INTRODUCTION: This part of the Christmas story is not a stand alone story. In the narrative, we find a type of how all the rulers of this world will eventually come to kiss the Son. THE TEXT: “Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there …
Getting Dressed for Christmas
INTRODUCTION: Holidays are frequently times when people get trapped by the expectations game. Because everyone around you assumes that the day is going to be “really good,” “special,” or “fantastic,” and is constantly telling you to have a “merry” one, it is easy to assume that having a merry Christmas is an actual possession of …
Tidings of Comfort and Joy
INTRODUCTION: Last Lord’s Day, the message was brought to us from the conclusion of Isaiah 40, and we learned from that message that there are two kinds of waiting. There is a waiting that causes our strength to dissipate, and there is a waiting that gathers our strength for us. There is a waiting that …
Thanksgiving in the Evil Day
I just recently finished peeling the potatoes for the feast later on, and I note in passing that the way my wife makes bashed potatoes is one of her innumerable glories. Having made my contribution to the process, which stretched and almost exceeded the limit of my culinary abilities, I have thought it necessary to …
Deep Peril, Deep Thanksgiving
INTRODUCTION: We sometimes try to cultivate the right heart attitude by denying the obvious challenges and perils in the world around us, and we sometimes try to pretend that we see the “real world” by adopting a cynical and artistic posture toward it all. We think that in order to have an enjoyable thanksgiving, it …
Scandalous Love for Filthy People
We are gathered here in this holy Friday service to commemorate the great moment that remains the salvation of our world—the passion and death of the Lord Jesus. As we mark all the events of the church year, we are of course looking forward to the day of Ascension—the time when Jesus Christ was ushered …
Holy Days
This is a joint statement on holy days, approved by the sessions of Christ Church and Trinity Reformed Church here in Moscow. We believe that the people of God have been freed from all bondage to observing days, weeks, months, seasons or years (Gal. 4:9-11, Col. 2:16). Those Old Testament laws were shadows of Christ …
The End of the World Is History/Easter 2009
INTRODUCTION: We too often hold to the great truths of the resurrection of Jesus in a piecemeal fashion. We gather a bit here and a bit there, and the assemblage is generally orthodox. But this approach has resulted in some unfortunate gaps. The Lord is risen. He is risen indeed. But what does this mean …
Merry Christmas 2008
Stories organize our lives, and the stories that won’t or can’t do that are false stories. The stories that orient us, that place us back where we should have been, the stories that bring redemption, are called true stories. They go by other names if you listen to the tellers of false stories — legends, …
And a Merry Christmas to You Too, Christopher
Christopher Hitchens is over at Slate, bah humbugging away like crazy. I know, that’s what he always does, but here he is more focused, and the subject is Christmas, which is where bah humbugs are more appropriately out of place. If you know what I mean. And the issue, of course, is not tinsel, or …