find the winter's rage
Freeze thy blood less coldly."
In his master's steps he trod
Where the snow lay dinted
Heat was in the very sod
Which the Saint had printed
Therefore, Christian men, be sure
Wealth or rank possessing
Ye who now will bless the poor
Shall yourselves find blessing
REACH OUT IN PRAYER
Many people in Croatia will come to know Christ and receive the fullness of the Holy Spirit.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
When you surrender your will to God, you discover the resources to do what God requires (Erwin W. Lutzer).
SECOND THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
December 23rd.
HOW CAN I PERSONALLY PARTAKE IN THE ATONEMENT? BY OSWALD CHAMBERS
"But God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ." Galatians 6:14
The Gospel of Jesus Christ always forces an issue of will. Do I accept God's verdict on sin in the Cross of Christ? Have I the slightest interest in the death of Jesus? Do I want to be identified with His death, to be killed right out to all interest in sin, in worldliness, in self - to be so identified with Jesus that I am spoilt for every thing else but Him? The great privilege of discipleship is that I can sign on under His Cross, and that means death to sin. Get alone with Jesus and either tell Him that you do not want sin to die out in you; or else tell Him that at all costs you want to be identified with His death. Immediately you transact in confident faith in what Our Lord did on the Cross, a supernatural identification with His death takes place, and you will know with a knowledge that passeth knowledge that your "old man" is crucified with Christ. The proof that your old man is crucified with Christ is the amazing ease with which the life of God in you enables you to obey the voice of Jesus Christ.
Every now and again, Our Lord lets us see what we would be like if it were not for Himself; it is a justification of what He said - "Without Me ye can do nothing." That is why the bedrock of Christianity is personal, passionate devotion to the Lord Jesus. We mistake the ecstasy of our first introduction into the Kingdom for the purpose of God in getting us there; His purpose in getting us there is that we may realize all that identification with Jesus Christ means.
THIRD THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
In the Presence of the Holy
It is no surprise to those of us who live in community that we do not always find it easy to be with one another! It has been hard for Thelus to watch Mary Anne move into her beloved home, Brookwood, with her friends Hsi-Fu, Peggy, Mary, Darryl and the others, while she, Thelus, continues to struggle to live in long-term care. And yet, Mary Anne has been consistent in her cheerfulness with Thelus and this has helped Thelus to see Mary Anne as a friend.
Two weeks ago as we were visiting together, Thelus said that she would like to teach Mary Anne how to make her special recipe for cowboy cookies. While we were waiting for the cookies to bake Mary Anne knelt in front of Thelus with her hands on Thelus' knees and looked intently into her face. Thelus looked up with a radiant smile on her face.
"So, Hsi-fu says hello to you!" Mary Anne announced. Thelus grinned as Mary Anne carried on with her lively chatter and caught Thelus up to date on all that was going on at Brookwood House. The sight of these two women with their heads close together, so obviously enjoying one another's company was very moving for me. I realized that Thelus had chosen to bless Mary Anne by handing on her legacy of baking and Mary Anne had blessed Thelus with her joy and friendship. And I was being blessed because I was witnessing the transforming of their relationship and being transformed in the process! It was one of those moments when you know you are in the presence of the Holy.
The Advent readings leading up to Christmas call us to be alert, to be on guard so that our hearts are not weighed down by the worries of this life. It is a reminder that we need to have "open hearts," and to not be distracted by things that are not important. In our community life that means paying attention to the quality of our relationships with one another; "wasting time" together; making sure that we are paying attention to the way we celebrate with and forgive one another. The reign of God comes to us not in large, spectacular events, but in the small, yet nevertheless transforming moments when our hearts are opened to one another. Thelus, Mary Anne and I could all say, "The reign of God is near!" . --by Wendy Lywood, L'Arche Daybreak
FOURTH THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
An Inner Attitude
Community life, with all its complexities, implies an inner attitude. Without this, it very quickly ossifies and we seek all sorts of compromises to avoid growth. This attitude is that of a trusting child who knows that he is only a tiny part of the universe and that he is called to live in gift and oblation where he is. -- Jean Vanier, Community and Growth, p. 193
FIFTH THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
The Heart of Jesus
Jesus is the vulnerable child, the humble preacher, the despised, rejected, and crucified Christ. But Jesus also is "the image of the unseen God, the first-born of all creation, ... [who] exists before all things and in him all things hold together" (Colossians 1:15,17). Jesus is the King, ridiculed on the cross and reigning from his throne in the heavenly Jerusalem. He is the Lord riding into the city on a donkey, and the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End. He is cursed by the world but blessed by God.
Let's always look at Jesus, because in his crucified and glorified heart we will see ourselves called to share in his suffering as well as in his glory.--Henri J. M. Nouwen
THROUGH THE BIBLE IN A YEAR
1 John 3-5
1 What marvelous love the Father has extended to us! Just look at it—we're called children of God! That's who we really are. But that's also why the world doesn't recognize us or take us seriously, because it has no idea who he is or what he's up to.
2-3But friends, that's exactly who we are: children of God. And that's only the beginning. Who knows how we'll end up! What we know is that when Christ is openly revealed, we'll see him—and in seeing him, become like him. All of us who look forward to his Coming stay ready, with the glistening purity of Jesus' life as a model for our own.
4-6All who indulge in a sinful life are dangerously lawless, for sin is a major disruption of God's order. Surely you know that Christ showed up in order to get rid of sin. There is no sin in him, and sin is not part of his program. No one who lives deeply in Christ makes a practice of sin. None of those who do practice sin have taken a good look at Christ. They've got him all backward.
7-8So, my dear children, don't let anyone divert you from the truth. It's the person who acts right who is right, just as we see it lived out in our righteous Messiah. Those who make a practice of sin are straight from the Devil, the pioneer in the practice of sin. The Son of God entered the scene to abolish the Devil's ways.
9-10People conceived and brought into life by God don't make a practice of sin. How could they? God's seed is deep within them, making them who they are. It's not in the nature of the God-begotten to practice and parade sin. Here's how you tell the difference between God's children and the Devil's children: The one who won't practice righteous ways isn't from God, nor is the one who won't love brother or sister. A simple test.
11For this is the original message we heard: We should love each other.
12-13We must not be like Cain, who joined the Evil One and then killed his brother. And why did he kill him? Because he was deep in the practice of evil, while the acts of his brother were righteous. So don't be surprised, friends, when the world hates you. This has been going on a long time.
14-15The way we know we've been transferred from death to life is that we love our brothers and sisters. Anyone who doesn't love is as good as dead. Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know very well that eternal life and murder don't go together.
16-17This is how we've come to understand and experience love: Christ sacrificed his life for us. This is why we ought to live sacrificially for our fellow believers, and not just be out for ourselves. If you see some brother or sister in need and have the means to do something about it but turn a cold shoulder and do nothing, what happens to God's love? It disappears. And you made it disappear.
When We Practice Real Love
18-20My dear children, let's not just talk about love; let's practice real love. This is the only way we'll know we're living truly, living in God's reality. It's also the way to shut down debilitating self-criticism, even when there is something to it. For God is greater than our worried hearts and knows more about us than we do ourselves.
21-24And friends, once that's taken care of and we're no longer accusing or condemning ourselves, we're bold and free before God! We're able to stretch our hands out and receive what we asked for because we're doing what he said, doing what pleases him. Again, this is God's command: to believe in his personally named Son, Jesus Christ. He told us to love each other, in line with the original command. As we keep his commands, we live deeply and surely in him, and he lives in us. And this is how we experience his deep and abiding presence in us: by the Spirit he gave us.
Don't Believe Everything You Hear
1 My dear friends, don't believe everything you hear. Carefully weigh and examine what people tell you. Not everyone who talks about God comes from God. There are a lot of lying preachers loose in the world.
2-3Here's how you test for the genuine Spirit of God. Everyone who confesses openly his faith in Jesus Christ—the Son of God, who came as an actual flesh-and-blood person—comes from God and belongs to God. And everyone who refuses to confess faith in Jesus has nothing in common with God. This is the spirit of antichrist that you heard was coming. Well, here it is, sooner than we thought!
4-6My dear children, you come from God and belong to God. You have already won a big victory over those false teachers, for the Spirit in you is far stronger than anything in the world. These people belong to the Christ-denying world. They talk the world's language and the world eats it up. But we come from God and belong to God. Anyone who knows God understands us and listens. The person who has nothing to do with God will, of course, not listen to us. This is another test for telling the Spirit of Truth from the spirit of deception.
God Is Love
7-10My beloved friends, let us continue to love each other since love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God. The person who refuses to love doesn't know the first thing about God, because God is love—so you can't know him if you don't love. This is how God showed his love for us: God sent his only Son into the world so we might live through him. This is the kind of love we are talking about—not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they've done to our relationship with God.
11-12My dear, dear friends, if God loved us like this, we certainly ought to love each other. No one has seen God, ever. But if we love one another, God dwells deeply within us, and his love becomes complete in us—perfect love!
13-16This is how we know we're living steadily and deeply in him, and he in us: He's given us life from his life, from his very own Spirit. Also, we've seen for ourselves and continue to state openly that the Father sent his Son as Savior of the world. Everyone who confesses that Jesus is God's Son participates continuously in an intimate relationship with God. We know it so well, we've embraced it heart and soul, this love that comes from God.
To Love, to Be Loved
17-18God is love. When we take up permanent residence in a life of love, we live in God and God lives in us. This way, love has the run of the house, becomes at home and mature in us, so that we're free of worry on Judgment Day—our standing in the world is identical with Christ's. There is no room in love for fear. Well-formed love banishes fear. Since fear is crippling, a fearful life—fear of death, fear of judgment—is one not yet fully formed in love.
19We, though, are going to love—love and be loved. First we were loved, now we love. He loved us first.
20-21If anyone boasts, "I love God," and goes right on hating his brother or sister, thinking nothing of it, he is a liar. If he won't love the person he can see, how can he love the God he can't see? The command we have from Christ is blunt: Loving God includes loving people. You've got to love both.
1-3Every person who believes that Jesus is, in fact, the Messiah, is God-begotten. If we love the One who conceives the child, we'll surely love the child who was conceived. The reality test on whether or not we love God's children is this: Do we love God? Do we keep his commands? The proof that we love God comes when we keep his commandments and they are not at all troublesome.
The Power That Brings the World to Its Knees
4-5Every God-begotten person conquers the world's ways. The conquering power that brings the world to its knees is our faith. The person who wins out over the world's ways is simply the one who believes Jesus is the Son of God.
6-8Jesus—the Divine Christ! He experienced a life-giving birth and a death-killing death. Not only birth from the womb, but baptismal birth of his ministry and sacrificial death. And all the while the Spirit is confirming the truth, the reality of God's presence at Jesus' baptism and crucifixion, bringing those occasions alive for us. A triple testimony: the Spirit, the Baptism, the Crucifixion. And the three in perfect agreement.
9-10If we take human testimony at face value, how much more should we be reassured when God gives testimony as he does here, testifying concerning his Son. Whoever believes in the Son of God inwardly confirms God's testimony. Whoever refuses to believe in effect calls God a liar, refusing to believe God's own testimony regarding his Son.
11-12This is the testimony in essence: God gave us eternal life; the life is in his Son. So, whoever has the Son, has life; whoever rejects the Son, rejects life.
The Reality, Not the Illusion
13-15My purpose in writing is simply this: that you who believe in God's Son will know beyond the shadow of a doubt that you have eternal life, the reality and not the illusion. And how bold and free we then become in his presence, freely asking according to his will, sure that he's listening. And if we're confident that he's listening, we know that what we've asked for is as good as ours.
16-17For instance, if we see a Christian believer sinning (clearly I'm not talking about those who make a practice of sin in a way that is "fatal," leading to eternal death), we ask for God's help and he gladly gives it, gives life to the sinner whose sin is not fatal. There is such a thing as a fatal sin, and I'm not urging you to pray about that. Everything we do wrong is sin, but not all sin is fatal.
18-21We know that none of the God-begotten makes a practice of sin—fatal sin. The God-begotten are also the God-protected. The Evil One can't lay a hand on them. We know that we are held firm by God; it's only the people of the world who continue in the grip of the Evil One. And we know that the Son of God came so we could recognize and understand the truth of God—what a gift!—and we are living in the Truth itself, in God's Son, Jesus Christ. This Jesus is both True God and Real Life. Dear children, be on guard against all clever facsimiles.--The Message
All Scripture quotations not otherwise designated are from the Holy Bible, New International Version® (NIV®). Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.
All hymn texts are taken from the hymnal Sing to the Lord. Copyright © 1993 by Lillenas Publishing Company.
Copyright © 2009 by WordAction Publishing Company. All rights reserved. Http://www.WordAction.com
Commentary of the day :
Homily attributed to Saint Gregory the Wonderworker (c.213-270), Bishop
Homily on the holy Theophany, 4 ; PG 10, 1181 (©Friends of Henry Ashworth)
"He spoke blessing God"
[John the Baptist said:] «I am the voice, the voice crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way for the Lord». So I cannot be silent, Lord, in your presence. «I need to be baptized by you, and do You come to me?» (Mt 3,3.14).
At my birth I took away my mother's barrenness, and while still an infant I healed my father's dumbness, for you gave me in childhood the gift of working miracles. But when you were born of the Virgin Mary, in the way you willed and in a manner known to you alone, you did not take away her virginity, but while preserving it intact you gave her in addition the name of "mother." Her virginity did not hinder your birth, nor did your birth destroy her virginity. On the contrary, two opposites, motherhood and virginity, were easily united by you, because the laws of nature have their origin in you.
I am a mere man, sharing in the grace of God, but you are both God and man because of your love for humankind (cf. Wis 1,6).
Monday, December 21, 2009
Scriptures and Sermon Outlines for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and December 26, 2009
CHRISTMAS
NATIVITY OF OUR LORD
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2009
PRAYER OF THE DAY: Almighty God, you made the holy night shine with the brightness of the true Light. Grant that here on earth we may walk in the light of Jesus’ presence and in the last day wake to the brightness of his glory; through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
PSALM
Psalm 96
1-2 Sing God a brand-new song! Earth and everyone in it, sing!
Sing to God—worship God!
2-3 Shout the news of his victory from sea to sea,
Take the news of his glory to the lost,
News of his wonders to one and all!
4-5 For God is great, and worth a thousand Hallelujahs.
His terrible beauty makes the gods look cheap;
Pagan gods are mere tatters and rags.
5-6 God made the heavens—
Royal splendor radiates from him,
A powerful beauty sets him apart.
7 Bravo, God, Bravo!
Everyone join in the great shout: Encore!
In awe before the beauty, in awe before the might.
8-9 Bring gifts and celebrate,
Bow before the beauty of God,
Then to your knees—everyone worship!
10 Get out the message—God Rules!
He put the world on a firm foundation;
He treats everyone fair and square.
11 Let's hear it from Sky,
With Earth joining in,
And a huge round of applause from Sea.
12 Let Wilderness turn cartwheels,
Animals, come dance,
Put every tree of the forest in the choir—
13 An extravaganza before God as he comes,
As he comes to set everything right on earth,
Set everything right, treat everyone fair.--The Message
LESSON 1
Isaiah 9:2-7
2-7The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. For those who lived in a land of deep shadows— light! sunbursts of light! You repopulated the nation, you expanded its joy. Oh, they're so glad in your presence! Festival joy! The joy of a great celebration, sharing rich gifts and warm greetings. The abuse of oppressors and cruelty of tyrants— all their whips and cudgels and curses— Is gone, done away with, a deliverance as surprising and sudden as Gideon's old victory over Midian. The boots of all those invading troops, along with their shirts soaked with innocent blood, Will be piled in a heap and burned, a fire that will burn for days! For a child has been born—for us! the gift of a son—for us! He'll take over the running of the world. His names will be: Amazing Counselor, Strong God, Eternal Father, Prince of Wholeness. His ruling authority will grow, and there'll be no limits to the wholeness he brings. He'll rule from the historic David throne over that promised kingdom. He'll put that kingdom on a firm footing and keep it going With fair dealing and right living, beginning now and lasting always. The zeal of God-of-the-Angel-Armies will do all this.--The Message
LESSON 2
Titus 2:11-14
11-14God's readiness to give and forgive is now public. Salvation's available for everyone! We're being shown how to turn our backs on a godless, indulgent life, and how to take on a God-filled, God-honoring life. This new life is starting right now, and is whetting our appetites for the glorious day when our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, appears. He offered himself as a sacrifice to free us from a dark, rebellious life into this good, pure life, making us a people he can be proud of, energetic in goodness.--The Message
GOSPEL ACCLAMATION: Alleluia. I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. Alleluia.
GOSPEL
Luke 2:1-20
The Birth of Jesus
1-5About that time Caesar Augustus ordered a census to be taken throughout the Empire. This was the first census when Quirinius was governor of Syria. Everyone had to travel to his own ancestral hometown to be accounted for. So Joseph went from the Galilean town of Nazareth up to Bethlehem in Judah, David's town, for the census. As a descendant of David, he had to go there. He went with Mary, his fiancée, who was pregnant.
6-7While they were there, the time came for her to give birth. She gave birth to a son, her firstborn. She wrapped him in a blanket and laid him in a manger, because there was no room in the hostel.
An Event for Everyone
8-12There were sheepherders camping in the neighborhood. They had set night watches over their sheep. Suddenly, God's angel stood among them and God's glory blazed around them. They were terrified. The angel said, "Don't be afraid. I'm here to announce a great and joyful event that is meant for everybody, worldwide: A Savior has just been born in David's town, a Savior who is Messiah and Master. This is what you're to look for: a baby wrapped in a blanket and lying in a manger."
13-14At once the angel was joined by a huge angelic choir singing God's praises: Glory to God in the heavenly heights, Peace to all men and women on earth who please him.
15-18As the angel choir withdrew into heaven, the sheepherders talked it over. "Let's get over to Bethlehem as fast as we can and see for ourselves what God has revealed to us." They left, running, and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in the manger. Seeing was believing. They told everyone they met what the angels had said about this child. All who heard the sheepherders were impressed.
19-20Mary kept all these things to herself, holding them dear, deep within herself. The sheepherders returned and let loose, glorifying and praising God for everything they had heard and seen. It turned out exactly the way they'd been told!--The Message
SERMON OUTLINE
WRITTEN FOR: Thursday, December 24, 2009
Title: The Birth
Scriptures: Luke 2:1-20
Proposition or Theme Sentence: The listening to the birth of Jesus as if it was the very first time.
Purposes: The coming to gripes that the birth of Jesus was not as antiseptic as we are used to births happening.
Introduction: How do you recall hearing this story of the birth of Jesus? Here we have a young man who is engaged to a young woman who discovered that she is pregnant, not by natural means, but by the Power of God’s Holy Spirit. We discover that the conquering government, the Romans, call for the people of Israel to return to their ancestor hometown to be registered for the Roman tax. Since Joseph is a descendant of King David, he needs to travel for Nazareth to Bethlehem, the City of David, to register for the Roman taxes and Mary chose to travel with Joseph even though she was nine months pregnant. The travel is not like we are used to here with vehicles with motors and paved roads, but had to travel on dusty and rocky roads either by walking or riding on donkeys. The journey may appear to be easy for us concerning the mileage, but the journey always took a few days with stopping and camping on the way. As Mary and Joseph arrived in Bethlehem, they discovered that Mary was about to deliver the baby, but could not find a room in any of the places that normally people rent or lease nor did they have any relatives or friends to stay with. One innkeeper was able to offer them the place where they bedded down the animals which we would call a stable. As they arrived in the place where the animals were placed, Mary gave birth to her son that is the Son of God, Yeshua or Jesus. Meanwhile, there were shepherds in the fields that night watching their flocks of sheep when suddenly an angel or a group of angels came to announce to them that a savior to the whole world has been born in a place people normally place their animals for the night. As soon as the angels left, the shepherds decided to travel to Bethlehem and see this baby that they were told about by God’s angels. In this announcement, would you give the birth announcement to people similar to the shepherds in our day and age if the shepherds were in the wrong social and economic status than we are? Would you not want to announce the birth of your child to your family, friends, and other people who are just like you? The shepherds came to the place where Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus were sharing what the angels told them while they were in the fields and worshipping the baby as the Jewish Messiah. Mary took what she heard and kept all this in her heart while the shepherds went away sharing their story of the angels speaking to them and seeing the newborn King of Israel. The people who heard the shepherds were amazed. Why do you think that the people who heard what the shepherds spoke about were amazed? Were they amazed because of what they were told or were they amazed that God would choose the shepherds with the Messiah’s birth? How would you react if you heard a homeless couple gave birth to a baby that appeared to be an amazing baby? Would you even care about the baby and the baby’s parents?
I. Joseph and Mary travel to Bethlehem.
A. Mary chooses to travel with her husband even though she was nine month pregnant.
B. Joseph and Mary travel for days to Bethlehem finding no place to live and stay.
C. Mary gave birth in the one place where they could stay.
II. The shepherds hear from God’s angels that the Messiah has been born in Bethlehem.
A. The shepherds listen to the angel(s) then decide to go to Bethlehem to see the new born baby.
B. The shepherds come to Joseph, Mary, and Jesus and worship the newborn king.
C. Mary hides what she heard in her heart and the people who hear the shepherds story are amazed by the story.
III. The response of the 21st century people to the remembrance of God being born as baby to save His world from their sins.
A. The busyness of people to do and buy to show love.
B. The decision to spend less on gifts and presents and to give more love and resources to people who have very little such as water and food as well as their other basic needs.
C. The call of God to not only give back His love during this season of Christmas, but to continue the giving back His love and forgiveness to all people no matter who they are.
Conclusion: As we come to the time of Christmas day, we come and allow God’s Holy Spirit to see where in our lives we have been less filled with God’s love and forgiveness than we should have been. Where necessary, we confess and repent for our sins and seek His power to live in a lifestyle of unconditional love towards all people.
Invitation: As we receive God’s unconditional love to give to others, we receive His grace through eating His Body and drinking HIs blood through His Holy Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. We come singing from the Praise and Worship hymn#451 “Silent Night” or from the Worship and Song hymn#165 “Silent Night” or from the Sing to the Lord hymn#171 “Silent Night! Holy Night!” or from The United Methodist Hymnal hymn#239 “Silent Night, Holy Night.”
Closing Prayer and Benediction: Holy Father, we sing in the darkness with only our candlelights shining as we seek God’s power to live with His unconditional love towards all people. We ask as we pray the prayer that Jesus taught His disciple to pray and to teach other people to pray:
Our Father, Who art in heaven Hallowed be Thy Name; Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. In the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace.
NATIVITY OF OUR LORD
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2009
PRAYER OF THE DAY: All-powerful and unseen God,the coming of your light into our world has brightened weary hearts with peace. Call us out of darkness, and empower us to proclaim the birth of your Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
PSALM
Psalm 97
1 God rules: there's something to shout over! On the double, mainlands and islands—celebrate!
2 Bright clouds and storm clouds circle 'round him;
Right and justice anchor his rule.
3 Fire blazes out before him,
Flaming high up the craggy mountains.
4 His lightnings light up the world;
Earth, wide-eyed, trembles in fear.
5 The mountains take one look at God
And melt, melt like wax before earth's Lord.
6 The heavens announce that he'll set everything right,
And everyone will see it happen—glorious!
7-8 All who serve handcrafted gods will be sorry—
And they were so proud of their ragamuffin gods!
On your knees, all you gods—worship him! And Zion, you listen and take heart!
Daughters of Zion, sing your hearts out: God has done it all, has set everything right. 9 You, God, are High God of the cosmos, Far, far higher than any of the gods. 10 God loves all who hate evil, And those who love him he keeps safe, Snatches them from the grip of the wicked. 11 Light-seeds are planted in the souls of God's people, Joy-seeds are planted in good heart-soil. 12 So, God's people, shout praise to God, Give thanks to our Holy God!--The Message
LESSON 1
Isaiah 62:6-12
6-7I've posted watchmen on your walls, Jerusalem. Day and night they keep at it, praying, calling out, reminding God to remember. They are to give him no peace until he does what he said, until he makes Jerusalem famous as the City of Praise.
8-9God has taken a solemn oath, an oath he means to keep: "Never again will I open your grain-filled barns to your enemies to loot and eat. Never again will foreigners drink the wine that you worked so hard to produce. No. The farmers who grow the food will eat the food and praise God for it. And those who make the wine will drink the wine in my holy courtyards."
10-12Walk out of the gates. Get going! Get the road ready for the people. Build the highway. Get at it! Clear the debris, hoist high a flag, a signal to all peoples! Yes! God has broadcast to all the world: "Tell daughter Zion, 'Look! Your Savior comes, Ready to do what he said he'd do, prepared to complete what he promised.'" Zion will be called new names: Holy People, God-Redeemed, Sought-Out, City-Not-Forsaken.--The Message
LESSON 2
Titus 3:4-7
3-8It wasn't so long ago that we ourselves were stupid and stubborn, dupes of sin, ordered every which way by our glands, going around with a chip on our shoulder, hated and hating back. But when God, our kind and loving Savior God, stepped in, he saved us from all that. It was all his doing; we had nothing to do with it. He gave us a good bath, and we came out of it new people, washed inside and out by the Holy Spirit. Our Savior Jesus poured out new life so generously. God's gift has restored our relationship with him and given us back our lives. And there's more life to come—an eternity of life! You can count on this.--The Message
GOSPEL ACCLAMATION: Alleluia. A holy day has dawned upon us. Come, you nations, and adore the Lord. For today a great light has come upon the earth. Alleluia.
GOSPEL
Luke 2:1-20
The Birth of Jesus
1-5About that time Caesar Augustus ordered a census to be taken throughout the Empire. This was the first census when Quirinius was governor of Syria. Everyone had to travel to his own ancestral hometown to be accounted for. So Joseph went from the Galilean town of Nazareth up to Bethlehem in Judah, David's town, for the census. As a descendant of David, he had to go there. He went with Mary, his fiancée, who was pregnant.
6-7While they were there, the time came for her to give birth. She gave birth to a son, her firstborn. She wrapped him in a blanket and laid him in a manger, because there was no room in the hostel.
An Event for Everyone
8-12There were sheepherders camping in the neighborhood. They had set night watches over their sheep. Suddenly, God's angel stood among them and God's glory blazed around them. They were terrified. The angel said, "Don't be afraid. I'm here to announce a great and joyful event that is meant for everybody, worldwide: A Savior has just been born in David's town, a Savior who is Messiah and Master. This is what you're to look for: a baby wrapped in a blanket and lying in a manger."
13-14At once the angel was joined by a huge angelic choir singing God's praises: Glory to God in the heavenly heights, Peace to all men and women on earth who please him.
15-18As the angel choir withdrew into heaven, the sheepherders talked it over. "Let's get over to Bethlehem as fast as we can and see for ourselves what God has revealed to us." They left, running, and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in the manger. Seeing was believing. They told everyone they met what the angels had said about this child. All who heard the sheepherders were impressed.
19-20Mary kept all these things to herself, holding them dear, deep within herself. The sheepherders returned and let loose, glorifying and praising God for everything they had heard and seen. It turned out exactly the way they'd been told!--The Message
SERMON OUTLINE
WRITTEN FOR: Friday, December 25, 2009
Title: Love Child
Scriptures: Luke 2:1-20
Proposition or Theme Sentence: The discovering of the ultimate love child whose birth we celebrate on Christmas day.
Purposes: The realization that God’s love Son came to earth through a virgin woman.
Introduction: How have you thought about what the meaning of love child? I remember a song in the 1960’s and the 1970’s that was called “Love Child,” where the songwriter and the singer talks about being born to a single mother who did not really know the person’s father except in the one sex act. Here we have a virgin woman who has been promised to remain pure to the man who she is engaged to be married to. Now, an angel comes to the woman and says that she is going to give birth to the promised Messiah then immediately leaves her hometown and takes off to see her elderly cousin who is six months pregnant with a child. After she spends three months with her cousin seeing her baby being born, she returns to her hometown and says to her fiance that she is three months pregnant. How would you respond to your fiancee telling you this knowing that you had not intimate sexual relations with her? This woman consistently says that she has not been unfaithful to her fiance saying that an angel came and told her that she would have a son through the Holy Spirit and call the son, Jesus, who would be the redeemer of the nation of Israel. The man loved this woman so much that he did not want to bring this known that she would be stoned to death for this action, but went to sleep thinking how he divorce this woman secretly. As he went to sleep, an angel appeared to him and spoke to him that he should not be afraid to take this woman as his wife which he did as soon as he woke up. Now, this woman is nine months pregnant and the Roman government is demanding that all Israelites return to their ancestral home to register for the Roman Tax. He was planning on making the long and hard trip alone, but the woman demanded that she go with Joseph since she was his wife and off they went. They made the long, hard journey hoping that the baby would not be born on the rough road. How would you wonder about your God and His actions in the world? As they arrive in the ancestral home of the man, they cannot find any rooms available except a place where people place their animals for the night. As soon as they get in this place to rest from the long journey, the baby is born. As the man and woman are resting from their long trip and the birth of the baby, some shepherds come and worship this baby as they share how they found out when and where the new savior and king was born, the woman placed everything in her heart just as she did when the angel appeared to her some nine months ago. The hear about the shepherds sharing with everyone they come to about what they saw in the animal place and how they heard about it and the people were amazed. What kind of amazement would you be in? How would you react to such news as this?
I. After the engagement, pregnancy announcement, and marriage, a man and women go on a long journey to register for Roman taxes.
A. The ruling nation declares a new tax that must be register by the Israelites in their ancestral hometown.
B. The woman chooses to travel with her husband even though she was 9 months pregnant.
C. The couple arrives in Bethlehem to find out they have to stay in an animal place where the baby is born.
II. After the birth, some shepherds come and worship the baby.
A. After hearing from an angel, the shepherds travel to the town of Bethlehem to see this amazing sight.
B. The shepherds not only worship the newborn baby, but shares with the couple how they heard about the baby being born.
C. The woman ponders everything while the shepherds leave and tell their story about the newborn baby being born with the hearers being amazed at this news.
III. The story is still being told to the people in the 21st century.
A. The people of today are still amazed at the story of the birth of Jesus.
B. The people of today are responding to this baby who was born from virgin to redeem all human creation, not just the Israelites.
C. The whole story is told about this baby birth, life, suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension back to the Father.
Conclusion: God, we ask you to search our hearts, minds, and lives to see how we have responded to this baby born in a place where animals are fed and sleep for the night. Where necessary, we seek God’s forgiveness through repentance of our failure to Trust Him with our lives as Mary and Joseph did.
Invitation: In a renewed life, we come and eat the Body of Jesus and drink His blood through the Holy Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. In receiving God’s grace and mercy, we sing from the Praise and Worship hymn#420 “Tell Me the Stories of Jesus” or from the Worship and Song hymn#116 “Tell Me the Stories of Jesus” or from the Sing to the Lord hymn#209 “Tell Me the Stories of Jesus” or from The United Methodist Hymnal hymn#277 “Tell Me the Stories of Jesus.”
Closing Prayer and Benediction: Holy God, we come and thank you for the love you have for us that you came as a baby to redeem your creation from our sins. We pray together the prayer that Jesus taught His disciples and called them to share and teach your disciples forever:
Our Father, Who art in heaven Hallowed be Thy Name; Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. In the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace.
NATIVITY OF OUR LORD
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2009
PRAYER OF THE DAY: Almighty God, you gave us your only Son to take on our human nature and to illumine the world with your light. By your grace adopt us as your children and enlighten us with your Spirit, through Jesus Christ, Our Redeemer and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
PSALM
Psalm 98
1 Sing to God a brand-new song. He's made a world of wonders!
He rolled up his sleeves, He set things right. 2 God made history with salvation, He showed the world what he could do. 3 He remembered to love us, a bonus To his dear family, Israel—indefatigable love.
The whole earth comes to attention. Look—God's work of salvation! 4 Shout your praises to God, everybody! Let loose and sing! Strike up the band! 5 Round up an orchestra to play for God, Add on a hundred-voice choir. 6 Feature trumpets and big trombones, Fill the air with praises to King God. 7 Let the sea and its fish give a round of applause, With everything living on earth joining in. 8 Let ocean breakers call out, "Encore!" And mountains harmonize the finale— 9 A tribute to God when he comes, When he comes to set the earth right.
He'll straighten out the whole world, He'll put the world right, and everyone in it.--The Message
LESSON 1
Isaiah 52:7-10
7-10How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of the messenger bringing good news, Breaking the news that all's well, proclaiming good times, announcing salvation, telling Zion, "Your God reigns!" Voices! Listen! Your scouts are shouting, thunderclap shouts, shouting in joyful unison. They see with their own eyes God coming back to Zion. Break into song! Boom it out, ruins of Jerusalem: "God has comforted his people! He's redeemed Jerusalem!" God has rolled up his sleeves. All the nations can see his holy, muscled arm. Everyone, from one end of the earth to the other, sees him at work, doing his salvation work.--The Message
LESSON 2
Hebrews 1:1-12
1-3Going through a long line of prophets, God has been addressing our ancestors in different ways for centuries. Recently he spoke to us directly through his Son. By his Son, God created the world in the beginning, and it will all belong to the Son at the end. This Son perfectly mirrors God, and is stamped with God's nature. He holds everything together by what he says—powerful words!
The Son Is Higher than Angels
3-6After he finished the sacrifice for sins, the Son took his honored place high in the heavens right alongside God, far higher than any angel in rank and rule. Did God ever say to an angel, "You're my Son; today I celebrate you" or "I'm his Father, he's my Son"? When he presents his honored Son to the world, he says, "All angels must worship him."
7Regarding angels he says, The messengers are winds, the servants are tongues of fire. 8-9But he says to the Son, You're God, and on the throne for good; your rule makes everything right. You love it when things are right; you hate it when things are wrong. That is why God, your God, poured fragrant oil on your head, Marking you out as king, far above your dear companions. 10-12And again to the Son, You, Master, started it all, laid earth's foundations, then crafted the stars in the sky. Earth and sky will wear out, but not you; they become threadbare like an old coat; You'll fold them up like a worn-out cloak, and lay them away on the shelf. But you'll stay the same, year after year; you'll never fade, you'll never wear out.--The Message
GOSPEL ACCLAMATION: Alleluia. I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. Alleluia.
or
Alleluia. A holy day has dawned upon us. Come, you nations, and adore the Lord. For today a great light has come upon the earth. Alleluia.
GOSPEL
John 1:1-14
The Life-Light
1-2 The Word was first,
the Word present to God,
God present to the Word.
The Word was God,
in readiness for God from day one.
3-5Everything was created through him; nothing—not one thing!— came into being without him. What came into existence was Life, and the Life was Light to live by. The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness; the darkness couldn't put it out.
6-8There once was a man, his name John, sent by God to point out the way to the Life-Light. He came to show everyone where to look, who to believe in. John was not himself the Light; he was there to show the way to the Light.
9-13The Life-Light was the real thing: Every person entering Life he brings into Light. He was in the world, the world was there through him, and yet the world didn't even notice. He came to his own people, but they didn't want him. But whoever did want him, who believed he was who he claimed and would do what he said, He made to be their true selves, their child-of-God selves. These are the God-begotten, not blood-begotten, not flesh-begotten, not sex-begotten.
14The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son, Generous inside and out, true from start to finish.--The Message
SERMON OUTLINE
WRITTEN FOR: Friday, December 25, 2009
Title: The Light Born
Scriptures: John 1:1-14
Proposition or Theme Sentence: The creator of light comes to bring light in a dark world that has been darken by sin.
Purposes: The learning that the God of all creation comes to earth to be the light to the nations.
Introduction: How do you respond to light? Too often, we look at the Gospel of John and wonder where the Christmas story is. We first look at the comparison with the creation story and see that the Word-Jesus is the Word that created everything in Genesis 1. We do not see the angel coming to two woman and their husbands, but we do see that God sent a person to share that the good news of the Messiah is on the way. The one who announces the coming of the Messiah is not the Messiah, but the Messiah comes after who is actually God in the flesh. God in flesh? How is this possible? Is it possible that the God of creation came to earth as His own human creation? Yet, here is what we have here in the first chapter or the first 14 verses of the Gospel of John. John connects Jesus with being the God of creation. John says that the preacher who came before Jesus is not the Messiah. The Messiah is not one who came as a baby to bring light to the darkened world. Every time, I think of Jesus as the light, I think of Psalm 139, which states:
A David Psalm
1-6 God, investigate my life; get all the facts firsthand.
I'm an open book to you;
even from a distance, you know what I'm thinking.
You know when I leave and when I get back;
I'm never out of your sight.
You know everything I'm going to say
before I start the first sentence.
I look behind me and you're there,
then up ahead and you're there, too—
your reassuring presence, coming and going.
This is too much, too wonderful—
I can't take it all in!
7-12 Is there anyplace I can go to avoid your Spirit?
to be out of your sight?
If I climb to the sky, you're there!
If I go underground, you're there!
If I flew on morning's wings
to the far western horizon,
You'd find me in a minute—
you're already there waiting!
Then I said to myself, "Oh, he even sees me in the dark!
At night I'm immersed in the light!"
It's a fact: darkness isn't dark to you;
night and day, darkness and light, they're all the same to you.
13-16 Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out;
you formed me in my mother's womb.
I thank you, High God—you're breathtaking!
Body and soul, I am marvelously made!
I worship in adoration—what a creation!
You know me inside and out,
you know every bone in my body;
You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit,
how I was sculpted from nothing into something.
Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth;
all the stages of my life were spread out before you,
The days of my life all prepared
before I'd even lived one day.
17-22 Your thoughts—how rare, how beautiful!
God, I'll never comprehend them!
I couldn't even begin to count them—
any more than I could count the sand of the sea.
Oh, let me rise in the morning and live always with you!
And please, God, do away with wickedness for good!
And you murderers—out of here!—
all the men and women who belittle you, God,
infatuated with cheap god-imitations.
See how I hate those who hate you, God,
see how I loathe all this godless arrogance;
I hate it with pure, unadulterated hatred.
Your enemies are my enemies!
23-24 Investigate my life, O God,
find out everything about me;
Cross-examine and test me,
get a clear picture of what I'm about;
See for yourself whether I've done anything wrong—
then guide me on the road to eternal life.--The Message
Besides this passage from The Psalms, I am reminded of the song written and song by Mike and Crawford and His Secret Siblings which speaks about that even in the darkness their is light because in You there is no dark. How do you respond to the light of Jesus? Too often, we do not like the light because the light reveals the darkness in our lives, but as we seek Him we come to realize HIs light will remove our light. How will you respond to the Light who is Jesus?
I. The light comes into the world to bring light.
A. The light, Jesus, is the same light that created the light.
B. The preacher before is not the light, but shows where the light is.
C. The life brings true life, not death.
II. There is no darkness in the Messiah who is the light of the created order.
A. Jesus is the light.
B. The light of Jesus brings life where there is death.
C. Jesus, the light, brings light to the darkness of the created world, not just the Israelites.
III. Jesus is still bringing light to many in the dark.
A. The people of the world are walking in darkness even today.
B. God is calling the people who have accepted the light of Jesus to be the light in a dark world.
C. We are still able to sing the song “This Little Light of Mine” as a light to a darken world.
Conclusion: We come to allow God’s Holy Spirit to search our hearts, minds, and lives to see if we have been truly God’s light to the darkened world. Where necessary, we come in repentance of the sin of being darkness rather than light we have been called to be.
Invitation: We come to receive the further light of God by eating the Body of Jesus and drinking His Blood through the Holy Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. Besides singing this old song “This Little Light of Mine,” we sing from the Praise and Worship hymn#142 “There’ll Be No Shadows” or from the Worship in Song hymn#491 “Lead, Kindly Light” or from the Sing to the Lord hymn#705 “Send the Light” or from The United Methodist Hymnal hymn#440 “Let There Be Light.”
This Little Light of Mine Traditional Song Lyrics By Bill Harley
This little light of mine I’m gonna let it shine This little light of mine I’m gonna let it shine This little light of mine I’m gonna let it shine Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine Down in my heart I’m gonna let it shine Down in my heart I’m gonna let it shine Down in my heart I’m gonna let it shine Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine Down in South America I’m gonna let it shine Down in South America I’m gonna let it shine Down in South America I’m gonna let it shine Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine Ain’t gonna make it shine Just gonna let it shine Ain’t gonna make it shine Just gonna let it shine Ain’t gonna make it shine Just gonna let it shine Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine This little light of mine I’m gonna let it shine This little light of mine I’m gonna let it shine This little light of mine I’m gonna let it shine Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine
Closing Prayer and Benediction: Father God, we come and ask you to bring Your light to our lives that we may be the light to the darkened world. We pray together the prayer that you taught your disciples when they asked you to teach them to pray;
Our Father, Who art in heaven Hallowed be Thy Name; Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. In the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace.
STEPHEN, DEACON AND MARTYR
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2009
PRAYER OF THE DAY: We give you thanks. O Lord of glory, for the example of Stephen the first martyr, who looked to heaven and prayed for his persecutors. Grant that we may pray for our enemies and seek forgiveness for those who hurt us, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy
Spirit, one God, now and forever.
PSALM
Psalm 17:1-9,15
A David Prayer
1-2 Listen while I build my case, God, the most honest prayer you'll ever hear.
Show the world I'm innocent—
in your heart you know I am.
3 Go ahead, examine me from inside out,
surprise me in the middle of the night—
You'll find I'm just what I say I am.
My words don't run loose.
4-5 I'm not trying to get my way
in the world's way.
I'm trying to get your way,
your Word's way.
I'm staying on your trail;
I'm putting one foot
In front of the other.
I'm not giving up.
6-7 I call to you, God, because I'm sure of an answer.
So—answer! bend your ear! listen sharp!
Paint grace-graffiti on the fences;
take in your frightened children who
Are running from the neighborhood bullies
straight to you.
8-9 Keep your eye on me;
hide me under your cool wing feathers
From the wicked who are out to get me,
from mortal enemies closing in.
15 And me? I plan on looking you full in the face. When I get up, I'll see your full stature and live heaven on earth.
A David Song, Which He Sang to God After Being
Saved from All His Enemies and from Saul--The Message
LESSON 1
2 Chronicles 24:17-22
17-19 But after the death of Jehoiada things fell apart. The leaders of Judah made a formal presentation to the king and he went along with them. Things went from bad to worse; they deserted The Temple of God and took up with the cult of sex goddesses. An angry cloud hovered over Judah and Jerusalem because of this sin. God sent prophets to straighten them out, warning of judgment. But nobody paid attention.
20 Then the Spirit of God moved Zechariah son of Jehoiada the priest to speak up: "God's word: Why have you deliberately walked away from God's commandments? You can't live this way! If you walk out on God, he'll walk out on you."
21-22 But they worked out a plot against Zechariah, and with the complicity of the king—he actually gave the order!—they murdered him, pelting him with rocks, right in the court of The Temple of God. That's the thanks King Joash showed the loyal Jehoiada, the priest who had made him king. He murdered Jehoiada's son. Zechariah's last words were, "Look, God! Make them pay for this!"--The Message
LESSON 2
Acts 6:8-7:2,51-60
8-10Stephen, brimming with God's grace and energy, was doing wonderful things among the people, unmistakable signs that God was among them. But then some men from the meeting place whose membership was made up of freed slaves, Cyrenians, Alexandrians, and some others from Cilicia and Asia, went up against him trying to argue him down. But they were no match for his wisdom and spirit when he spoke.
11So in secret they bribed men to lie: "We heard him cursing Moses and God."
12-14That stirred up the people, the religious leaders, and religion scholars. They grabbed Stephen and took him before the High Council. They put forward their bribed witnesses to testify: "This man talks nonstop against this Holy Place and God's Law. We even heard him say that Jesus of Nazareth would tear this place down and throw out all the customs Moses gave us."
15As all those who sat on the High Council looked at Stephen, they found they couldn't take their eyes off him—his face was like the face of an angel!
Stephen, Full of the Holy Spirit
1Then the Chief Priest said, "What do you have to say for yourself?"
2-3Stephen replied, "Friends, fathers, and brothers, the God of glory
appeared to our father Abraham when he was still in Mesopotamia, before the move to Haran, and told him, 'Leave your country and family and go to the land I'll show you.'
51-53"And you continue, so bullheaded! Calluses on your hearts, flaps on your ears! Deliberately ignoring the Holy Spirit, you're just like your ancestors. Was there ever a prophet who didn't get the same treatment? Your ancestors killed anyone who dared talk about the coming of the Just One. And you've kept up the family tradition—traitors and murderers, all of you. You had God's Law handed to you by angels—gift-wrapped!—and you squandered it!"
54-56At that point they went wild, a rioting mob of catcalls and whistles and invective. But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, hardly noticed—he only had eyes for God, whom he saw in all his glory with Jesus standing at his side. He said, "Oh! I see heaven wide open and the Son of Man standing at God's side!"
57-58Yelling and hissing, the mob drowned him out. Now in full stampede, they dragged him out of town and pelted him with rocks. The ringleaders took off their coats and asked a young man named Saul to watch them.
59-60As the rocks rained down, Stephen prayed, "Master Jesus, take my life." Then he knelt down, praying loud enough for everyone to hear, "Master, don't blame them for this sin"—his last words. Then he died.
1Saul was right there, congratulating the killers.--The Message
GOSPEL ACCLAMATION: Alleluia. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Alleluia.
GOSPEL
Matthew 23:34-39
33-34"Snakes! Reptilian sneaks! Do you think you can worm your way out of this? Never have to pay the piper? It's on account of people like you that I send prophets and wise guides and scholars generation after generation—and generation after generation you treat them like dirt, greeting them with lynch mobs, hounding them with abuse.
35-36"You can't squirm out of this: Every drop of righteous blood ever spilled on this earth, beginning with the blood of that good man Abel right down to the blood of Zechariah, Barachiah's son, whom you murdered at his prayers, is on your head. All this, I'm telling you, is coming down on you, on your generation.
37-39"Jerusalem! Jerusalem! Murderer of prophets! Killer of the ones who brought you God's news! How often I've ached to embrace your children, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you wouldn't let me. And now you're so desolate, nothing but a ghost town. What is there left to say? Only this: I'm out of here soon. The next time you see me you'll say, 'Oh, God has blessed him! He's come, bringing God's rule!'"--The Message
SERMON OUTLINE
WRITTEN FOR: Saturday, December 26, 2009
Title: Punishment or Forgiveness
Scriptures: Matthew 23:34-39
Proposition or Theme Sentence: Even though God is disappointed and punishes people for their sins, He still cries out for people to be forgiven.
Purposes: The awareness that God really desires that we receive His forgiveness rather than punishment.
Introduction: How do you deal with people who oppress you or treat you with disrespect because of your faith in Jesus? We honor the day the first martyr of the faith that Jesus is the promised Messiah. Through the readings, we see where when a priest, placed an Israel king in power, is killed by the king there is a prayer at the priest’s death for the king and his descendants to be held responsible for his death. In the other Scripture reading, we see where Stephen proclaims the news of God through his ancestors including the good news of Jesus as the promised Messiah and how Stephen at his death cries out the same way from the heart that Jesus did on the cross that the Father should forgive them for they know not what they do. In the Gospel lesson, we see Jesus saying about the religious leaders what John the Baptist said about them that they are a brood of vipers destined to be thrown out, but with a different ending. Jesus begins to pray for the city of Jerusalem and its inhabitants that He really desires to place them under His wing to protect them. Yes, God still punishes sin, but He actually desires to forgive and redeem His creation from destruction. We can say that God is a God of the second chance, but maybe more than that. God is constantly crying out to His people to stop sinning, repent, and return to Him over and over to live in full obedience in their earthy life. I remember people asking if God ever sends people to Hell and I am discovering that throughout the Scriptures and through the ministry of Jesus, there is a sense that we send ourselves to Hell when we fail to seek God and repent of our sins and live our lives in His Holiness. How do your react to people who pick on you or even persecute you or even misunderstand? How do you seek to forgive all others and allow God to allow punishment or forgiveness and rewards?
I. Jesus is condemning the religious leaders for their sinful actions.
A. Jesus uses similar words as John the Baptist used when the religious leaders came to be baptized by John for repentance without showing a life change to God’s Holiness.
B. Jesus speaks about the many prophets that their ancestors killed for calling them to repent.
C. Jesus still seeks reconciliation among His condemnation for their sinful actions.
II. Jesus prays over the inhabitants of the city of Jerusalem for their repentance.
A. He cries out with their sins of killing God’s holy prophets.
B. Jesus cries out that His desire for the inhabitants is to be protected by Him, not punished for their sins.
C. Jesus still cries for the inhabitants recognition of their sins and repent.
III. Jesus is still crying out to the 21st century people to repent and live His Holy Ways.
A. Jesus still weeps over sins against people who need extra help.
B. Jesus still weeps over the abuse of people with impairments.
C. Jesus is still calling His people to live in His Holy Ways to be reconciled to Him and other people as well.
Conclusion: Lord God, we ask for your Holy Spirit to search our hearts, minds, and lives to see where we have sinned in word and deed. Where necessary, we come and repent of our sins and seek God’s power to live our lives in His Holiness.
Invitation: As we seek God’s grace, we come and receive God’s grace, mercy, and love by eating the Body of Jesus and drinking His Blood through the Holy Sacrament of Hi Holy Eucharist. In coming, we come singing from the Praise and Worship hymn#493 “I Can, I Will, I Do Believe” or from the Worship in Song hymn#277 “More like the Master” or from the Sing to the Lord hymn#246 “There Is a Redeemer” or from The United Methodist Hymnal hymn#525 “We’ll Understand It Better By and By.”
Closing Prayer and Benediction: Holy Father, we come and seek your Love, Grace, and Mercy that we may live our lives in such a way that we are willing to die so that we may live. We come and prayer together the prayer that you taught your disciples when they came and asked you to teach them to pray:
Our Father, Who art in heaven Hallowed be Thy Name; Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. In the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace.
LECTIONARY COMMENTARY
Friday, December 25, 2009
Jesse T. Williams, Guest Lectionary Commentator
Senior Pastor, Convent Avenue Baptist Church, New York, NY Lection - Matthew 1:18-25 (New Revised Standard Vision)
(v. 18) Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. (v. 19) Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. (v. 20) But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. (v. 21) She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” (v. 22) All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: (v. 23) “Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,” which means, “God is with us.” (v. 24) When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife, (v. 25) but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus.
I. Description of the Liturgical Moment
Christmas day is what would be considered the apex or crowning moment of the Advent Season. Up until now, we have been anxiously anticipating the arrival of the Savior, the Messiah, and the anointed one who will save us. Hopefully, we have taken great care to pay attention to the signs of his coming and we have even done what we can to prepare the way for his arrival. And now on Christmas day, Jesus has arrived! He is here among us, and this world will never be the same! So we sing “Joy to the world, the Lord is come. Let earth receive her king!”
Many African American congregations celebrate this day with special Christmas Day worship services that are designed to celebrate the Savior’s arrival as well as preserve the true theological significance of the day in this commercialized culture which constantly seeks to turn the meaning of this sacred season from the divine to the materialistic, from Godly to greedy.
The worship experience of the African American church on this and every day is designed to contradict the prevailing plethora of cultural paradigms that pull us away from a conscious acknowledgement of the real presence of God with us, around us and for us. The Savior is here with us. Emmanuel means “God with us.” In essence, the incarnation has become a reality. God has taken on the form of human flesh, and now dwells with us in bodily form.
The text is a restatement and reinterpretation of Isaiah 7:14 in the Old Testament but, more importantly, it is the Gospel of the New Testament in condensed form; God is with us in the person of Jesus Christ.1
II. Biblical Interpretation for Preaching and Worship: Matthew 1:18-25
Part One: The Contemporary Contexts of the Interpreter
Our current social reality in this country seems to be characterized by blatant non-presence and fear due to economic uncertainty. At the time of this writing, we are in the midst of one of the worst economic melt-downs that we have seen in this country in more than eighty years. Unemployment, failing companies and banks, and homes lost to foreclosure are becoming more common every day. These are hard economic times. And even with government bailouts and stimulus packages, economic hope is dismal at best.
Additionally, the African American community has been continually touched by blatant “non- presence.” This is caused either by willful abandonment of those who could help the less fortunate; or by the de-humanizing actions of those who are present and have power. As I write this commentary, my community in Harlem, New York, is outraged over a from South Carolina who became the first to disrespect a sitting president during a presidential address to Congress. The community my church serves is also plagued by all of the death-dealing activities and behaviors that continue to tear at the fabric of the family unit and the community-at-large.
Juxtaposed with this environment is the joy over having elected the first African American President of the United States of America. President Obama represents hope and change in the midst of these harsh times. Although he has come to office during one of the most difficult periods in our history, this Christmas, as we have been throughout our history when faced with difficult dilemmas, African Americans are hopeful that he will succeed.
Part Two: Biblical Commentary
A candid look at this text and all of its nuances raises a number of complex sociological questions when we look at it from our post-modern point of reference. Indeed, it is problematic for any father and/or husband to hear what Joseph is encouraged to accept by the Lord. The woman that he loves and to whom he is engaged is pregnant by someone other than him. He knows he is not the biological father because Mary is a virgin, and the two of them have not engaged in pre-marital sex. But the one who has impregnated Mary is not just any other man in the community; it is the Holy Spirit. God has chosen Mary to be the one who will give birth to Jesus, Emmanuel, the Savior of the world. Joseph, not being privy to the entire plan of God as yet, has chosen not to publicly disgrace Mary but chooses to bring an end to the engagement privately and without public humiliation. It is only then that the Lord appears to him and encourages him to marry Mary anyway, because the child that she is carrying was conceived in her by the Holy Spirit of God.
It is interesting that God would choose for Jesus to be born in this way, at this time and in this place. Jesus is born of a young woman who got pregnant by someone other than the man she was engaged to marry. He is also born in a ghetto called Bethlehem and raised in an economically- deprived area known as Nazareth. And, he is born during a time of economic hardship for Joseph and Mary, as indicated by their inability to procure a proper, clean domicile for the birth to take place. For those with enough money, there is always room in an inn. What does it say to us that God chose for Jesus to be born in this way under these seemingly undesirable circumstances?
From Joseph’s perspective, he has to accept the fact that his wife-to-be has been impregnated by someone else, and he is not the father of the first child that will be reared in their home. He must accept the fact that Mary has not “cheated” on him with another man, because God himself has intervened and explained the circumstances to Joseph personally. In this post-modern era of DNA paternity testing and trying to figure out “Who is the daddy?”, can this word from God bring about the kind of reconciliation that will preserve marriages and the family unit? And perhaps more importantly, what are the implications of this story for fathers of today who find themselves in “blended” families where they must rear another man’s children in their home? How must we accept, love and care for the children in our home who are not biologically ours?
Mary is truly in a quandary. Not only must Joseph believe these extenuating divine circumstances, but the community and general public will undoubtedly also have a full spectrum of opinions about the situation in which Mary finds herself. What makes this all the more interesting to me is the nuance in Luke’s gospel account where the angel Gabriel announces to Mary that this is happening to her because she has found “favor” in God’s sight.
What does God’s “favor” really mean? Much of the contemporary discussion of God’s “favor” seems to center around it usually being positive material, social, or financial blessings that God gives to us without any merit on our part. While that is certainly one aspect of it, this text clearly shows that “favor” or being chosen by God also has costs associated with it, and that every aspect of it is not necessarily positive or affirming from our post-modern perspective.
A miracle, such as being impregnated by the Holy Ghost, may certainly accompany what we call God’s “favor.” But honest, critical theological reflection certainly reveals to us that anyone who has God’s “favor,” whether it be Mary in the text or Barack Obama as President of the United States of America, is also simultaneously burdened with the responsibility to endure the subsequent fallout from the favor. However, the promise of God is true. Emmanuel, God is with us! And not only will we be blessed, but others will be blessed as a result of us yielding to the will of God and accepting His “favor” along with all that it brings to our lives.
Celebration
We celebrate the presence of God through Jesus Christ who is with us under any and all circumstances. Our Emmanuel is here; He’s real, and he is able to sustain us even in dark times! The text also helps us remember that the difficulty of our beginnings do not have to determine our destiny or what God can do through us. God used Mary and Joseph, and God can use you and me.
Descriptive Details:
The descriptive details in this passage include: Sounds: An angel talking to Joseph; and
Sights: A teenage pregnant Mary; Joseph looking determined to quietly dismiss Mary; an angel; and a baby boy named Jesus.
III. Recommended Songs for Worship:
The Praise and Worship Fake Book
“God Is with Us.” “The King Has Come.” “You Give Us Life.”
Fill Us With Your Love: Hymns from Africa. By Tom Colvin “Agape.” “A Holy Baby.” Ghana folk song “God, Our Father Sent Jesu.” Angoni tune
“That Boy Child of Mary.” Malawi Melody
Praise Chorus Book. Maranatha Music, Producers “Emmanuel.” By Bob McGee “Morning Star.” By Dan Burgess
Baptist Standard Hymnal. Produced by the Sunday School Publishing Board, NBC, USA, Inc., 1969 “Hail, Thou long Expected Jesus.”
African American Heritage Hymnal. Produced by GIA “Messiah Now Has Come.” Arr. by Nolan Williams Jr. “Heaven’s Christmas Tree.” By Charles Albert Tindley
Zion Still Sings. Produced by Abington Press “Already Here.” “He Came Down.”
JDI Records “He Has Come.” By Jason White “Emmanuel.” By Norman Hutchins
F Flat Music “Jesus Is the Light of the World.” By Butch Heyward
Garpax Music Word Inc. Producers “Bethlehem Morning.” By Morris Chapman
Israel Houghton & Martha Munizzi “God Is Here.”
For further information see, Joy to the World: Inspirational Christmas Messages from America's Preachers. Ed. Olivia M. Cloud. New York, NY: Atria Books, 2006.
KWANZAA
LECTIONARY COMMENTARY
Saturday, December 26, 2009 – January 1, 2010 Gene M. Donaldson, Guest Lectionary Commentator
Senior Pastor, Capitol Hill Seventh-day Adventist Church, Washington, DC
Lection – Hebrews 11:1 (New Revised Standard Version)
(v. 11.1) Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
I. Description of the Liturgical Moment
Kwanzaa is a seven day Pan African holiday celebrated from December 26 through January 1. It is not intended to be a surrogate Christmas or religious holiday, but rather a time for African Americans to celebrate their African heritage as well as their journey as Americans. Kwanzaa was born in the 1960s during the Civil Rights Movement, when Dr. Maulana Karenga advocated a new holiday for African Americans to embrace traditional African values such as family, community, and faith.
These values are clearly delineated in the seven guiding principles of Kwanzaa which are practiced each day during the holiday. The seventh principle, Imani, or faith, reaffirms the hopes African Americans have in the promise of the future. The Imani principle is designed to remind African Americans that the true meaning of Kwanzaa is not found in homes decorated with red, black, and green streamers, or meals based on African recipes, but rather the opportunity it affords African Americans to never forget their past story, and the obligation they have to add their own testimony to the long legacy of those who maintained a steadfast faith, that the promise of tomorrow far outweighed the reality of any hardships endured.1
II. Biblical Interpretation for Preaching and Worship: Hebrews 11:1
Part One: The Contemporary Contexts of the Interpreter
We are living in sobering times. As I write this commentary, the United States military forces are embroiled in two armed conflicts on foreign soil. Unemployment is rising, the housing market continues to stagnate, the credit market is experiencing a lending gridlock, and stock prices are daily spiraling downward.
Despite the alarming news out of Washington and Wall Street, there is a current of vibrant expectation that brighter days are coming. This rebirth of hope, especially in the African American community, has been fostered primarily by the election of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States. The historic election of the first African American to the highest office in the land is a vivid object lesson of the Imani principle of Kwanzaa. For the African American church, it has been another satisfying validation of the providential leading of God, the very essence of our lection text Hebrews 11:1.
Part Two: Biblical Commentary
Hebrews was written to a group of first century believers who were in danger of giving up their recent allegiance to Christ during hard times. The author argues that returning back to their former religion is a mistake of epic proportions, because Jesus Christ is superior to the angels (Hebrews 1:5–2:18), Moses the great prophet (Hebrews 3:1-6), and Aaron the greatest earthly high priest (Hebrews 4:14-6:20). Jesus offers a better rest than the Canaan rest of Joshua (Hebrews 4:1-11); a better priesthood than the Levitical system (Hebrews 7:1-28). He conducts ministry in a better sanctuary (Hebrews 8:1-5); and offers a better covenant promise based on a more effective sacrifice (Hebrews 8:1-10:18).
On the basis of who Jesus is and what he accomplished, the author concludes that faith in him provided a much better alternative than the one his listeners were considering (Hebrews 10:19- 12:29). Hebrews 11 is pivotal in advancing the argument that Christians must “re-see” through the lens of faith which views circumstances from an eternal perspective. Hebrews 11 is critical, because it links the bold statement that the “Righteous ones shall live by faith” and not shrink back (10:38) with the answers to the two obvious questions undoubtedly on his hearers minds. If faith is required of the righteous, are there credible demonstrations of such a faith? The author answers with a resounding yes! For there is a “great cloud” of Old Testament witnesses (Hebrews 11:4-40), all with one testimony, they did it by faith! The second question, “What is the nature of this faith?” he answers in Hebrews 11:1.
Most commentators agree that v.1 is not a formal definition of faith, but rather a description of what faith actually does. Faith has the capacity to make the things we hope for as real as if we already possessed them. Faith introduces a new way of visualizing – not where actual seeing prompts believing (I must see it to believe it), but where believing is actually seeing. Faith traffics in the realm where the promises of God are revered as “self-evident,” even though there exists contradictory or no concrete evidence of support.
There are several key words and phrases used in verse 1 that help to cement the author’s description of faith:
Faith is the assurance of things hoped for. The Greek word hupostasis is translated as “assurance” in the text. It carries the meaning of something that is put underneath as a support like a foundation for a building. It can also be used to convey the idea of the legal document a person would possess to prove ownership of a piece of property. In this sense, hupostasis, or assurance, would be equated to a deed of title. Faith, therefore, operates as an undergirding on which our aspirations and hopes are built. Since faith trusts the Word of God implicitly, it acts as the guarantor that God’s promises will come to pass. As a co-signer to the veracity of God’s character (God cannot lie), faith provides a cogent environment for hope to have the audacity to believe that what is not evident today will be tomorrow. By faith, we can be sure that what God has promised exists and, by hope, we can be confident that we shall have everything God’s Word has promised.
Faith is the conviction of things not seen. The Greek word elegchos is translated as “conviction” in the text. It denotes a proposition or belief that after close scrutiny and painstaking examination proves to be valid. The author declares that the way of faith has been tried and tested. Its track record is irrefutable and impressive as evidenced by the long list of Bible personalities who previously walked in the way of faith (11:4-ff). God does keep his Word emphatically even though we cannot always discern the how or the when of his working. We don’t see the reservoir that contains water, or the underground pipes that allow water to flow to a house, but we know they must exist every time we turn on the faucet and water comes out. I have no personal empirical evidence that Jesus died on Calvary’s cross – I was not physically there. Nevertheless, by faith, I know unequivocally that he died for my sins and now lives evermore to intercede on my behalf. The author suggests, for the Christian, that which is not seen is no longer problematic, because the mettle of faith, grounded by the Word of God, is trustworthy having proven its validity over and over again.
Celebration
The central message of Hebrews 11:1 is important particularly for African Americans. It is indispensible to the African American psyche because it encourages us to shout while in the midst of a storm, and that we shall overcome, though the internal and external forces that are against us are formidable. Throughout our history in America, God has provided evidence of the veracity of our cause and the assurance of a just outcome. We have been holding to the promise of an America where character, not skin pigmentation, is the litmus test of how a person is judged. African Americans have been resolute in their fidelity to that promise, even in the darkest hour of this nation’s uncomplimentary past. Buoyed by an undaunted faith, we have witnessed steps toward the fulfillment of the promise. Rosa Parks sat in 1955; Martin Luther King walked in 1963; Barack Obama ran in 2008, that our posterity may fly tomorrow. We celebrate today, because as long as faith is alive and well, the promises hoped for, though often deferred, can never be a denied.
Descriptive Details
The descriptive details of this passage include: Sight: Seeing must be done through the mind’s eye in order to view “things not seen;” and
Sound: Hearing the inner voice of the Spirit of God, who provides conviction for those things that the eye cannot substantiate but the heart can verify.
III. Sermon Illustrations
• Marshall Shelley, who suffered the death of two of his children, wrote in Leadership: Even as a child, I loved to read, and quickly learned that I would most likely be confused during the opening chapters of a novel. New characters were introduced. Disparate seemingly random events took place. Subplots were complicated and didn’t seem to make any sense in relation to the main plot. But I learned to keep reading. Why? Because you know that the author, if he or she is good, will weave them all together by the end of the book. Eventually, each element will be meaningful. At times, such faith has to be a conscious choice. Even when I can’t explain why a chromosomal abnormality develops in my son, which prevented him from living on earth more than two minutes ... I choose to trust that before the book closes, the Author, will make things clear.2
• Page Intentionally Left Blank One day while printing a report for work I noticed a blank page. I initially thought that the printer was malfunctioning. I thought this until I looked near the bottom of the black blank page and saw this note, “Page intentionally left blank.” After a sigh of relief, a different section of the report began to spout from the printer. When that section finished another blank page followed with the same note, “Page intentionally left blank.” A few seconds later a new section began to print. As I thought about it I realized that the blank page that came at the end of each section served two purposes. First, it informed me that the previous section had ended. Second, it informed me that a new section was about to begin. Sometimes, God will seem silent. You will wonder what’s going on, or where is God. But it’s
possible that the current page in your life may have been intentionally left blank by God to let you know that a new chapter is coming.
Timothy Jackson, Memphis, Tennessee
• Act Before You See It When the meteorologist predicts the weather, we act on that prediction, basing our choices on what we have heard. We act like it is going to rain before the rain comes, until it comes. If the weather forecaster say there’s a hurricane coming, you start acting like it is coming before you see it. You go to the store and start buying bread, water, and all that stuff. You act like you’ve seen it before you’ve seen it, until you see it. All that is based—not on what you’ve seen—but it’s based on what you’ve heard. That’s what faith is. Faith is acting like you’ve seen it before you’ve seen it, until you see it.
Alexander, Claude. “Faith.” The African American Pulpit (Winter 2006-2007): p. 59
Notes
1. For further information consult, “What is Kwanzaa?” Kwanzaa Information Center: Melenet.com. Online location: http://www.melanet.com/kwanzaa/whatis.html accessed 1 August 2009 2. Shelley, Marshall. “My New View of God.” Leadership Journel.net. (10 Jan. 1996): 90. Online location: http://www.christianitytoday.com/le/1996/fall/6l4089.html accessed 1 August 2009
NATIVITY OF OUR LORD
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2009
PRAYER OF THE DAY: Almighty God, you made the holy night shine with the brightness of the true Light. Grant that here on earth we may walk in the light of Jesus’ presence and in the last day wake to the brightness of his glory; through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
PSALM
Psalm 96
1-2 Sing God a brand-new song! Earth and everyone in it, sing!
Sing to God—worship God!
2-3 Shout the news of his victory from sea to sea,
Take the news of his glory to the lost,
News of his wonders to one and all!
4-5 For God is great, and worth a thousand Hallelujahs.
His terrible beauty makes the gods look cheap;
Pagan gods are mere tatters and rags.
5-6 God made the heavens—
Royal splendor radiates from him,
A powerful beauty sets him apart.
7 Bravo, God, Bravo!
Everyone join in the great shout: Encore!
In awe before the beauty, in awe before the might.
8-9 Bring gifts and celebrate,
Bow before the beauty of God,
Then to your knees—everyone worship!
10 Get out the message—God Rules!
He put the world on a firm foundation;
He treats everyone fair and square.
11 Let's hear it from Sky,
With Earth joining in,
And a huge round of applause from Sea.
12 Let Wilderness turn cartwheels,
Animals, come dance,
Put every tree of the forest in the choir—
13 An extravaganza before God as he comes,
As he comes to set everything right on earth,
Set everything right, treat everyone fair.--The Message
LESSON 1
Isaiah 9:2-7
2-7The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. For those who lived in a land of deep shadows— light! sunbursts of light! You repopulated the nation, you expanded its joy. Oh, they're so glad in your presence! Festival joy! The joy of a great celebration, sharing rich gifts and warm greetings. The abuse of oppressors and cruelty of tyrants— all their whips and cudgels and curses— Is gone, done away with, a deliverance as surprising and sudden as Gideon's old victory over Midian. The boots of all those invading troops, along with their shirts soaked with innocent blood, Will be piled in a heap and burned, a fire that will burn for days! For a child has been born—for us! the gift of a son—for us! He'll take over the running of the world. His names will be: Amazing Counselor, Strong God, Eternal Father, Prince of Wholeness. His ruling authority will grow, and there'll be no limits to the wholeness he brings. He'll rule from the historic David throne over that promised kingdom. He'll put that kingdom on a firm footing and keep it going With fair dealing and right living, beginning now and lasting always. The zeal of God-of-the-Angel-Armies will do all this.--The Message
LESSON 2
Titus 2:11-14
11-14God's readiness to give and forgive is now public. Salvation's available for everyone! We're being shown how to turn our backs on a godless, indulgent life, and how to take on a God-filled, God-honoring life. This new life is starting right now, and is whetting our appetites for the glorious day when our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, appears. He offered himself as a sacrifice to free us from a dark, rebellious life into this good, pure life, making us a people he can be proud of, energetic in goodness.--The Message
GOSPEL ACCLAMATION: Alleluia. I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. Alleluia.
GOSPEL
Luke 2:1-20
The Birth of Jesus
1-5About that time Caesar Augustus ordered a census to be taken throughout the Empire. This was the first census when Quirinius was governor of Syria. Everyone had to travel to his own ancestral hometown to be accounted for. So Joseph went from the Galilean town of Nazareth up to Bethlehem in Judah, David's town, for the census. As a descendant of David, he had to go there. He went with Mary, his fiancée, who was pregnant.
6-7While they were there, the time came for her to give birth. She gave birth to a son, her firstborn. She wrapped him in a blanket and laid him in a manger, because there was no room in the hostel.
An Event for Everyone
8-12There were sheepherders camping in the neighborhood. They had set night watches over their sheep. Suddenly, God's angel stood among them and God's glory blazed around them. They were terrified. The angel said, "Don't be afraid. I'm here to announce a great and joyful event that is meant for everybody, worldwide: A Savior has just been born in David's town, a Savior who is Messiah and Master. This is what you're to look for: a baby wrapped in a blanket and lying in a manger."
13-14At once the angel was joined by a huge angelic choir singing God's praises: Glory to God in the heavenly heights, Peace to all men and women on earth who please him.
15-18As the angel choir withdrew into heaven, the sheepherders talked it over. "Let's get over to Bethlehem as fast as we can and see for ourselves what God has revealed to us." They left, running, and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in the manger. Seeing was believing. They told everyone they met what the angels had said about this child. All who heard the sheepherders were impressed.
19-20Mary kept all these things to herself, holding them dear, deep within herself. The sheepherders returned and let loose, glorifying and praising God for everything they had heard and seen. It turned out exactly the way they'd been told!--The Message
SERMON OUTLINE
WRITTEN FOR: Thursday, December 24, 2009
Title: The Birth
Scriptures: Luke 2:1-20
Proposition or Theme Sentence: The listening to the birth of Jesus as if it was the very first time.
Purposes: The coming to gripes that the birth of Jesus was not as antiseptic as we are used to births happening.
Introduction: How do you recall hearing this story of the birth of Jesus? Here we have a young man who is engaged to a young woman who discovered that she is pregnant, not by natural means, but by the Power of God’s Holy Spirit. We discover that the conquering government, the Romans, call for the people of Israel to return to their ancestor hometown to be registered for the Roman tax. Since Joseph is a descendant of King David, he needs to travel for Nazareth to Bethlehem, the City of David, to register for the Roman taxes and Mary chose to travel with Joseph even though she was nine months pregnant. The travel is not like we are used to here with vehicles with motors and paved roads, but had to travel on dusty and rocky roads either by walking or riding on donkeys. The journey may appear to be easy for us concerning the mileage, but the journey always took a few days with stopping and camping on the way. As Mary and Joseph arrived in Bethlehem, they discovered that Mary was about to deliver the baby, but could not find a room in any of the places that normally people rent or lease nor did they have any relatives or friends to stay with. One innkeeper was able to offer them the place where they bedded down the animals which we would call a stable. As they arrived in the place where the animals were placed, Mary gave birth to her son that is the Son of God, Yeshua or Jesus. Meanwhile, there were shepherds in the fields that night watching their flocks of sheep when suddenly an angel or a group of angels came to announce to them that a savior to the whole world has been born in a place people normally place their animals for the night. As soon as the angels left, the shepherds decided to travel to Bethlehem and see this baby that they were told about by God’s angels. In this announcement, would you give the birth announcement to people similar to the shepherds in our day and age if the shepherds were in the wrong social and economic status than we are? Would you not want to announce the birth of your child to your family, friends, and other people who are just like you? The shepherds came to the place where Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus were sharing what the angels told them while they were in the fields and worshipping the baby as the Jewish Messiah. Mary took what she heard and kept all this in her heart while the shepherds went away sharing their story of the angels speaking to them and seeing the newborn King of Israel. The people who heard the shepherds were amazed. Why do you think that the people who heard what the shepherds spoke about were amazed? Were they amazed because of what they were told or were they amazed that God would choose the shepherds with the Messiah’s birth? How would you react if you heard a homeless couple gave birth to a baby that appeared to be an amazing baby? Would you even care about the baby and the baby’s parents?
I. Joseph and Mary travel to Bethlehem.
A. Mary chooses to travel with her husband even though she was nine month pregnant.
B. Joseph and Mary travel for days to Bethlehem finding no place to live and stay.
C. Mary gave birth in the one place where they could stay.
II. The shepherds hear from God’s angels that the Messiah has been born in Bethlehem.
A. The shepherds listen to the angel(s) then decide to go to Bethlehem to see the new born baby.
B. The shepherds come to Joseph, Mary, and Jesus and worship the newborn king.
C. Mary hides what she heard in her heart and the people who hear the shepherds story are amazed by the story.
III. The response of the 21st century people to the remembrance of God being born as baby to save His world from their sins.
A. The busyness of people to do and buy to show love.
B. The decision to spend less on gifts and presents and to give more love and resources to people who have very little such as water and food as well as their other basic needs.
C. The call of God to not only give back His love during this season of Christmas, but to continue the giving back His love and forgiveness to all people no matter who they are.
Conclusion: As we come to the time of Christmas day, we come and allow God’s Holy Spirit to see where in our lives we have been less filled with God’s love and forgiveness than we should have been. Where necessary, we confess and repent for our sins and seek His power to live in a lifestyle of unconditional love towards all people.
Invitation: As we receive God’s unconditional love to give to others, we receive His grace through eating His Body and drinking HIs blood through His Holy Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. We come singing from the Praise and Worship hymn#451 “Silent Night” or from the Worship and Song hymn#165 “Silent Night” or from the Sing to the Lord hymn#171 “Silent Night! Holy Night!” or from The United Methodist Hymnal hymn#239 “Silent Night, Holy Night.”
Closing Prayer and Benediction: Holy Father, we sing in the darkness with only our candlelights shining as we seek God’s power to live with His unconditional love towards all people. We ask as we pray the prayer that Jesus taught His disciple to pray and to teach other people to pray:
Our Father, Who art in heaven Hallowed be Thy Name; Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. In the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace.
NATIVITY OF OUR LORD
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2009
PRAYER OF THE DAY: All-powerful and unseen God,the coming of your light into our world has brightened weary hearts with peace. Call us out of darkness, and empower us to proclaim the birth of your Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
PSALM
Psalm 97
1 God rules: there's something to shout over! On the double, mainlands and islands—celebrate!
2 Bright clouds and storm clouds circle 'round him;
Right and justice anchor his rule.
3 Fire blazes out before him,
Flaming high up the craggy mountains.
4 His lightnings light up the world;
Earth, wide-eyed, trembles in fear.
5 The mountains take one look at God
And melt, melt like wax before earth's Lord.
6 The heavens announce that he'll set everything right,
And everyone will see it happen—glorious!
7-8 All who serve handcrafted gods will be sorry—
And they were so proud of their ragamuffin gods!
On your knees, all you gods—worship him! And Zion, you listen and take heart!
Daughters of Zion, sing your hearts out: God has done it all, has set everything right. 9 You, God, are High God of the cosmos, Far, far higher than any of the gods. 10 God loves all who hate evil, And those who love him he keeps safe, Snatches them from the grip of the wicked. 11 Light-seeds are planted in the souls of God's people, Joy-seeds are planted in good heart-soil. 12 So, God's people, shout praise to God, Give thanks to our Holy God!--The Message
LESSON 1
Isaiah 62:6-12
6-7I've posted watchmen on your walls, Jerusalem. Day and night they keep at it, praying, calling out, reminding God to remember. They are to give him no peace until he does what he said, until he makes Jerusalem famous as the City of Praise.
8-9God has taken a solemn oath, an oath he means to keep: "Never again will I open your grain-filled barns to your enemies to loot and eat. Never again will foreigners drink the wine that you worked so hard to produce. No. The farmers who grow the food will eat the food and praise God for it. And those who make the wine will drink the wine in my holy courtyards."
10-12Walk out of the gates. Get going! Get the road ready for the people. Build the highway. Get at it! Clear the debris, hoist high a flag, a signal to all peoples! Yes! God has broadcast to all the world: "Tell daughter Zion, 'Look! Your Savior comes, Ready to do what he said he'd do, prepared to complete what he promised.'" Zion will be called new names: Holy People, God-Redeemed, Sought-Out, City-Not-Forsaken.--The Message
LESSON 2
Titus 3:4-7
3-8It wasn't so long ago that we ourselves were stupid and stubborn, dupes of sin, ordered every which way by our glands, going around with a chip on our shoulder, hated and hating back. But when God, our kind and loving Savior God, stepped in, he saved us from all that. It was all his doing; we had nothing to do with it. He gave us a good bath, and we came out of it new people, washed inside and out by the Holy Spirit. Our Savior Jesus poured out new life so generously. God's gift has restored our relationship with him and given us back our lives. And there's more life to come—an eternity of life! You can count on this.--The Message
GOSPEL ACCLAMATION: Alleluia. A holy day has dawned upon us. Come, you nations, and adore the Lord. For today a great light has come upon the earth. Alleluia.
GOSPEL
Luke 2:1-20
The Birth of Jesus
1-5About that time Caesar Augustus ordered a census to be taken throughout the Empire. This was the first census when Quirinius was governor of Syria. Everyone had to travel to his own ancestral hometown to be accounted for. So Joseph went from the Galilean town of Nazareth up to Bethlehem in Judah, David's town, for the census. As a descendant of David, he had to go there. He went with Mary, his fiancée, who was pregnant.
6-7While they were there, the time came for her to give birth. She gave birth to a son, her firstborn. She wrapped him in a blanket and laid him in a manger, because there was no room in the hostel.
An Event for Everyone
8-12There were sheepherders camping in the neighborhood. They had set night watches over their sheep. Suddenly, God's angel stood among them and God's glory blazed around them. They were terrified. The angel said, "Don't be afraid. I'm here to announce a great and joyful event that is meant for everybody, worldwide: A Savior has just been born in David's town, a Savior who is Messiah and Master. This is what you're to look for: a baby wrapped in a blanket and lying in a manger."
13-14At once the angel was joined by a huge angelic choir singing God's praises: Glory to God in the heavenly heights, Peace to all men and women on earth who please him.
15-18As the angel choir withdrew into heaven, the sheepherders talked it over. "Let's get over to Bethlehem as fast as we can and see for ourselves what God has revealed to us." They left, running, and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in the manger. Seeing was believing. They told everyone they met what the angels had said about this child. All who heard the sheepherders were impressed.
19-20Mary kept all these things to herself, holding them dear, deep within herself. The sheepherders returned and let loose, glorifying and praising God for everything they had heard and seen. It turned out exactly the way they'd been told!--The Message
SERMON OUTLINE
WRITTEN FOR: Friday, December 25, 2009
Title: Love Child
Scriptures: Luke 2:1-20
Proposition or Theme Sentence: The discovering of the ultimate love child whose birth we celebrate on Christmas day.
Purposes: The realization that God’s love Son came to earth through a virgin woman.
Introduction: How have you thought about what the meaning of love child? I remember a song in the 1960’s and the 1970’s that was called “Love Child,” where the songwriter and the singer talks about being born to a single mother who did not really know the person’s father except in the one sex act. Here we have a virgin woman who has been promised to remain pure to the man who she is engaged to be married to. Now, an angel comes to the woman and says that she is going to give birth to the promised Messiah then immediately leaves her hometown and takes off to see her elderly cousin who is six months pregnant with a child. After she spends three months with her cousin seeing her baby being born, she returns to her hometown and says to her fiance that she is three months pregnant. How would you respond to your fiancee telling you this knowing that you had not intimate sexual relations with her? This woman consistently says that she has not been unfaithful to her fiance saying that an angel came and told her that she would have a son through the Holy Spirit and call the son, Jesus, who would be the redeemer of the nation of Israel. The man loved this woman so much that he did not want to bring this known that she would be stoned to death for this action, but went to sleep thinking how he divorce this woman secretly. As he went to sleep, an angel appeared to him and spoke to him that he should not be afraid to take this woman as his wife which he did as soon as he woke up. Now, this woman is nine months pregnant and the Roman government is demanding that all Israelites return to their ancestral home to register for the Roman Tax. He was planning on making the long and hard trip alone, but the woman demanded that she go with Joseph since she was his wife and off they went. They made the long, hard journey hoping that the baby would not be born on the rough road. How would you wonder about your God and His actions in the world? As they arrive in the ancestral home of the man, they cannot find any rooms available except a place where people place their animals for the night. As soon as they get in this place to rest from the long journey, the baby is born. As the man and woman are resting from their long trip and the birth of the baby, some shepherds come and worship this baby as they share how they found out when and where the new savior and king was born, the woman placed everything in her heart just as she did when the angel appeared to her some nine months ago. The hear about the shepherds sharing with everyone they come to about what they saw in the animal place and how they heard about it and the people were amazed. What kind of amazement would you be in? How would you react to such news as this?
I. After the engagement, pregnancy announcement, and marriage, a man and women go on a long journey to register for Roman taxes.
A. The ruling nation declares a new tax that must be register by the Israelites in their ancestral hometown.
B. The woman chooses to travel with her husband even though she was 9 months pregnant.
C. The couple arrives in Bethlehem to find out they have to stay in an animal place where the baby is born.
II. After the birth, some shepherds come and worship the baby.
A. After hearing from an angel, the shepherds travel to the town of Bethlehem to see this amazing sight.
B. The shepherds not only worship the newborn baby, but shares with the couple how they heard about the baby being born.
C. The woman ponders everything while the shepherds leave and tell their story about the newborn baby being born with the hearers being amazed at this news.
III. The story is still being told to the people in the 21st century.
A. The people of today are still amazed at the story of the birth of Jesus.
B. The people of today are responding to this baby who was born from virgin to redeem all human creation, not just the Israelites.
C. The whole story is told about this baby birth, life, suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension back to the Father.
Conclusion: God, we ask you to search our hearts, minds, and lives to see how we have responded to this baby born in a place where animals are fed and sleep for the night. Where necessary, we seek God’s forgiveness through repentance of our failure to Trust Him with our lives as Mary and Joseph did.
Invitation: In a renewed life, we come and eat the Body of Jesus and drink His blood through the Holy Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. In receiving God’s grace and mercy, we sing from the Praise and Worship hymn#420 “Tell Me the Stories of Jesus” or from the Worship and Song hymn#116 “Tell Me the Stories of Jesus” or from the Sing to the Lord hymn#209 “Tell Me the Stories of Jesus” or from The United Methodist Hymnal hymn#277 “Tell Me the Stories of Jesus.”
Closing Prayer and Benediction: Holy God, we come and thank you for the love you have for us that you came as a baby to redeem your creation from our sins. We pray together the prayer that Jesus taught His disciples and called them to share and teach your disciples forever:
Our Father, Who art in heaven Hallowed be Thy Name; Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. In the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace.
NATIVITY OF OUR LORD
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2009
PRAYER OF THE DAY: Almighty God, you gave us your only Son to take on our human nature and to illumine the world with your light. By your grace adopt us as your children and enlighten us with your Spirit, through Jesus Christ, Our Redeemer and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
PSALM
Psalm 98
1 Sing to God a brand-new song. He's made a world of wonders!
He rolled up his sleeves, He set things right. 2 God made history with salvation, He showed the world what he could do. 3 He remembered to love us, a bonus To his dear family, Israel—indefatigable love.
The whole earth comes to attention. Look—God's work of salvation! 4 Shout your praises to God, everybody! Let loose and sing! Strike up the band! 5 Round up an orchestra to play for God, Add on a hundred-voice choir. 6 Feature trumpets and big trombones, Fill the air with praises to King God. 7 Let the sea and its fish give a round of applause, With everything living on earth joining in. 8 Let ocean breakers call out, "Encore!" And mountains harmonize the finale— 9 A tribute to God when he comes, When he comes to set the earth right.
He'll straighten out the whole world, He'll put the world right, and everyone in it.--The Message
LESSON 1
Isaiah 52:7-10
7-10How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of the messenger bringing good news, Breaking the news that all's well, proclaiming good times, announcing salvation, telling Zion, "Your God reigns!" Voices! Listen! Your scouts are shouting, thunderclap shouts, shouting in joyful unison. They see with their own eyes God coming back to Zion. Break into song! Boom it out, ruins of Jerusalem: "God has comforted his people! He's redeemed Jerusalem!" God has rolled up his sleeves. All the nations can see his holy, muscled arm. Everyone, from one end of the earth to the other, sees him at work, doing his salvation work.--The Message
LESSON 2
Hebrews 1:1-12
1-3Going through a long line of prophets, God has been addressing our ancestors in different ways for centuries. Recently he spoke to us directly through his Son. By his Son, God created the world in the beginning, and it will all belong to the Son at the end. This Son perfectly mirrors God, and is stamped with God's nature. He holds everything together by what he says—powerful words!
The Son Is Higher than Angels
3-6After he finished the sacrifice for sins, the Son took his honored place high in the heavens right alongside God, far higher than any angel in rank and rule. Did God ever say to an angel, "You're my Son; today I celebrate you" or "I'm his Father, he's my Son"? When he presents his honored Son to the world, he says, "All angels must worship him."
7Regarding angels he says, The messengers are winds, the servants are tongues of fire. 8-9But he says to the Son, You're God, and on the throne for good; your rule makes everything right. You love it when things are right; you hate it when things are wrong. That is why God, your God, poured fragrant oil on your head, Marking you out as king, far above your dear companions. 10-12And again to the Son, You, Master, started it all, laid earth's foundations, then crafted the stars in the sky. Earth and sky will wear out, but not you; they become threadbare like an old coat; You'll fold them up like a worn-out cloak, and lay them away on the shelf. But you'll stay the same, year after year; you'll never fade, you'll never wear out.--The Message
GOSPEL ACCLAMATION: Alleluia. I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. Alleluia.
or
Alleluia. A holy day has dawned upon us. Come, you nations, and adore the Lord. For today a great light has come upon the earth. Alleluia.
GOSPEL
John 1:1-14
The Life-Light
1-2 The Word was first,
the Word present to God,
God present to the Word.
The Word was God,
in readiness for God from day one.
3-5Everything was created through him; nothing—not one thing!— came into being without him. What came into existence was Life, and the Life was Light to live by. The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness; the darkness couldn't put it out.
6-8There once was a man, his name John, sent by God to point out the way to the Life-Light. He came to show everyone where to look, who to believe in. John was not himself the Light; he was there to show the way to the Light.
9-13The Life-Light was the real thing: Every person entering Life he brings into Light. He was in the world, the world was there through him, and yet the world didn't even notice. He came to his own people, but they didn't want him. But whoever did want him, who believed he was who he claimed and would do what he said, He made to be their true selves, their child-of-God selves. These are the God-begotten, not blood-begotten, not flesh-begotten, not sex-begotten.
14The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son, Generous inside and out, true from start to finish.--The Message
SERMON OUTLINE
WRITTEN FOR: Friday, December 25, 2009
Title: The Light Born
Scriptures: John 1:1-14
Proposition or Theme Sentence: The creator of light comes to bring light in a dark world that has been darken by sin.
Purposes: The learning that the God of all creation comes to earth to be the light to the nations.
Introduction: How do you respond to light? Too often, we look at the Gospel of John and wonder where the Christmas story is. We first look at the comparison with the creation story and see that the Word-Jesus is the Word that created everything in Genesis 1. We do not see the angel coming to two woman and their husbands, but we do see that God sent a person to share that the good news of the Messiah is on the way. The one who announces the coming of the Messiah is not the Messiah, but the Messiah comes after who is actually God in the flesh. God in flesh? How is this possible? Is it possible that the God of creation came to earth as His own human creation? Yet, here is what we have here in the first chapter or the first 14 verses of the Gospel of John. John connects Jesus with being the God of creation. John says that the preacher who came before Jesus is not the Messiah. The Messiah is not one who came as a baby to bring light to the darkened world. Every time, I think of Jesus as the light, I think of Psalm 139, which states:
A David Psalm
1-6 God, investigate my life; get all the facts firsthand.
I'm an open book to you;
even from a distance, you know what I'm thinking.
You know when I leave and when I get back;
I'm never out of your sight.
You know everything I'm going to say
before I start the first sentence.
I look behind me and you're there,
then up ahead and you're there, too—
your reassuring presence, coming and going.
This is too much, too wonderful—
I can't take it all in!
7-12 Is there anyplace I can go to avoid your Spirit?
to be out of your sight?
If I climb to the sky, you're there!
If I go underground, you're there!
If I flew on morning's wings
to the far western horizon,
You'd find me in a minute—
you're already there waiting!
Then I said to myself, "Oh, he even sees me in the dark!
At night I'm immersed in the light!"
It's a fact: darkness isn't dark to you;
night and day, darkness and light, they're all the same to you.
13-16 Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out;
you formed me in my mother's womb.
I thank you, High God—you're breathtaking!
Body and soul, I am marvelously made!
I worship in adoration—what a creation!
You know me inside and out,
you know every bone in my body;
You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit,
how I was sculpted from nothing into something.
Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth;
all the stages of my life were spread out before you,
The days of my life all prepared
before I'd even lived one day.
17-22 Your thoughts—how rare, how beautiful!
God, I'll never comprehend them!
I couldn't even begin to count them—
any more than I could count the sand of the sea.
Oh, let me rise in the morning and live always with you!
And please, God, do away with wickedness for good!
And you murderers—out of here!—
all the men and women who belittle you, God,
infatuated with cheap god-imitations.
See how I hate those who hate you, God,
see how I loathe all this godless arrogance;
I hate it with pure, unadulterated hatred.
Your enemies are my enemies!
23-24 Investigate my life, O God,
find out everything about me;
Cross-examine and test me,
get a clear picture of what I'm about;
See for yourself whether I've done anything wrong—
then guide me on the road to eternal life.--The Message
Besides this passage from The Psalms, I am reminded of the song written and song by Mike and Crawford and His Secret Siblings which speaks about that even in the darkness their is light because in You there is no dark. How do you respond to the light of Jesus? Too often, we do not like the light because the light reveals the darkness in our lives, but as we seek Him we come to realize HIs light will remove our light. How will you respond to the Light who is Jesus?
I. The light comes into the world to bring light.
A. The light, Jesus, is the same light that created the light.
B. The preacher before is not the light, but shows where the light is.
C. The life brings true life, not death.
II. There is no darkness in the Messiah who is the light of the created order.
A. Jesus is the light.
B. The light of Jesus brings life where there is death.
C. Jesus, the light, brings light to the darkness of the created world, not just the Israelites.
III. Jesus is still bringing light to many in the dark.
A. The people of the world are walking in darkness even today.
B. God is calling the people who have accepted the light of Jesus to be the light in a dark world.
C. We are still able to sing the song “This Little Light of Mine” as a light to a darken world.
Conclusion: We come to allow God’s Holy Spirit to search our hearts, minds, and lives to see if we have been truly God’s light to the darkened world. Where necessary, we come in repentance of the sin of being darkness rather than light we have been called to be.
Invitation: We come to receive the further light of God by eating the Body of Jesus and drinking His Blood through the Holy Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. Besides singing this old song “This Little Light of Mine,” we sing from the Praise and Worship hymn#142 “There’ll Be No Shadows” or from the Worship in Song hymn#491 “Lead, Kindly Light” or from the Sing to the Lord hymn#705 “Send the Light” or from The United Methodist Hymnal hymn#440 “Let There Be Light.”
This Little Light of Mine Traditional Song Lyrics By Bill Harley
This little light of mine I’m gonna let it shine This little light of mine I’m gonna let it shine This little light of mine I’m gonna let it shine Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine Down in my heart I’m gonna let it shine Down in my heart I’m gonna let it shine Down in my heart I’m gonna let it shine Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine Down in South America I’m gonna let it shine Down in South America I’m gonna let it shine Down in South America I’m gonna let it shine Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine Ain’t gonna make it shine Just gonna let it shine Ain’t gonna make it shine Just gonna let it shine Ain’t gonna make it shine Just gonna let it shine Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine This little light of mine I’m gonna let it shine This little light of mine I’m gonna let it shine This little light of mine I’m gonna let it shine Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine
Closing Prayer and Benediction: Father God, we come and ask you to bring Your light to our lives that we may be the light to the darkened world. We pray together the prayer that you taught your disciples when they asked you to teach them to pray;
Our Father, Who art in heaven Hallowed be Thy Name; Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. In the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace.
STEPHEN, DEACON AND MARTYR
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2009
PRAYER OF THE DAY: We give you thanks. O Lord of glory, for the example of Stephen the first martyr, who looked to heaven and prayed for his persecutors. Grant that we may pray for our enemies and seek forgiveness for those who hurt us, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy
Spirit, one God, now and forever.
PSALM
Psalm 17:1-9,15
A David Prayer
1-2 Listen while I build my case, God, the most honest prayer you'll ever hear.
Show the world I'm innocent—
in your heart you know I am.
3 Go ahead, examine me from inside out,
surprise me in the middle of the night—
You'll find I'm just what I say I am.
My words don't run loose.
4-5 I'm not trying to get my way
in the world's way.
I'm trying to get your way,
your Word's way.
I'm staying on your trail;
I'm putting one foot
In front of the other.
I'm not giving up.
6-7 I call to you, God, because I'm sure of an answer.
So—answer! bend your ear! listen sharp!
Paint grace-graffiti on the fences;
take in your frightened children who
Are running from the neighborhood bullies
straight to you.
8-9 Keep your eye on me;
hide me under your cool wing feathers
From the wicked who are out to get me,
from mortal enemies closing in.
15 And me? I plan on looking you full in the face. When I get up, I'll see your full stature and live heaven on earth.
A David Song, Which He Sang to God After Being
Saved from All His Enemies and from Saul--The Message
LESSON 1
2 Chronicles 24:17-22
17-19 But after the death of Jehoiada things fell apart. The leaders of Judah made a formal presentation to the king and he went along with them. Things went from bad to worse; they deserted The Temple of God and took up with the cult of sex goddesses. An angry cloud hovered over Judah and Jerusalem because of this sin. God sent prophets to straighten them out, warning of judgment. But nobody paid attention.
20 Then the Spirit of God moved Zechariah son of Jehoiada the priest to speak up: "God's word: Why have you deliberately walked away from God's commandments? You can't live this way! If you walk out on God, he'll walk out on you."
21-22 But they worked out a plot against Zechariah, and with the complicity of the king—he actually gave the order!—they murdered him, pelting him with rocks, right in the court of The Temple of God. That's the thanks King Joash showed the loyal Jehoiada, the priest who had made him king. He murdered Jehoiada's son. Zechariah's last words were, "Look, God! Make them pay for this!"--The Message
LESSON 2
Acts 6:8-7:2,51-60
8-10Stephen, brimming with God's grace and energy, was doing wonderful things among the people, unmistakable signs that God was among them. But then some men from the meeting place whose membership was made up of freed slaves, Cyrenians, Alexandrians, and some others from Cilicia and Asia, went up against him trying to argue him down. But they were no match for his wisdom and spirit when he spoke.
11So in secret they bribed men to lie: "We heard him cursing Moses and God."
12-14That stirred up the people, the religious leaders, and religion scholars. They grabbed Stephen and took him before the High Council. They put forward their bribed witnesses to testify: "This man talks nonstop against this Holy Place and God's Law. We even heard him say that Jesus of Nazareth would tear this place down and throw out all the customs Moses gave us."
15As all those who sat on the High Council looked at Stephen, they found they couldn't take their eyes off him—his face was like the face of an angel!
Stephen, Full of the Holy Spirit
1Then the Chief Priest said, "What do you have to say for yourself?"
2-3Stephen replied, "Friends, fathers, and brothers, the God of glory
appeared to our father Abraham when he was still in Mesopotamia, before the move to Haran, and told him, 'Leave your country and family and go to the land I'll show you.'
51-53"And you continue, so bullheaded! Calluses on your hearts, flaps on your ears! Deliberately ignoring the Holy Spirit, you're just like your ancestors. Was there ever a prophet who didn't get the same treatment? Your ancestors killed anyone who dared talk about the coming of the Just One. And you've kept up the family tradition—traitors and murderers, all of you. You had God's Law handed to you by angels—gift-wrapped!—and you squandered it!"
54-56At that point they went wild, a rioting mob of catcalls and whistles and invective. But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, hardly noticed—he only had eyes for God, whom he saw in all his glory with Jesus standing at his side. He said, "Oh! I see heaven wide open and the Son of Man standing at God's side!"
57-58Yelling and hissing, the mob drowned him out. Now in full stampede, they dragged him out of town and pelted him with rocks. The ringleaders took off their coats and asked a young man named Saul to watch them.
59-60As the rocks rained down, Stephen prayed, "Master Jesus, take my life." Then he knelt down, praying loud enough for everyone to hear, "Master, don't blame them for this sin"—his last words. Then he died.
1Saul was right there, congratulating the killers.--The Message
GOSPEL ACCLAMATION: Alleluia. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Alleluia.
GOSPEL
Matthew 23:34-39
33-34"Snakes! Reptilian sneaks! Do you think you can worm your way out of this? Never have to pay the piper? It's on account of people like you that I send prophets and wise guides and scholars generation after generation—and generation after generation you treat them like dirt, greeting them with lynch mobs, hounding them with abuse.
35-36"You can't squirm out of this: Every drop of righteous blood ever spilled on this earth, beginning with the blood of that good man Abel right down to the blood of Zechariah, Barachiah's son, whom you murdered at his prayers, is on your head. All this, I'm telling you, is coming down on you, on your generation.
37-39"Jerusalem! Jerusalem! Murderer of prophets! Killer of the ones who brought you God's news! How often I've ached to embrace your children, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you wouldn't let me. And now you're so desolate, nothing but a ghost town. What is there left to say? Only this: I'm out of here soon. The next time you see me you'll say, 'Oh, God has blessed him! He's come, bringing God's rule!'"--The Message
SERMON OUTLINE
WRITTEN FOR: Saturday, December 26, 2009
Title: Punishment or Forgiveness
Scriptures: Matthew 23:34-39
Proposition or Theme Sentence: Even though God is disappointed and punishes people for their sins, He still cries out for people to be forgiven.
Purposes: The awareness that God really desires that we receive His forgiveness rather than punishment.
Introduction: How do you deal with people who oppress you or treat you with disrespect because of your faith in Jesus? We honor the day the first martyr of the faith that Jesus is the promised Messiah. Through the readings, we see where when a priest, placed an Israel king in power, is killed by the king there is a prayer at the priest’s death for the king and his descendants to be held responsible for his death. In the other Scripture reading, we see where Stephen proclaims the news of God through his ancestors including the good news of Jesus as the promised Messiah and how Stephen at his death cries out the same way from the heart that Jesus did on the cross that the Father should forgive them for they know not what they do. In the Gospel lesson, we see Jesus saying about the religious leaders what John the Baptist said about them that they are a brood of vipers destined to be thrown out, but with a different ending. Jesus begins to pray for the city of Jerusalem and its inhabitants that He really desires to place them under His wing to protect them. Yes, God still punishes sin, but He actually desires to forgive and redeem His creation from destruction. We can say that God is a God of the second chance, but maybe more than that. God is constantly crying out to His people to stop sinning, repent, and return to Him over and over to live in full obedience in their earthy life. I remember people asking if God ever sends people to Hell and I am discovering that throughout the Scriptures and through the ministry of Jesus, there is a sense that we send ourselves to Hell when we fail to seek God and repent of our sins and live our lives in His Holiness. How do your react to people who pick on you or even persecute you or even misunderstand? How do you seek to forgive all others and allow God to allow punishment or forgiveness and rewards?
I. Jesus is condemning the religious leaders for their sinful actions.
A. Jesus uses similar words as John the Baptist used when the religious leaders came to be baptized by John for repentance without showing a life change to God’s Holiness.
B. Jesus speaks about the many prophets that their ancestors killed for calling them to repent.
C. Jesus still seeks reconciliation among His condemnation for their sinful actions.
II. Jesus prays over the inhabitants of the city of Jerusalem for their repentance.
A. He cries out with their sins of killing God’s holy prophets.
B. Jesus cries out that His desire for the inhabitants is to be protected by Him, not punished for their sins.
C. Jesus still cries for the inhabitants recognition of their sins and repent.
III. Jesus is still crying out to the 21st century people to repent and live His Holy Ways.
A. Jesus still weeps over sins against people who need extra help.
B. Jesus still weeps over the abuse of people with impairments.
C. Jesus is still calling His people to live in His Holy Ways to be reconciled to Him and other people as well.
Conclusion: Lord God, we ask for your Holy Spirit to search our hearts, minds, and lives to see where we have sinned in word and deed. Where necessary, we come and repent of our sins and seek God’s power to live our lives in His Holiness.
Invitation: As we seek God’s grace, we come and receive God’s grace, mercy, and love by eating the Body of Jesus and drinking His Blood through the Holy Sacrament of Hi Holy Eucharist. In coming, we come singing from the Praise and Worship hymn#493 “I Can, I Will, I Do Believe” or from the Worship in Song hymn#277 “More like the Master” or from the Sing to the Lord hymn#246 “There Is a Redeemer” or from The United Methodist Hymnal hymn#525 “We’ll Understand It Better By and By.”
Closing Prayer and Benediction: Holy Father, we come and seek your Love, Grace, and Mercy that we may live our lives in such a way that we are willing to die so that we may live. We come and prayer together the prayer that you taught your disciples when they came and asked you to teach them to pray:
Our Father, Who art in heaven Hallowed be Thy Name; Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. In the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace.
LECTIONARY COMMENTARY
Friday, December 25, 2009
Jesse T. Williams, Guest Lectionary Commentator
Senior Pastor, Convent Avenue Baptist Church, New York, NY Lection - Matthew 1:18-25 (New Revised Standard Vision)
(v. 18) Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. (v. 19) Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. (v. 20) But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. (v. 21) She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” (v. 22) All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: (v. 23) “Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,” which means, “God is with us.” (v. 24) When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife, (v. 25) but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus.
I. Description of the Liturgical Moment
Christmas day is what would be considered the apex or crowning moment of the Advent Season. Up until now, we have been anxiously anticipating the arrival of the Savior, the Messiah, and the anointed one who will save us. Hopefully, we have taken great care to pay attention to the signs of his coming and we have even done what we can to prepare the way for his arrival. And now on Christmas day, Jesus has arrived! He is here among us, and this world will never be the same! So we sing “Joy to the world, the Lord is come. Let earth receive her king!”
Many African American congregations celebrate this day with special Christmas Day worship services that are designed to celebrate the Savior’s arrival as well as preserve the true theological significance of the day in this commercialized culture which constantly seeks to turn the meaning of this sacred season from the divine to the materialistic, from Godly to greedy.
The worship experience of the African American church on this and every day is designed to contradict the prevailing plethora of cultural paradigms that pull us away from a conscious acknowledgement of the real presence of God with us, around us and for us. The Savior is here with us. Emmanuel means “God with us.” In essence, the incarnation has become a reality. God has taken on the form of human flesh, and now dwells with us in bodily form.
The text is a restatement and reinterpretation of Isaiah 7:14 in the Old Testament but, more importantly, it is the Gospel of the New Testament in condensed form; God is with us in the person of Jesus Christ.1
II. Biblical Interpretation for Preaching and Worship: Matthew 1:18-25
Part One: The Contemporary Contexts of the Interpreter
Our current social reality in this country seems to be characterized by blatant non-presence and fear due to economic uncertainty. At the time of this writing, we are in the midst of one of the worst economic melt-downs that we have seen in this country in more than eighty years. Unemployment, failing companies and banks, and homes lost to foreclosure are becoming more common every day. These are hard economic times. And even with government bailouts and stimulus packages, economic hope is dismal at best.
Additionally, the African American community has been continually touched by blatant “non- presence.” This is caused either by willful abandonment of those who could help the less fortunate; or by the de-humanizing actions of those who are present and have power. As I write this commentary, my community in Harlem, New York, is outraged over a from South Carolina who became the first to disrespect a sitting president during a presidential address to Congress. The community my church serves is also plagued by all of the death-dealing activities and behaviors that continue to tear at the fabric of the family unit and the community-at-large.
Juxtaposed with this environment is the joy over having elected the first African American President of the United States of America. President Obama represents hope and change in the midst of these harsh times. Although he has come to office during one of the most difficult periods in our history, this Christmas, as we have been throughout our history when faced with difficult dilemmas, African Americans are hopeful that he will succeed.
Part Two: Biblical Commentary
A candid look at this text and all of its nuances raises a number of complex sociological questions when we look at it from our post-modern point of reference. Indeed, it is problematic for any father and/or husband to hear what Joseph is encouraged to accept by the Lord. The woman that he loves and to whom he is engaged is pregnant by someone other than him. He knows he is not the biological father because Mary is a virgin, and the two of them have not engaged in pre-marital sex. But the one who has impregnated Mary is not just any other man in the community; it is the Holy Spirit. God has chosen Mary to be the one who will give birth to Jesus, Emmanuel, the Savior of the world. Joseph, not being privy to the entire plan of God as yet, has chosen not to publicly disgrace Mary but chooses to bring an end to the engagement privately and without public humiliation. It is only then that the Lord appears to him and encourages him to marry Mary anyway, because the child that she is carrying was conceived in her by the Holy Spirit of God.
It is interesting that God would choose for Jesus to be born in this way, at this time and in this place. Jesus is born of a young woman who got pregnant by someone other than the man she was engaged to marry. He is also born in a ghetto called Bethlehem and raised in an economically- deprived area known as Nazareth. And, he is born during a time of economic hardship for Joseph and Mary, as indicated by their inability to procure a proper, clean domicile for the birth to take place. For those with enough money, there is always room in an inn. What does it say to us that God chose for Jesus to be born in this way under these seemingly undesirable circumstances?
From Joseph’s perspective, he has to accept the fact that his wife-to-be has been impregnated by someone else, and he is not the father of the first child that will be reared in their home. He must accept the fact that Mary has not “cheated” on him with another man, because God himself has intervened and explained the circumstances to Joseph personally. In this post-modern era of DNA paternity testing and trying to figure out “Who is the daddy?”, can this word from God bring about the kind of reconciliation that will preserve marriages and the family unit? And perhaps more importantly, what are the implications of this story for fathers of today who find themselves in “blended” families where they must rear another man’s children in their home? How must we accept, love and care for the children in our home who are not biologically ours?
Mary is truly in a quandary. Not only must Joseph believe these extenuating divine circumstances, but the community and general public will undoubtedly also have a full spectrum of opinions about the situation in which Mary finds herself. What makes this all the more interesting to me is the nuance in Luke’s gospel account where the angel Gabriel announces to Mary that this is happening to her because she has found “favor” in God’s sight.
What does God’s “favor” really mean? Much of the contemporary discussion of God’s “favor” seems to center around it usually being positive material, social, or financial blessings that God gives to us without any merit on our part. While that is certainly one aspect of it, this text clearly shows that “favor” or being chosen by God also has costs associated with it, and that every aspect of it is not necessarily positive or affirming from our post-modern perspective.
A miracle, such as being impregnated by the Holy Ghost, may certainly accompany what we call God’s “favor.” But honest, critical theological reflection certainly reveals to us that anyone who has God’s “favor,” whether it be Mary in the text or Barack Obama as President of the United States of America, is also simultaneously burdened with the responsibility to endure the subsequent fallout from the favor. However, the promise of God is true. Emmanuel, God is with us! And not only will we be blessed, but others will be blessed as a result of us yielding to the will of God and accepting His “favor” along with all that it brings to our lives.
Celebration
We celebrate the presence of God through Jesus Christ who is with us under any and all circumstances. Our Emmanuel is here; He’s real, and he is able to sustain us even in dark times! The text also helps us remember that the difficulty of our beginnings do not have to determine our destiny or what God can do through us. God used Mary and Joseph, and God can use you and me.
Descriptive Details:
The descriptive details in this passage include: Sounds: An angel talking to Joseph; and
Sights: A teenage pregnant Mary; Joseph looking determined to quietly dismiss Mary; an angel; and a baby boy named Jesus.
III. Recommended Songs for Worship:
The Praise and Worship Fake Book
“God Is with Us.” “The King Has Come.” “You Give Us Life.”
Fill Us With Your Love: Hymns from Africa. By Tom Colvin “Agape.” “A Holy Baby.” Ghana folk song “God, Our Father Sent Jesu.” Angoni tune
“That Boy Child of Mary.” Malawi Melody
Praise Chorus Book. Maranatha Music, Producers “Emmanuel.” By Bob McGee “Morning Star.” By Dan Burgess
Baptist Standard Hymnal. Produced by the Sunday School Publishing Board, NBC, USA, Inc., 1969 “Hail, Thou long Expected Jesus.”
African American Heritage Hymnal. Produced by GIA “Messiah Now Has Come.” Arr. by Nolan Williams Jr. “Heaven’s Christmas Tree.” By Charles Albert Tindley
Zion Still Sings. Produced by Abington Press “Already Here.” “He Came Down.”
JDI Records “He Has Come.” By Jason White “Emmanuel.” By Norman Hutchins
F Flat Music “Jesus Is the Light of the World.” By Butch Heyward
Garpax Music Word Inc. Producers “Bethlehem Morning.” By Morris Chapman
Israel Houghton & Martha Munizzi “God Is Here.”
For further information see, Joy to the World: Inspirational Christmas Messages from America's Preachers. Ed. Olivia M. Cloud. New York, NY: Atria Books, 2006.
KWANZAA
LECTIONARY COMMENTARY
Saturday, December 26, 2009 – January 1, 2010 Gene M. Donaldson, Guest Lectionary Commentator
Senior Pastor, Capitol Hill Seventh-day Adventist Church, Washington, DC
Lection – Hebrews 11:1 (New Revised Standard Version)
(v. 11.1) Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
I. Description of the Liturgical Moment
Kwanzaa is a seven day Pan African holiday celebrated from December 26 through January 1. It is not intended to be a surrogate Christmas or religious holiday, but rather a time for African Americans to celebrate their African heritage as well as their journey as Americans. Kwanzaa was born in the 1960s during the Civil Rights Movement, when Dr. Maulana Karenga advocated a new holiday for African Americans to embrace traditional African values such as family, community, and faith.
These values are clearly delineated in the seven guiding principles of Kwanzaa which are practiced each day during the holiday. The seventh principle, Imani, or faith, reaffirms the hopes African Americans have in the promise of the future. The Imani principle is designed to remind African Americans that the true meaning of Kwanzaa is not found in homes decorated with red, black, and green streamers, or meals based on African recipes, but rather the opportunity it affords African Americans to never forget their past story, and the obligation they have to add their own testimony to the long legacy of those who maintained a steadfast faith, that the promise of tomorrow far outweighed the reality of any hardships endured.1
II. Biblical Interpretation for Preaching and Worship: Hebrews 11:1
Part One: The Contemporary Contexts of the Interpreter
We are living in sobering times. As I write this commentary, the United States military forces are embroiled in two armed conflicts on foreign soil. Unemployment is rising, the housing market continues to stagnate, the credit market is experiencing a lending gridlock, and stock prices are daily spiraling downward.
Despite the alarming news out of Washington and Wall Street, there is a current of vibrant expectation that brighter days are coming. This rebirth of hope, especially in the African American community, has been fostered primarily by the election of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States. The historic election of the first African American to the highest office in the land is a vivid object lesson of the Imani principle of Kwanzaa. For the African American church, it has been another satisfying validation of the providential leading of God, the very essence of our lection text Hebrews 11:1.
Part Two: Biblical Commentary
Hebrews was written to a group of first century believers who were in danger of giving up their recent allegiance to Christ during hard times. The author argues that returning back to their former religion is a mistake of epic proportions, because Jesus Christ is superior to the angels (Hebrews 1:5–2:18), Moses the great prophet (Hebrews 3:1-6), and Aaron the greatest earthly high priest (Hebrews 4:14-6:20). Jesus offers a better rest than the Canaan rest of Joshua (Hebrews 4:1-11); a better priesthood than the Levitical system (Hebrews 7:1-28). He conducts ministry in a better sanctuary (Hebrews 8:1-5); and offers a better covenant promise based on a more effective sacrifice (Hebrews 8:1-10:18).
On the basis of who Jesus is and what he accomplished, the author concludes that faith in him provided a much better alternative than the one his listeners were considering (Hebrews 10:19- 12:29). Hebrews 11 is pivotal in advancing the argument that Christians must “re-see” through the lens of faith which views circumstances from an eternal perspective. Hebrews 11 is critical, because it links the bold statement that the “Righteous ones shall live by faith” and not shrink back (10:38) with the answers to the two obvious questions undoubtedly on his hearers minds. If faith is required of the righteous, are there credible demonstrations of such a faith? The author answers with a resounding yes! For there is a “great cloud” of Old Testament witnesses (Hebrews 11:4-40), all with one testimony, they did it by faith! The second question, “What is the nature of this faith?” he answers in Hebrews 11:1.
Most commentators agree that v.1 is not a formal definition of faith, but rather a description of what faith actually does. Faith has the capacity to make the things we hope for as real as if we already possessed them. Faith introduces a new way of visualizing – not where actual seeing prompts believing (I must see it to believe it), but where believing is actually seeing. Faith traffics in the realm where the promises of God are revered as “self-evident,” even though there exists contradictory or no concrete evidence of support.
There are several key words and phrases used in verse 1 that help to cement the author’s description of faith:
Faith is the assurance of things hoped for. The Greek word hupostasis is translated as “assurance” in the text. It carries the meaning of something that is put underneath as a support like a foundation for a building. It can also be used to convey the idea of the legal document a person would possess to prove ownership of a piece of property. In this sense, hupostasis, or assurance, would be equated to a deed of title. Faith, therefore, operates as an undergirding on which our aspirations and hopes are built. Since faith trusts the Word of God implicitly, it acts as the guarantor that God’s promises will come to pass. As a co-signer to the veracity of God’s character (God cannot lie), faith provides a cogent environment for hope to have the audacity to believe that what is not evident today will be tomorrow. By faith, we can be sure that what God has promised exists and, by hope, we can be confident that we shall have everything God’s Word has promised.
Faith is the conviction of things not seen. The Greek word elegchos is translated as “conviction” in the text. It denotes a proposition or belief that after close scrutiny and painstaking examination proves to be valid. The author declares that the way of faith has been tried and tested. Its track record is irrefutable and impressive as evidenced by the long list of Bible personalities who previously walked in the way of faith (11:4-ff). God does keep his Word emphatically even though we cannot always discern the how or the when of his working. We don’t see the reservoir that contains water, or the underground pipes that allow water to flow to a house, but we know they must exist every time we turn on the faucet and water comes out. I have no personal empirical evidence that Jesus died on Calvary’s cross – I was not physically there. Nevertheless, by faith, I know unequivocally that he died for my sins and now lives evermore to intercede on my behalf. The author suggests, for the Christian, that which is not seen is no longer problematic, because the mettle of faith, grounded by the Word of God, is trustworthy having proven its validity over and over again.
Celebration
The central message of Hebrews 11:1 is important particularly for African Americans. It is indispensible to the African American psyche because it encourages us to shout while in the midst of a storm, and that we shall overcome, though the internal and external forces that are against us are formidable. Throughout our history in America, God has provided evidence of the veracity of our cause and the assurance of a just outcome. We have been holding to the promise of an America where character, not skin pigmentation, is the litmus test of how a person is judged. African Americans have been resolute in their fidelity to that promise, even in the darkest hour of this nation’s uncomplimentary past. Buoyed by an undaunted faith, we have witnessed steps toward the fulfillment of the promise. Rosa Parks sat in 1955; Martin Luther King walked in 1963; Barack Obama ran in 2008, that our posterity may fly tomorrow. We celebrate today, because as long as faith is alive and well, the promises hoped for, though often deferred, can never be a denied.
Descriptive Details
The descriptive details of this passage include: Sight: Seeing must be done through the mind’s eye in order to view “things not seen;” and
Sound: Hearing the inner voice of the Spirit of God, who provides conviction for those things that the eye cannot substantiate but the heart can verify.
III. Sermon Illustrations
• Marshall Shelley, who suffered the death of two of his children, wrote in Leadership: Even as a child, I loved to read, and quickly learned that I would most likely be confused during the opening chapters of a novel. New characters were introduced. Disparate seemingly random events took place. Subplots were complicated and didn’t seem to make any sense in relation to the main plot. But I learned to keep reading. Why? Because you know that the author, if he or she is good, will weave them all together by the end of the book. Eventually, each element will be meaningful. At times, such faith has to be a conscious choice. Even when I can’t explain why a chromosomal abnormality develops in my son, which prevented him from living on earth more than two minutes ... I choose to trust that before the book closes, the Author, will make things clear.2
• Page Intentionally Left Blank One day while printing a report for work I noticed a blank page. I initially thought that the printer was malfunctioning. I thought this until I looked near the bottom of the black blank page and saw this note, “Page intentionally left blank.” After a sigh of relief, a different section of the report began to spout from the printer. When that section finished another blank page followed with the same note, “Page intentionally left blank.” A few seconds later a new section began to print. As I thought about it I realized that the blank page that came at the end of each section served two purposes. First, it informed me that the previous section had ended. Second, it informed me that a new section was about to begin. Sometimes, God will seem silent. You will wonder what’s going on, or where is God. But it’s
possible that the current page in your life may have been intentionally left blank by God to let you know that a new chapter is coming.
Timothy Jackson, Memphis, Tennessee
• Act Before You See It When the meteorologist predicts the weather, we act on that prediction, basing our choices on what we have heard. We act like it is going to rain before the rain comes, until it comes. If the weather forecaster say there’s a hurricane coming, you start acting like it is coming before you see it. You go to the store and start buying bread, water, and all that stuff. You act like you’ve seen it before you’ve seen it, until you see it. All that is based—not on what you’ve seen—but it’s based on what you’ve heard. That’s what faith is. Faith is acting like you’ve seen it before you’ve seen it, until you see it.
Alexander, Claude. “Faith.” The African American Pulpit (Winter 2006-2007): p. 59
Notes
1. For further information consult, “What is Kwanzaa?” Kwanzaa Information Center: Melenet.com. Online location: http://www.melanet.com/kwanzaa/whatis.html accessed 1 August 2009 2. Shelley, Marshall. “My New View of God.” Leadership Journel.net. (10 Jan. 1996): 90. Online location: http://www.christianitytoday.com/le/1996/fall/6l4089.html accessed 1 August 2009
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